Company - The We Company
Position - Design Technology Lead
Site - New York & Chicago
Manager - Steven Rowland
Building Data technology enabled WeWork’s architecture to be customized and executed at an immense scale.
As a Design Technology Lead at WeWork, I analyzed building data to inform design decisions and implement BIM processes. By creating customized BIM tools, I expedited the project delivery process and maintained a high quality of design. These BIM technologies allowed the team to recognize design trends of varying cities and program types. We were able to achieve this by analyzing the building data of hundreds of BIM Revit projects. These data sets included occupancy counts, space types, adjacencies, areas, widths, heights, and volumes.
Not only did I build Revit plugins to assist with layouts, I also wrote scripts to quality control drawings. This quality control process included coordination with MEP consultants, AoRs, and existing conditions point cloud scans.
In addition, I developed BIM templates and Revit content to reflect WeWork's Design standards. This included customized Revit project templates, complex Revit families, and detailed shared parameters to efficiently produce drawings and determine space metrics.
I also managed BIM execution plans in collaboration with consultants. This was a rigorous process to ensure project models were healthy and consistently backed up.
WeWork's Design Standards are very robust, and heavily integrated in the BIM modeling process. I helped update the design standards in sync with the BIM production.
Architecture is like mass produced products. Buildings are identical copies of their architectural drawings, and are built to become the indexical trace of their plans and sections- their matrixes.
However, recent development of digital technology has broken this indexical chain that linked the matrix to its imprint. The digital information of the Internet, as a non-material form of consumption, eliminates the connection to mechanical matrixes. Digitally manufactured objects are no longer the indexical imprints of a mold pressed into a metal plate. We can now produce variation at no extra cost. Digital reproduction has enabled mass customization.
Design can now start with algorithms. Algorithmic design allows designers to shift from creating one size that fits all, to creating a diversity of customized products on demand. The production of customized products can be achieved through Mario Carpo,s definition of the Objectile.
My project is a scripted algorithm that creates user defined buildings. My objectile input variables from users and output their customized buildings. The input variables defined by users are the square footage, usable height, program, number of windows, and specific size of windows. My objectile would take these variables and produce an architecture that is similar, yet different.
Architecture Office - Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Site - Los Angeles, CA
Project Directors - Jose Palacios, Paul Danna
Project Members - Susan Bartley, John Martin, Frank Castillo, Marc Tanabe, David Renken, Joanna Lam, Kristen Geier
At SOM, my team and I developed the Conceptual and Schematic Design phases for the LAX Airport Police Headquarters. The site is located adjacent to the airport runways, allowing for maximum visibility and accessibility. Our design challenge was to solve for the demanding security concerns, complex circulation, and inclusive integration of the departments. These departments included the Canine Unit, Bomb Squad, Traffic, Patrol, Homeland Security, and Firing Range.
The daily arrival and departure sequence of the police officers determines the hierarchy of circulation. The programmatic spaces are linearly sequenced along a corridor circulating around a central quad. The officers would first arrive to work by parking their personal vehicles in the garage, transition towards the lockers to change into their uniforms, then arrive at roll call and briefing rooms, and then finally proceed back to the garage to their fleet vehicles. The security features included security checkpoints, limited site access and site visibility, ballistic resistant walls, and topographic berms. The building was designed to be safe from potential threats and operable in case of emergencies.
Architecture Office - Machado Silvetti and Associates
Site - Denton, TX
Project Principals - Rodolfo Machado, Edwin Goodell
Project Members - Daphne Binder, Patrick Rodrigues, Reginald Wang
At MSA, I collaborated with the owner and consultants through SD, DD, and CD of this project. We designed the expansion and rennovation of the College of Arts and Design at the University of Northern Texas. The scope of the project is to provide additional exhibition spaces, art studios, and workshops, and to refurbish existing offices and classrooms.
Architecture Office - Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Site - Inglewood, CA
Project Directors - Jose Palacios, Jed Zimmerman
Project Members - Lani Lee, Hansol Park, Goldy Lee, Brent Nishimoto
At Skidmore Owings and Merrill, I contributed to an Environmental Impact Report for the City of Inglewood's elevated monorail transit connector. The people mover project seeks to connect downtown Inglewood to the new LA stadium and Clippers developments. The Inglewood Transit Connector extends the existing Metro Crenshaw line, connecting Inglewood to the rest of Los Angeles. We collaborated with code consultants and transit engineers to propose schematic transit guideways and transit stations layouts. The EIR optimized the contextual relationships of the transit connector, and at the same time, being compliant with the NFPA 130 code requirements for occupancy, fire separation, and egress.
Architecture Office - PLP Architecture
Site - Isleworth, UK
Project Principals - Cindy Lau, Wayne McKiernan
In the summer of 2015, I worked at PLP Architecture based in London, United Kingdom. I contributed to an office building for Sky, a British telecom company. The building was already under construction, contracted to Mace Group.
As I led the design of the reception desk, I had to be consistent with the interior building design and also accommodate the programmatic demands. The form of the reception desk embodies a V shape to accommodate users arriving from various destinations, such as the front entrance, cafeteria, and cinema. During the day, the reception desk accommodates visitors and employees. During the evening, the reception desk hosts events held in the cinema. The design evolved as I coordinated with consultants and contractors.
Furthermore, I issued the final pricing set of drawings for the Food and Beverage amenities throughout the office building. Coordinating with Sedley Place, a catering design firm, we met with the client to discuss design options. The catering design firm aided and fast tracked our design process with their experience in kitchen and dining design. We utilized Revit’s parametric aspects to prioritize efficiency in issuing drawings and updating designs with engineers.
Architecture Office - WAA
Site - Taichung, Taiwan
Project Principals - Jason Wang
As a part-time designer at Wang Architects and Associates, I was given the task to propose schematic designs for Twin Oaks Apartments.
Twin Oaks Apartments is located next to a large urban park in the residential district of Taichung, Taiwan. The client aims to build a 430,000 square feet apartment. The curvature of the facade is intended to reflect the green foliage of the park to the surrounding context. The massing strategy is intended to divide the apartments into two delicate towers to avoid being read as a monolithic mass.
Architecture Office - Mass Studies, WAA
Site - Taichung, Taiwan
Project Principals - Minsuk Cho, Jason Wang
During my internship at WAA based in Taiwan, I was faced with working in a different culture. Being fluent in both Mandarin and English gave me the advantage to manage global collaborations, such as the Taichung City Cultural Center Competition in partnership with Mass Studies, a South Korean architecture firm.
The design of Taichung City Culture Center bring people together, through the mixture of high-culture and every day. The Public Library and Fine Arts Museum serve as the two key programs of social engagements that permeate the building, creating an inseparable spatial condition.
ROOF - an impermeable mass, distinguished by a volumetric separation, that shields inhabitants from the weather.
GROSS ROOF - a thickened mass with small voids and holes. These small voids within the roof are often private, non-accessible spaces that provide light openings, MEP, and viewing platforms. These small voids within the roof isolate users to the individual scale.
A Gross Roof is a thickened waterproof layer with small voids and holes. Conventionally, these small voids within the roof are often private, non-accessible, utilitarian spaces that provide light openings, mechanical, electrical, plumbing services, and places of observation. The qualities of these spaces are often tight and minimal, which isolates individuals from the physical stimulation of other people. This detachment allows for moments of reflection. Reflection is the freedom of being able to observe without interacting. The reflexive and solitary qualities of the spaces within the gross roof are capitalized in our approach to design.
The form starts as a simple thin, pitched, impermeable geometry that sheds water. Then it thickens to allow vertical circulation of a ramp. The roof boundary thickens even more to allow programmatic balcony voids and MEP services. The typological relationship of the roof is reversed by circulating the public into the typically non-occupiable space. The central atrium highlights the landscape below, and operates as an indexical frame that references the geographic context as visitors circulate around the atrium.
Project collaborators: Reggie Wang and Grey Peterson
Smart BOOM conveys an urban scheme that grows and adapts to Midland,s booming oil industry. The site is located in Midland Texas, a city that is currently experiencing an economic boom from its oil industry. City officials speculate the population to double to 200,000 by the year 2028. Our studio was given the task to design a live-work urban design that addresses the current demand of 5000 housing units in Midland. My urban plan addresses the need for safe and comfortable residential living as well as accessibility to public and commercial spaces. I approached my design by emphasizing efficient accessibility to the existing park. The concept of Smart Boom has two stages of adapting to the eventual population growth. The first stage, the NOW stage, addresses the existing demand of 500 units. The second stage, the BOOM stage, addresses a potential growth of population in the future. I developed strategic methods to better improve the urban relationship between the pedestrian and the vehicle. In order to separate the noise, light, and smell pollution from the residents, I centralized the pedestrian activity by placing sidewalks in the center of residential blocks. This technique is implemented in both the Now and Boom stages of development.
NOW, 2014
The NOW stage of the design addresses the existing housing demand of 500 units. It consists of single family houses along the edge of residential blocks.
BOOM, 2028
The BOOM stage of the design addresses the future growth of Midland’s population. The increase in population will be expected due to the booming oil industry.
The Pixel House is a pixelated decomposition of the monolith. It is broken down with varying resolutions of pixels that host different programs based on its scale. There are three different resolutions of pixels. First, the smallest pixel may perform as a stair. Second, the medium sized pixel may serve as chairs, counters, and shelves. Third, the large pixels form larger geometries that connect the programs of the house, such as the kitchen to the dining room. This resolution of pixels is composed for domestic living.
This project is an architecture school located in Plaza Mayor, a historic site of Lima, where the prominent texture of the city prevalently juxtaposes architectural styles. The architectural style of the surrounding context transitions from a homogenous colonial style to a heterogeneous capitalist modernity. This implies a progression of culture from one of an authoritarian colonial society to an individualistic democratic rule. This architecture school continues the homogeneity of the colonial arcade, and evolves into a geometry that conforms with the individualistic, heterogenous masses of the contemporary. The exterior is composed of 3 materials: concrete, frosted glass, and reflective transparent glass. This composition maintains the autonomous nature of the building and reflect the historic continuity of the context.
As the form continues the colonial arcade along the historical district, the rest of the geometry breaks up into 3 masses toward contemporary development. The three masses oscillate up and down accommodating program. These three cantilevered geometries are supported by steel trusses. The lower cantilever consists of public program such as the lobby, cafe, and auditorium. The central mass connects the public and private by hosting the library, review space, and visiting studios. The upper mass consists of the woodshop, computer lab, lecture halls, and studios. The form ascends in height to provide views towards contemporary development. The height also conveys a hierarchy of programmatic accessibility. Furthermore, the slanted cantilevered geometry reflects the auditorium typology, utilizing the slope and the widening for the audience seating.
