The Two Sides (presentation slides)

[GSD Studio] the Two Sides from Roy Lin

GSD option studio: Common Framework
Instructor: Christopher Lee, Simon White(TA)
project name: the Two Sides ( and One Common Frame Work)
Site: Xiamen, China

This project is perhaps the hardest one I've ever done. Instead of an academic school project, I considered it more of a self-dialogue that forced me bouncing between rationality, emotion, and personal political stand. As being a Taiwanese, the given topic of a "cross-strait financial district" is way too sophisticated than an architectural design. Given the fact that interactions between China and Taiwan are becoming more often, it is essential not to  let the economic interests over-shadowing the political stands, since economics is never free from politics. Under any circumstance, the sovereignty of the nation and the independence of government should be kept unharmed. Only based on this 'conditional harmony'can we then talk about the 'cooperation'.   

[Summary]

The project is situated in the CBD site of east Xiamen. Architecturally, it rethinks the space for mixing working, living, and cooperation through manipulating the urban dominant type- Qilou. From the social point of view, the project is also the manifestation of the political circumstance between Xiamen (China) and Kinmen (Taiwan).

The original park proposed by HOK cuts the site into two halves. As the interpretation of shop houses in macro scale, two rolls of residential bars, which situated in between HOK buildings from each side, stretched inward and divided existing fabric into different urban pockets, leaving a large void space on ground level. The circular shape of the void area creates a superficial symbol of unification. The office units are scattered in the circular void area. Each office unit consists of an exterior space, a transitional corridor space, an interior space, and a shared space in the back. This is another interpretation of the shop house.

Considering the issue of Cross-Strait cooperation, the project argues against the sameness of conventional CBD and the notion of unification. Though its architecture creates an absolute and trans-scaling generic common framework for the entire site, the use of different landscape and variations in accessibility creates a softness and  programmatic difference between the two sides. Within the common framework, the two sides interact. Yet through acknowledging and respecting the differences, the two sides gain benefits without decreasing their own values. That is the essence of cooperation.

The New Real: 擴增城市

當今的網路發展持續下去，我們能夠預見一個未來。那個未來裡，人跟網路是永遠連結著的，透過遠比現在更快、更穩定、更普及的方式連結著。有人說是靠著腦內種植晶片，有的說是靠著突破性的生物技術，總而言之，人類打從一出生，就連結著網際網路，一直到去世。網際網路有個新名字，叫做CI－集體智能。每個人與CI的連結，徹底改變了人類的貿易、政治、以及社會結構。在那個未來裡，人們生活的世界是真實環境與擴增實境的混合，是物理性環境跟資訊交流的重疊。在這樣的世界裡，建築的價值…你說他喪失了也好，你說他昇華了也好…

[CI]

Collective Intelligence－集體智能。像Wikipedia一樣，每個與網路連結的人貢獻自己的智慧，再經過所有人的不斷修改，CI是個不斷自我優化的集合體，是權力下放的真正民主，他既取代了教育，也取代了政府，取代了市場經濟，又同時是每個人的基本權利，如同活著的權利。而每個人對CI上傳與下載資訊的「量」和「速度」，是新世界的貨幣基準。

[一個建築]

什麼叫建築？不再有人這麼稱呼他了，他跟水系統、道路系統、能源系統、還有資訊傳遞系統一樣，人們統稱為基礎建設，是乘載一切人類活動的基底當中的一項。有其必要，但是你看不到－至少你永遠看不到他赤裸裸的樣子。建築成了背景－用來投射所有材質、顏色、景象、資訊和欲望的背景。和下水道的預鑄水泥管一樣，也和鋪滿道路的柏油材料一樣，建築剩下一種材料，一種可以被大量、快速製造又快速組裝的材料，甚至可以自行移動延展，極簡而必要的存在－成為你行走的地面、遮風避雨的屋頂、迫使你轉向的牆面。他變得很單調，但是很有效率，好比你不會抱怨全世界的柏油路都長一個樣，而會讚嘆路面上五顏六色的跑車，成就著五花八門的生活一樣。建築，僅僅是用來投射資訊和欲望的背景。

[一個城市]

擴增實境充斥的城市－姑且稱為擴增城市，和傳統城市一樣，有核心也有邊緣。如果你了解華爾街各家公司盡可能的靠近data center 是為了爭取比別人快那零點零零幾秒的市場資訊，那麼你也可以了解在這個擴增城市裡，富有，是指離得CI Center越近的核心，貧窮，是離得越遠的邊緣區域。CI的核心區域，是個資訊爆炸的地段，每一分每一秒都在發生不同的事，市容也在每分每秒改變，所有的活動、交易、娛樂都在這個地方。曾經聽說過有人在這邊因為意外而「斷了線」，斷了與CI的連結，目睹了裸露的城市－白茫茫的一片，沒有「建築」，只有飛來飛去、快速移動著的平板，上頭的人，也是赤裸裸的白…。他們說，當這些人目睹到了城市裸體，都立刻喪失了心智…。而又因為CI Center僅僅是人們聚集密度最高的區域，這個擴增城市可以游移，在衝撞舊世界或衝撞另一個擴增城市的邊緣上，發生侵蝕…

[侵蝕]

稱得上古蹟的老房子，終究承受不了時間的侵蝕，人們勉強把他凍結在時空裡而慢慢忘記了靜止的意義，成了新世界的絆腳石；稱不上老房子的半調子，終究抗拒不了資訊的侵蝕，有的被拆了牆，用新材料填裝，被批妝上層層的訊息脂粉，他們稱之為「進化」。

[城市之間]

新世界有好多個擴增城市，他們在舊城市的邊緣誕生。誰說破壞容易建設難？要在空曠一片的地方建立全新的CI城市，遠比改造舊城市來的容易太多了。某些舊城市被刻意凍結以便研究或參觀，有些被遺棄，有些則是被那些「自我放逐」、甘願放棄「資訊」這個基本人權的「逃離者」們視為最後的淨土，他們把氣味、觸感、顏色等等永遠一成不便的東西都當成了寶…。站在CI核心向遠處望，在目眩神迷的城市景色末端，看到了好幾個世紀前的時代符號－巴黎鐵塔，那是被CI列定為歷史保留區的地方。另一頭，一位逃離者站在舊世界的鐵塔上向這邊望，望著白茫茫的一片，望著這個什麼都不是的地方…。

[GSD project] The New Real - The World of Augmented Reality

The New Real - The World of Augmented Reality

Harvard GSD 2011 : 3421 New Geographies: Imagining a City-World Beyond Cosmopolis

Instructor: A. Hashim Sarkis

Project members: Nicholas Croft, Aneesha Dharwadker, Mariusz Klemens, Yu-Ta Lin, Elizabeth MacWillie, William Quattlebaum, Trude Renwick, Mary Grace Verges, Clementina Vinals.

Thesis revised: Nicholas Croft

Architecture is either a background for augmented reality or a preserved, pre-augmentation, artifact; the current fabric of the built world exists, but within emergent regions driven by Collective Intelligence (CI), architecture transforms into a tectonically uniform version of itself.  It is in these regions that design acquires meaning through non-material imagery.

Augmented regions are fluid in nature—perpetually redefining themselves and their boundaries as a result of a complex collective-CI feedback loop—yet at any given moment, clearly defined boundaries demarcate the influence of the augmented world on the physical one.Collective Intelligence, as an advanced stage in the evolution of the Internet, controls the technologies of augmented reality, facilitates algorithmic forms of governance based on collective input, and aids in the increasingly efficient cycling of data.

Certain aspects of the world become virtual, while others remain physical. The transportation of people and goods occurs in real space, while events like voting, banking, shopping, and so forth, are anchored in the virtual realm. The processes through which humans go to acquire goods and services no longer require individual spatial displacement. The world undergoes physical spatial compression, but a virtual expansion occurs through user experiences. Through the digital augmentation of space, inhabitants can experience infinite depth.

The individual’s interaction with the world occurs through a personal interface, which allows the user to make choices about the visual composition of his or her environment. Connection to augmented reality is a choice, not an obligation – but it determines the ability of the user to access information and gain knowledge. As a result, physical proximity to CI centers allows for a faster exchange of information. Public spaces become “servers,” where individuals can collectively plug in to the increasing mass of data. The economy is thus run on memory – both the memory of the individual, and his or her ownership of digital space. Bytes become currency, and are incorporated into the public sphere, giving more power to classes without access to physical wealth. Corporations collaborate with the CI to govern the physical realm, providing generic hardware for servers, bandwidth, interfaces, and architecture. The differentiation of these objects occurs virtually, based solely on the choices of the user. 

Infrastructure

Interreigionality

New Geographies

Mega-Form

Main Images

GSD Taiwan

(Resource: Harvard GSD 2011 Brochure)

過去十年，GSD總共有72位來自台灣的校友，平均每年7.2個，其實很多。這兩年台灣學生少很多，然後大陸學生暴增，韓國略比之前少一點點。當然只拿GSD一所學校來看根本不夠當做什麼指標，也沒有說一定要出國念書，就算出國念書也沒有一定要來美國。只是看到這個再想想現在的狀況，有點點小感慨小寂寞，台灣其實很強，比我當初以為的強，也要繼續強下去。

我還記得小時候學地理，老師指著一些課本上的圖片說：其實台灣沒有這麼大，所以開始腦袋烙印著"台灣很小"，於是在每次畫地圖的時後失去尺度感，慢慢的把自己的土地越畫越小，遠比她真正的大小還小。這是一種自卑吧，然後在內心的自卑和面對外人的自我強調之間反覆衝撞，就像在國際情勢上的政治地位一樣。

學過建築，並不代表就能在地圖上正確畫出台灣的尺度。我到現在還是有時候太大有時候太小。

總之台灣加油。總是離家了才會想家，透過別人的眼睛才看到自己的優點，台灣還有好多強項講不完，大家不要被唱衰自己的媒體教壞，被政客操弄，被那些妄自菲薄的人干擾。勇敢走自己的路，台灣的輪廓才會更明顯。我愛台灣，月底見！

HELL and HEAVEN

This is a theme shot of my design project of Urban Design Elements Studio. The argument was that, in order to bring life (here means the flow of people and capital) back to Queens's sunnyside yard neighborhood, we (me and my partner Wu Zhou) consolidated all the passive post-industrial programs(mainly warehouses) which previously occupied the neighbor lands into one centralized place above Sunnyside Yard- a giant train yard which served as a transportation node between east-coast and Long Island region, great importance to the large region but no direct benefits to its surroundings. By centralized all those dirty, passive, ugly, noisy yet must-exist stuffs into one place, we then release those occupied lands for better use. In other words, to create a consolidated HELL and leave the development of HEAVEN to the market. 

Where there is civilization, there is waste. Hell and Heaven should be considered as one. Whether or not they should be put together is debatable, but needless to say, we shall no longer try to disguise the bad but to reveal it, as part of the system. It's been too long we only focus on creating a heaven without acknowledging a GREAT HEAVEN comes along with a GREAT HELL.

把所有髒東西都收起來吧，設計一個很棒的收納櫃給他們，反正大家都爭破頭的要設計漂亮乾淨的東西，就讓他們去負責童話世界，我們來做地獄。還有，地獄就是地獄，不要想在地獄裡搞個清幽的小咖啡館，還想種些花花草草，地獄的美感不是這種媚俗的東西。地獄得不三不四，你的童話世界裡就會看到果皮垃圾還有躲在佈景後面腐爛的老鼠。還有，把髒東西丟到城市外圍是愚蠢的想法，因為城市永遠沒有外圍，總有天某人會在垃圾場旁邊蓋一連串豪華的新大樓，到時候你就真的是在地獄旁邊喝你的五味雜陳劣等咖啡。

Generic City – Extremely Large & Extremely Small

- Introduction

Enlightened by Rem Koolhaas’s “Generic City,” I’d like to borrow his idea as a departure of my own thoughts. What “Generic City” means, in my opinion, is neither about a prediction nor a metaphor for the future, but an emphasis of the present situation. Generic or not, only relies on the scope we look at our city. To me, the way we should look at the cities is no longer through different scales but either scale of extremely large, or extremely small.  

- Diversity 

No place is generic yet everything looks gray. When a city is divided into pieces and each piece becomes so rich in its own content without interrelations, this is the generic city- the city without a color in large. This is many of our cities today, and I would add, especially in Asian modern cities. We've been eager for the city’s diversity, but afraid of losing its own characteristic. Isn't that ironic in a sense? Take China for instance, rapid-growing cities often suffer under criticisms of deconstruction and massive development that lead to the city's no-roots, no-history, no-culture and losing control. We need to face the fact that these cities born with missions, like all cities do. They grow fast, change fast, people come and leave. These are the cities of capital flow, come with it and die with it. No pity, they are so rich in their own “fuck context”. What are good cities in essence anyway? 

- Cities with color

On the contrary, many cities in Europe, which some may call the “frozen” cities are indeed with their own colors. It’s really good to walk in a city with clear characteristic. These cities were in many ways successful therefore they have to be preserved somehow. Too good and too bad once a city becomes simply an ornament or monument. 

The United States is another kind of generic city. One of the few nations with vast territory and short history. The US suffered city sprawl and urban dreams became mystery. What we have to acknowledge is that the sprawls ARE the real cities and they have their unique colors which the previous central ones don’t offer their residents. 

- The Extremely Large and Small/ the Limits and Rules/Generic and Diverse

What are the essences of urban life? When cities become uncertain and unclear, what is left for us to seize on? I would argue that it is the essence of how buildings are built; how they serve people’s needs; and under what circumstance they become meaningful, functional, or even dissolveable; and why this door fits mine not next door. This essence, from extremely localized point of view, of all the origins of architecture/ living/ function, I call it the Extremely Small.

On the other hand, once we understand the fundamental rules of the formation of a city, we no longer need masterplans and are able to set all constructions free from presumptions, just like some economists believe in free market. What we need to know is the “limits” of cities, which are in fact possible to predict and control. Cities may be just like fungus that grow and consume everywhere with nutrition. And the edge of this nutrition- the natural resources and geographical limitations- will be the boundary of cities. This is the scale of  Extremely Large.

( final assignment for Urban Design Pro-seminar, GSD 2010, Fall )