YEZI DAIARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO

2013-2017

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MITAUBMAN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + URBAN PLANNINGMaster of Architecture (2-year Program) Graduated May 2017

Fall 2016 - Practice Session with Neil Denari

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WACOLLEGE OF BUILT ENVIRONMENTSBachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies Graduated Jun 2013

Summer 2010 - Exploration Seminar in JapanFall 2012 - Study Abroad in Rome

EXHIBITION Winter 2016

Exhibited individual studio work at Methexis at Museum of Contemporary Arts Detroit (MoCAD) with Associate Professor Mitch McEwen and A(n) Office

PUBLICATIONS Winter 2016

- Designed and edited annual student publication for Taubman College (Dimensions Issue 29)- Published drawings for StudioSUMO on Architect Magazine (November 2016 issue)

COLLEGE NOMINEEUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MITAUBMAN COLLEGE

Fall 2015Dow Sustainability Fellowship Program

Winter 2016KPF 2016 Traveling Fellowship

SOFTWARESAdobe Design SuiteSketchupRhino/GrasshopperRevitMicrosoft OfficeVray

LANGUAGESEnglishMandarinItalian

EXPERTISEArchitecture DesignGraphic DesignModel MakingWriting/Editorial

YEZI DAI

SKILLS

RECOGNITIONS

DEAN’S LIST

ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY DEAN’S LISTUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WA

- 2009-2010, 2012-2013- Fall 2010- Winter 2011- Winter and Summer 2012

2015 - 2017

2009 - 2013

yezidai@umich.edu215-290-0935

Address ContactNorthwood IV1554 McIntyre DriveAnn Arbor, MI 48105

WORK EXPERIENCE WORK EXPERIENCE (CONT)

PERKINS + WILL, CHICAGO, IL Mar 2017EXTERN

- Prepared diagrams and laser cut files for Chicago Housing Authority competition- Attended site meetings- Participated in design charrette for Okamura’s showroom at NeoCon 2017 and worked on spatial planning and conceptualization of exhibition theme

TAUBMAN COLLEGE Aug 2016 - Dec 2016GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTOR

- Facilitated first year graduate-level course ‘Sustainable Systems’ by leading classroom discussions sessions- Graded student assignments for a section of 20 students- Course curriculum deals with qualitative theorization of a range of environmental philosophies and their design implications in the architecture field

SHAPIRO DESIGN LAB, UMICH Aug 2015 - April 2016DESIGN INTERN

- Planned spaces for new design lab in Shapiro Undergraduate Library at Umich, including giving design ideas for colors and light fixtures- Organized events and taught workshops such as Sketchup software tutorials- Helped other interns with their Master research thesis project by collecting ethnographic data- Worked roughly 18 - 20 hrs/week

DENISE SCOTT BROWN & ROBERT VENTURI May 2016 - Aug 2016INTERN

- Worked on landscape and architectural restoration projects on the personal historical home of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi- Assisted Denise Scott Brown’s upcoming photography/autobiographical book

STUDIOSUMO, NEW YORK, NY Mar 2016EXTERN

Prepared Josai International University student dormitory drawings for publication

KYOOB ARCHITECTS, SINGAPORE Aug 2013 to July 2015ARCHITECTURAL ASSISTANT II

- Designed, managed, coordinated and oversaw 3 single family housing projects- Assisted in Boat Quay and revitalization of Singapore-Malaysia Railway Corridor design competitions as well as other multi family residential projects

THE EXPANDED FIELDS OF ARCHITECTURE

The roles and definition of the architect are changing. Up to the task studio members esablished topics, positions, and approaches. They augmented accepted norms while engaging a belief in imaginative thinking, spatial speculation and critical reflection. There is no topical overlay in the Bluest Blue — it mattered less what was worked on and more on how intensely it was worked on. Architectural education should open eyes and minds — yours, and ours to what is philosophically, conceptually, technologically, materially and representationally possible — the varied cultural, disciplinary and spatial agencies of design burning blue, the bluest blue.

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Perry KulperAssociate ProfessorTaubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Winter 2017 | Graduate Thesis | Thesis Advisor: Perry Kulper

History of Technological Ideas

APPROACH

In Fall 2016, each student was asked to identify key players and interests and establish primary relationships between them. For me, the development of a timeline of history of technological and architectural ideas, including the development of contemporary trajectories in the architectural and artistic disciplines, is an important mechanics of engagement in discovering a structure to the thesis. By expressing these relational ideas at an early stage allows two things to occur. Firstly, it catalyzes analogic thinking that recognizes similarities and differences between established trajectories and speculations that can be built upon them. Secondly, it induces quick and transparent synthesis of complex and seemingly unrelated ideas.

Mechanics of Engagement

The relationship between architectural development and technological changes is constructed using a timeline, where specific moments of paradigm shifts are identified. For example, the shift from emulation of nature in the 19th century to the emergence of systems thinking in the 1970s is related to the discovery of DNA structure and the NASA image of earth as the “Blue Marble”. Later, this identification of paradigm shifts translates formally into spatial and surface fractures.

POOH TOWN BY NICK ELIAS

INFRA ECO LOGI URBANISM BY RVTR

THREE CONTINENT PROJECT BY WALTAR DE MARIA

TOP LEFT: 12 MONKEYS BY TERRY GILLIAM AND CHRIS MARKERTOP RIGHT: DRAWING DEVICE BY MOHAMMED SYAFIQ HASSAN JUBRILEFT: 2046 BY WONG KAR WAI

LEFT: TAKING MEASURE ACROSS THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE BY JAMES CORNERRIGHT: ROODEE RACECOURSE BY RANDY LIEKENJIE

SOAP BUBBLE EXPERIMENTS BY FREI OTTO

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ALTERNATIVE HISTORY TRAJECTORY

infrastructural urbanism TRAJECTORY

LANDSCAPE URBANISM trajectory

utopia/dystopia narrative trAjectory

POST-CRITICAL THEORY TRAJECTORY (PERFORMATIVE

ARCHITECTURE)

fabrication TRAJECTORY

NARRATIVE /CRITIQUE

NARRATIVE /CRITIQUE

ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

LAND ART

ARCHITECTURAL AGENCY

ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRUCT

FILM/DEVICE CONSTRUCT

ARCHITECTURAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL CONSTRUCT

PHYSICAL ARTEFACT/APPARATUS CONSTRUCT

REPRESENTATIONAL CONSTRUCT

FORM FINDING

1915

anti-thesis

radical shift

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INTERRELATED

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1964 - 1966

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PARC DE LA VILLETE DIAGRAMS BY BERNARD TSCHUMI

ARCHITECTURAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL CONSTRUCT

PROGRAM-FORM

BACKGROUND

Borrowing from Paul Virilio’s theory of dromology, where speed is viewed as a critical catalyst and measurement of development in society, politics and history, this thesis aspires to visualize the relationship between speed and perception. Thus The Temple of Hermes is conceived from this conceptual prompt. The temple consists of a series of spatial fractures, metaphorically linked to the disruptive nature of speed and the displacement of what was here before.

Working with generic conditions, rather than specific geographical locations, the temples also function as portals for the Greek god to move swiftly across sites, morphing into different programmatic additions and hacking into infrastructures of speed such as a highway and an airport. The temple fulfills 3 programmatic conditions, and with the aid of optical devices that creates kaleidoscopic perceptual fractures on the drawings, changing as one moves across the site at different speeds. This thesis aspire to synthesize all of these relationally using speed and The Temple of Hermes as meta-structure.

Thesis Structure

A strategic plot to help structure the thesis, relationally synthesizing infrastructures of speed (airport and highway), appropriating Eliasson’s mirror installations and stereoscopic projected shadows as to generate spatial fractures.

MEDIA AND REPRESENTATION

This thesis explores a myriad of representational techniques to explain conditions of spatial fractures. Conventional architectural elements such as scale, horizon and materiality find new resonance when exploring different drawing and construct techniques. As the medium shifts from 2D to 3D, the wall construct generates new material ideas and fosters new impressionistic fracturing relationship between natural optical phenomena of refraction and reflection and 2D drawings.

The following pages contain a series of drawings, part landscape and part infrastructural, inspired by Zaha Hadid’s paintings for The Peak Leisure Club competition. By appropriating and splicing one of her paintings, the basic structure of a fractured landscape emerges, forming a backdrop against which the wall construct of The Temple of Hermes interacts and hacks into.

Velodrome and Optical Devices Infrastructural Fracture

Landscape elements of surface fractures, projected shadows, reflection and refraction, fuse with spatial fractures created by existing infrastructures of speed such as highways and airports.

PROGRAMMATIC CONDITIONS

Spatial and material characteristics of the temple are constrained by their programmatic conditions: the velodrome, the rendevous and the altar. In this thesis, programmatic thinking provides additional ammunition for form generation. In the following pages, the drawings aspire to formulate a series of narrative in vignette formats that describe the experience of the spatial fractures from the ground.

Velodrome

The velodrome is an inflatable and mobile superstructure, emerging above ground. Here, one is

entertained by the spectacle of games.

Altar

Appropriating Hermes’ role as a cunning trickster, one needs to successfully navigate through the room of smoke and mirrors to carry on to the next stage.

Rendezvous

The rendezvous spatial fractures are clandestine and sensual locations for speed dating, thinking about speed in terms of its cultural implications in disengaging and

re-engaging human interactions.

WALL CONSTRUCT

Shifting to the 3-dimensional, the wall construct synthesizes the flat drawings with analogic constructs of lenses, camera parts, mirrors and prisms to generate proto-forms. The physicality of a 3D construct simulates the kaleidoscopic effects generated by the optical devices and aspires to generate an intimate splicing and fracturing relationship with the base drawings.

Velodrome Construct (Reflection and Refraction) - Analogical Application of Prisms and Mirror

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Rendevous Construct (Projection) - Analogical Application of Film Slides

Highway Signage Construct (Reflection and Refraction) - Analogical Application of Lenses and Mirror

Velodrome Construct (Reflection) - Analogical Application of Mirror Surface

The site of our residential project is located in Detroit’s Mexicantown neighborhood, to the north side of Vernor highway. This neighborhood has a unique cultural aspect of intergenerational living. Over the years, family sizes may expand or shrink and our ambition is to cater to these changes by building a flexible pre-fabricated housing without having to move from the same apartment. We achieve this by placing a smaller unit (studio or 2-bedroom) next to a larger unit (3-bedroom) so each family has the option to take over the neighboring studio or 2-bedroom to be part of their apartment. When these units are not needed as the family size shrinks, they can be partitioned and residents can rent them out or sell them entirely.

We are specifically interested in improving the shower space of a large family unit which we regard as an important part of domestic life. All the plans are laid out around water cores. Adjacent units would share one water core which contains a utility shaft and shower space for two units. The shower space contains a shower, a sizeable bath tub and sitting sauna space. We also designed a lot of thick walls which functions both as storage and dividing walls between rooms and they are modified to become sleeping units and seating area.

INHABITING THE WATER COREFall 2016 | Graduate Studio | Partner: Mengfan (Martin) Lou Studio Instructors: Kevin Adkins, Mick Kennedy and Jonathan Rule

SPATIAL CONCEPTS

We began this project with the studying of domestic elements. As mentioned above, our spatial concept builds uupon two elements: the water core and wall shelvings. In various units, the shelvings serve as partitions (as opposed to walls) and extra storage spaces. For example, we utilize shelvings to form TV and living areas as well as desks in bedrooms.

Our other element, the water cores, which consists of bathing and cleansing functions, are placed to engage the periphery of the site as elevation features. As one enters the building, their visual attention is directed to the vertical water cores covered by frosted glass. Entering into the building, this aspect of the domestic life then interacts with the aforementioned shelves, framing the bathtub and shower areas. Entering into these water core, one then cleanses oneself and relaxes within the enclosure of concrete walls while their view is directed toward the exterior.

UP

1 Bed Studio Unit Plan 1/8”=1’0”

322 SF

Water Core Locations 1 Bedroom Studio Distribution

2 Bedroom Distribution 3 Bedroom Distribution

UP

2 Bedroom Unit Plan 1/8”=1’0”

648 SF

UP

3 Bedroom Unit Plan 1/8”=1’0”1080 SF

Site Context Plan

EXPERIENCE OF THE WATER CORE

Private Water Core Experience

Framing of Water Core with Shelves

Water Core as Elevation Feature

2nd Floor Plan1/128”=1’0”

Section A-A

SITE ORGANIZATION

We are also interested in the interaction between indoor spaces and outdoor spaces. The overall aggregation of units and water cores form 3 community courtyard spaces. These courtyard spaces are also connected to amenities such as parking, laundry room as well as an outdoor landscaped area next to the alley at the back. The vertical aggregation of larger units on the lower floors and smaller units on the upper floors create outdoor terrace spaces for the smaller two-bedroom units on the 3rd-4th floors. The terrace is designed to host outdoor activities by extending the parapet to form a bar table at the perimeter of the terrace.

In addition, the window adjacent to the terrace can swing up to form a table therefore creating a unique social threshold between the interior and the exterior. With the 1st floor public commercial spaces, these community and terrace spaces create a range of public to private spaces on this site.

First Floor Plan

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Hubbard Street

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Section B-B

Exploded Axonometric of One Prefabricated Module

PREFABRICATION STRATEGIES AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES

The basement, 1st floor amenities and water cores are site built but the modules are connected to it by welding the steel structure to the site built 1st floor structure and water core. This allows the building process to be efficient and fast while maintaining the flexibility of unit layout to provide a better interior environment.

The units are built in dimensions of 9’ by 36’ or 12’ by 36’ modules which are not fully enclosed, these modules are then transported on road as pre-fabricated boxes to site and assembled to full units. The thick wall furniture/shelving systems mentioned before are also prefabricated and are nested within the 9’ or 12’ x 36’ modules. They can be removed or modified according to the needs of the residents. Most of the factory millwork are built into the module including the thick walls furniture/shelving to reduce site construction. The exposed roof of the module are also built as terrace or green roof that would drain to the water core to form a water collection system.

Precedent Study of The Stack by Gluck+

AUTHORSHIP

I was involved in the conceptualization, design, production as well as final documentation of this project. In particular, I produced the perspective renderings, models, parts of the orthographic drawings, egress diagrams as well as some of the mechanical systems diagrams.

Fall 2015 | Graduate Studio | Studio Instructor: Jen Maigret

Located at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the site of this presidential library is America’s political and historical epicenter. The intervention is a series of ground operations: an undulating ground plane preserves yet transforms the existing public ground, precious archival and reading spaces are tucked underground near the courtyard and away from urban noises via a continuous ramp. Not designed for any specific president in mind, the scheme deliberately keeps in mind the public nature of the site.

GROUND OPERATIONS

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Basement and 1st storey plans

Unfolded section (Section B-B)

Section A-A

Fall 2015 & Winter 2016 | Graduate Project | Advisor: Christian UnverzagtEditorial Team: Brooke Dexter, Michal Ojrzanowski, Gideon Schwartzman, David Shellabarger, Adam Wilbanks, John Yoon

Taken from the Taubman College’s Dimensions page:

“Dimensions is the annual, student-produced journal of architecture at the University of Michigan. It seeks to contribute to the critical discourse of architectural education by documenting the most compelling work produced by its students, faculty, fellows, and visiting lecturers.” Students are in charge of curating, copyediting, designing and managing relevant printing processes as well as miscellaneous tasks of social media management. I was involved in the curation, design, copyediting and other miscellaneous tasks for Dimensions 29.

In this feature, the editorial team decided to feature an extra signature of content from participants of the Venice Biennale. This additional feature became one of the

driving forces of design. In this issue, we utilized a color gradient (from pure yellow to pure magenta) to demarcate sections, with colored paper chosen for interview sections. The gradient became a consistent motif throughout the book for wayfinding.

Dimensions 29 was printed by ULitho in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the following papers: Finch Opaque Smooth 80# Text, Anthem Matte 100#

Cover with spot gloss aqueous and strike through dull varnish

Typeset in Detroit, GT Sectra Fine, GT Sectra Display and Bembo Book

DIMENSIONS 29

FALL CITY CENTRAL CROSSING ENHANCEMENTSFall 2016 | Undergraduate Studio | Studio Instructor: Jim Nicholls

Fall City is situated in beautiful Snoqualmie Valley, flanked by the Snoqualmie and Raging Rivers. It is home to many well kept historical buildings, parks and river resources as well as local businesses. The studio’s role is to design a series of interventions and create a coherent plan to allow Fall City become a more walk-able and bike-able city, while keeping to its existing identity and revitalizing the abandoned areas in the town. We started the design process with a study of the existing elements that can be enhanced through design (see regional asset map above).

The site of intervention is located at the central portion of the main street and the design concept focuses on connectivity in the park, riverfront and main street to alley. Specific interventions includea programming (coming up with new events and activities such as Fall City Nights, an art corner, new retail spaces, public bathrooms), landscaping (paving and planters to beautify the main street and alley, archways to differentiate the alley), adaptive re-use and new infrastructure (bridge, walk-able piazza, street lights).

8) Pocket Art Park and Community Center

9) Fall City Piazza

10) Public Toilet/Bike Service Station

11) Market Place

12) Alley Cafe for El Carporal

13) Alley Entrances

14) Main Street Restoration

1) Park Boardwalk and Toilet

2) Fishing Dock/Raft Launching Point

3) Habitat Restoration

4) Pedestrian Bridge

5) Pedestrian River Access

6) Pedestrian River Path/Bike Racks

7) Bus Stop

FALL CITY CROSSING - CONCEPT DIAGRAM

Before - Regional Asset Map

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Arts & Culture

Historical Buildings

NatureLocal Businesses

Recreational

1) Fall City Elementary2) Totem Pole Park3) Fall City Library4) Street Art

Connectivity

1) Fall City Post Office2) Prescott House3) Hop Shed

1) River Tubing2) Baseball Field3) Horse Racing Track

Bike Trails

1) Quigley Park2) Green Spaces3) Snoqualmie River4) Riverside Walk5) River Access6) Fall City Community Park7) River Flood Plain8) River Junction9) Raging River

1) Farmhouse Market2) El Carporal Restaurant3) Raging River Cafe & Club4) Last Frontier Saloon5) Fall City Tesoro6) Fall City Roadhouse7) Fall City Bistro8) Fall City Farm Network

Highway Crossroads

PARK AND RIVER CONNECTIVITY

1) Park Boardwalk and Toilet

2) Fishing Dock/Raft Launching Point

3) Habitat Restoration

4) Pedestrian Bridge

5) Pedestrian River Access

The first connectivity layer of the scheme focuses on the park and riverside. On the park side, a boardwalk is provided to lead visitors from the carpark to various points such as the historical hop shed and the riverside where restoration works are carried out on the existing trees. A pedestrian bridge then links the two sides of the river and provides a safer pedestrian route in addition to the existing vehicular bridge. At the end of the bridge, a river access is provided to lead visitors closer to the river.

Bridge perspective by Lindsey Mills

1) Park Boardwalk

4 & 5) Pedestrian Bridge and River Access

MAIN STREET - ALLEY CONNECTIVITY

6) Pedestrian River Path/Bike Racks

7) Bus Stop

8) Pocket Art Park and Community Center

9) Fall City Piazza

10) Public Toilet/Bike Service Station

11) Market Place

12) Alley Cafe for El Carporal

13) Alley Entrances

14) Main Street Restoration

The second connectivity layer of our scheme focuses on the main street and alley. Various programs were created along the main street and makes use of the empty sites and buildings to create new uses for both visitors and residents of Fall City. At the same time new interventions encourage permeability and connection to the back alleys.

This page shows an example of a public toilet/bike service station that also connects to the alley through a corridor of seating and planters. This public toilet also utilizes a living machine system to replace sewer lines.

Used water is filtered through the planters and can be re-used as non-potable water. To enhance the appearance of the main street, new street lighting and planter boxes are also proposed.

10) Public Toilet/Bike Service Station and 14) Main Street Restoration

Living Machine System Diagram

First part to a studio project located at Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World Exposition.

Objectives of this short project is to revitalize part(s) of Seattle Center through a temporary intervention that could take on many forms but at a small footprint of roughly 20’ x 20’ x 20’.

I chose the construction of a tree house pavilion near the Key Arena, facing the Fountain of Creation, acting like a room in the vast Seattle Center complex. This site provides visitors with two kinds of experiences over the year: the fountain provides a cool wading pool during summer and a dry garden-like character during winter when the water is switched off. Inspired by this, the project also acts as a public classroom/retail space that catalyzes the creation of artistic works: sketching, painting, drawing, photography, et cetera.

Winter 2013 | Undergraduate Studio | Studio Instructor: Ken Oshima

ROOM IN THE CITY

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1st Storey Plan 2nd Storey Plan

The inspiration of this project comes from the methods of film-making and cinematic techniques such as framing and editing. Using the frames of the existing structure and the creation of new frames (second floor) as well as a new ramp system, a sequence of spaces are created to accommodate various activities such as a cafe, event spaces/seating area, reference stacks, etc. The long site provides a linear movement which ends in a double height space for major movie screening and community events.

FLEXIBILITY

The mediatheque consists of a simple light gauge steel structure that occasionally changes its span to demarcate different spaces of varying size. Interior interventions are kept to the minimum in order to accommodate for future changes.

In addition, this simple structure allows the mediatheque’s facade to be dismantled and changed. As seen in the elevation studies below, the facade of the mediatheque is shown as either curtain or polycarbonate panels.

FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORKWinter 2013 | Undergraduate Studio | Studio Instructor: Ken Oshima

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Section D-D

Second project handled at Kyoob Architects as a project architect. The owner has specially requested for 4 bedrooms for the kids and required enough space for a queen size bed and individual bathrooms. Therefore the initial planning stage requires optimum sizing of the rooms by putting in the furniture. This project is currently still under progress and drawing close to the completion stage.

My role as the project architect includes: code research, drafting for submission and bidding drawings as well as project management, including but not limited to, liasing with clients and consultants and general administrative work for this project.

2014 | Kyoob Architects, Taman Siglap, Singapore

SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE

Car Porch Roof Column Detail

Car Porch Roof/Balcony Detailed Plan

Car Porch Roof/Balcony Reflected Ceiling Plan