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UIA-CBC Design Build Competition

Pear Orchard Cabins

Design + Build project in China. UIA-CBC Competition

2019 UIA-CBC International Colleges and Universities Competitive Construction Workshop walks into Guoyuan Village, Aiyuan Town, Siyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu. UC + Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) team has won the UIA-CBC competition proposal as one of the top 15 teams from proposals submitted by 101 Universities across 23 nations. After the winning of Phase 1 proposal, UC+BJTU team was invited to join the Phase 2, and build the permanent structures from August.01 to 19 in China. The project won the third prize. Please check out the final result of all 15 projects .

Taking the century-old pear orchard as the site, this year’s Competitive Construction Workshop sets a theme of creating “Pear Orchard Cabins” that can improve the quality of living in the orchard. The participating teams designed and build 15 cabins in the orchard as well as infrastructure that connected the whole community in order to contribute to the revitalization of the “Century-old Pear Orchard”, and also to explore a path for changing villages by the power of design.

The theme of this year’s workshop is “Pear Orchard Cabins”, which takes the whole 100-year-old orchard as the site of design where 15 selected teams from renowned international and domestic universities will be involved to discuss how to “activate villages through design”. The teams will use a limited space to design and construct their cabin in order to provide more activity solutions to the villagers and visitors. The design will be based on the element of “pear” and picture future scenarios involving countryside spatial experience and pear-related themes all the way from design to constructions or construction. The design content is not limited to installations and may also include consideration of the site and the environment.

As an integral part of village revitalization plan, the workshop seeks to explore a rural public architectural form than can fit in with nature. By linking up the 15 “Pear Orchard Cabins” in the century-old orchard with a continuous infrastructure, it emphasizes the fun experience of exploring the place, activates the heart of the village and injects the power of design into the basic mode of rural production, driving the change and improvement of rural lifestyle and providing a paradigm for rural construction.

Phase II: Design+Build Team

Students: Lauren Figley, Jordan Micham, Pat McQuillen, Vu Tran, Jeremy Swafford,Tess Ryan

Faculty supervisor:  Whitney Hamaker, Ming Tang (UC); Yingdong Hu, Yunan Zhang, Yongquan Chen (BJTU)

 

Phase I: Design Proposal

UC Student Team, class from ARCH3014, digital media skills. Spring 2019, taught by Prof. Ming Tang.

Winning Team: Lauren Figley, Andi Moore, Jordan Micham, Pat McQuillen, Vu Tran 

Graduate assistant: Jeremy Swafford, Shreya Jasrapuria, Kenna Gibson, Alan Bossman, Tess Ryan

Faculty advisor: Ming Tang, Xiangbin Xu, Yuhui Song (UC); Yingdong Hu, Yongquan Chen ( BJTU)

early concept

Final concept

Photo of Phase II. China

 

Book available: MetroLAB

MetroLAB is a public-interest design/build program at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design. This book highlights the mission, participants and projects from 2011-2017. The book is available for preview / order at Blurb.

 

Prof Tang’s ITSC RENOVATION project is featured in the book. This Metro Lab studio addressed the renovation of an existing interior space in the Information Technology Solution Center (ITSC) on the UC west campus. ITSC is an initiative of the School of Information Technology (SoIT) at the College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services and Information Technology (CECH), combining student workers with experienced full-time staff to create innovative technology solutions and reliable support. The objective of the renovation is to create a new high-tech look and an identity for the center and meet the growing needs for client meetings, demonstrations as well as for the staff of ITSC to produce their work.

The proposed design includes new interior surfaces, furniture, and other interior elements. The team also need to complete all fabrications and assembling job within a limited $9,000  budget.  The SAID design-build team utilized the cutting-edge computer-aided design (CAD) tools as well as computer-aided manufacture (CAM) tools and completed the entire project under the budget in only thirteen weeks.

In the design phase, students were required to develop a sequence of iterations to reflect the interior surface tessellation and optimization process of plywood panels. Parametric design software Rhino and grasshopper were used to form a network of triangular shapes and optimized the orientation of each panel based on the material performance and the relation to the daylight. This process created a smooth transition between frame-like panels to solid sheet panels. Later, the similar tessellation approach was used to create the table. The same triangular pattern is adjusted to achieve desired aesthetics on the new partition walls.

The inputs for the CAM pipeline include cutting patterns, panel anchor points, labels, and sheet layout while the outputs are sets of flatted triangular panels ready for CNC milling in the rapid prototyping center at DAAP. In the final assembling, fifty-two different wood panels were installed precisely on the wall.

Check more details on Prof. Tang’s MetroLAB studio here.

order the book online 

 

ITSC renovation project

ITSC Interior Renovation. MetroLab Studio ARCH7005, summer 2016.
Students: Mark Specker, Michael Czmiel, Adam Sambuco, Mary Cassidy, Megha Dubey, Mackenzie Grause, Kristin Plummer, Nicole Ridder, Han Shen, Jonathan Tomko
Faculty: Ming Tang
Client: ITSC, School of Information Technology.
Thanks for the support from
School of Architecture and Interior Design, DAAP.
School of Information Technology, CECH
UC Metro Lab, UCRI
Advisor: Xiangwei Zhao, Mei Zhao, Shubber Falah, Chang Di, Yingdong Hu. Volunteer: Benjamin Zhang

 

 

SOFA2016 Exhibition

Ming Tang and Mara Marcu coordinated the gallery exhibition in SOFA Expo Chicago. ( Sculpture Object and Functional Art and Design). The exhibition featured works from faculty and students from School of Art, School of Architecture & Interior Design. Exhibition Hall. Navy Pier, Chicago. Nov2-6. 2016.
The installation has three components. Smaller artifacts expand on the notion of architectural structure and collectively create a catalogue of “misbehaved” tectonics. Larger ceramic and polypropylene prototypes speculate on the role of architectural pleats and on the metamorphosis of two dimensional material to three dimensional form. Several hologram digital models created onsite obsess over the possibility of endless variation through human interaction, the natural versus the artificial, and the-everything-else that lies in between.

Faculty Coordinator:
Ming Tang, Mara Marcu, Katie Parker, Jesse Ring, Abed Breir.
SAID Students: Second year Students in SAID2013 Fall 2016
SAID GA: Han Shen, Nolan Loh, Muhammed Bahcetepe, Andrew Watson, Mathew Klump, Kevin Goldstein, Austin Gehman, Jiajing Xie, Weiqi Chu
SOA students: MShinda Brpaddus, Ginny Grote, Rachel Boue, Jessica Whittington, Jen Watson, Megan Stevens, Olivia Gorman, Sarah Christie
Tectonic Studio students: MShinda Brpaddus, Ginny Grote, Rachel Boue, Jessica Whittington, Jen Watson, Megan Stevens, Olivia Gorman, Sarah Christie, Matt Miller, Ben Hamilton, Daniel Castele, Tsui Lun Wang, Sam Joe Carl, Chen Ludan, Connor Hymes, Daniel Bryan Smith, Olivia Kempf, Sydney Brown, Dung Le, Matt Miller, Jillian Blakey, Sam Kissing, Jing Guo, Prince Osemwengie, Hannah Westendorf, Samantha Schuermann, Amanda Kristoff, Ben Bedel, Jamie Kruer, Brendan Carr, Clark Sabula.
Tectonic Studio Faculty Team: Mara Marcu, Sean Cottengim, Renee Martin, Whitney Hamaker, Ryan Ball, Stephen Slaughter.

More info on this exhibition is here.

 

paper shelter installation

paper tube pyramid structure, with students from ARCH3014 SP15, and SAID2013 FA15 courses. Structure design: Jacob Anderson, Benjamin Blake, Caleb Lang.