Huanshuo (John) Rao

Portfolioarchitecture & installation

Spring 2020

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyB.S. in Architecture candidatehttps://www.johnhsrao.com/

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Materiality & IntersetionThe first exrcise in ”Material Cultures” design studio asked us to each investigate a material and a spatial quality by designing a roof for a small sports hall. Inspired by Jacques Tati’s film, Playtime, I decided to explore a industrial and mechanized quality using aluminum and steel.

Spring 2020, 4th Design Studio @ MIT, taught by Daniel Marshall

A Public Sports Hall

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In order to fully investigate fabrication methods associated with steel and aluminum, I took a rigorous approach to the making of a section model. I paramet-rically built a 3D model of the structure and adjusted the design of the joints based on physical prototyping. Each piece of the steel frame was cut in 2D with a waterjet then bent to the desired angle for assembly.

1:50 Steal & Aluminum Section ModelExploded Isometric

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Working in a sculptural manner and toying around the perception of “a sports hall”, I manipulated the intersection of different geometries to introduce an engaging and dynamic experience to both the interior and exterior spaces of the sports hall. The form of the roof is designed to not only create a public program on the inside but also invite the public to engage with its exterior.

Interior Rendering

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exterior collage

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exterior rendering

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Unary, Binary & N-aryIn my second design studio at MIT, we were asked to design a series of little free libraries to further activate a given site as a reading space on campus. We designed and fabricated these three-legged installations that would house different types of books in different quantities. The three leg structure help deal with and adpat to the irrgular terrain of our assigned site.(In Collaboration with Jacqueline Chen)Spring 2018, 2nd Design Studio @ MIT, taught by Nicholas Pacula & Sam Ghantous

Little Free Libraries

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Unary, Binary & N-ary

Unary

Binary

Quinary While working in a group, I mainly focused on designing and prototyping the joints

between the “legs” and “arms”. These joints were designed as a part of a larger system, beyond just these three little free library installations. The geometry of these joints could morph into different forms based on the number of “legs” and “arms” required for different types of books.

ABS, PLA, acrylic & aluminum

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final iteration of joints elevations plans axonometricearlier iterations

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site plan & analysis The placement of each installation is selected to accomodate different access points and gathering spots on site

on-site documentation

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An Interactive PavilionTidmarsh is a 600 acre property near Plymouth, MA. After over a century as a cranberry farm, it has undergone construction to transform it back to wetland. Tidmarsh Living Observatory is Responsive Environment’s ongoing project using ubiquitous sensing to document the ecological processes of the wetland. Tidmarsh Portal is designed to bring an immersive telepresence experience of this enchanting land. With the data collected we created visual and audio effects representative of the site for a single user to experience inside the portal. The user can select a specific location and time to navigate interactively, allowing travel through space and time.(In collaboration with Responsive Environment Group @ MIT Media Lab)Summer 2019

Tidmarsh Portal

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The pavilion is about recreating an individual Tidmarsh ecosystem. An egg shaped geometry would offer an optimal enclosure for the immersive experience we imagined. It also a metaphor of a micro-ecosystem within our macro-ecosystem.

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full scale prototype interior - heat bent UHMW polyethylene frame & resin stiffened fabric & paper projection mapping

The fabrication process of this prototype was perhaps the most challenging part of the project. We tested samples of the shell by casting different fabrics and paper in resin to preserve both the desired double-curvature and texture of the material. The frame of the structure was constructed by heat bending UHMW polyethylene in a multistep process.

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section studiesfull scale prototype exterior

Moss’s Egg Moss’s Egg 4 Point Egg 4 Point Egg

5 Point Egg Thom’s Egg Golen Egg Moss’s Egg

Sqrt 327 Egg Cundy & Rollet Egg Cundy & Rollet Egg Cundy & Rollet Egg

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concept rendering

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Moriyama House -- Ryue NishinzawaThis is the first exercise in my third design studio. We were asked to draw and analyze the conceptual underpinning of a precedent design. The goal was to extract and represent ideas through conceptual drawings and models. Though the representations themsleves were quite abstract, these design concepts regarding communal living that were extracted from this exercise were later applied to our own architecture design projects.

Fall 2018, 3rd Design Studio @ MIT, taught by Maya Shopova

Precedent Study

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Conceptual Drawing Ground FloorThe idea that was emphasized throughout my study of Ryue Nishinzawa’s Moriyama House was the manipulation of transparency in communal living. It’s interetsting how Nishizawa utilizes transparency to build initimate relationships between these separated “volumes” and to maintain different levels of privacy. I produced a series of conceptual drawings in which each layer of hatches represent an occupant’s visibility from the center of a room. The areas with the most layers of hatches are the most visually public spaces on this floor.

ground floor plan

second floor plan

third floor planMoriyama House is a residential house that’s occupied by both the owner and tenants. Nishizawa balances the privacy and publicness of each space by “exploding” a single unit multi-family house into ten different “volumes”. These individual “volumes” form interesting visual relationships with each other, fostering the idea of communal living.

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public moments

a physical representation of the most visually public moments, where more than two layers of different hatches overlap in the drawings

parafin waxprivate moments

a physical representation of the most visually private moments, where no hatches are drawn in the drawings

rockite

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an “unexpected neightbor“

During this last part of the exercise, we each conceptualized a parasitic structure that would bring “tensions”. Based on my studies, I decided to introduce a “neighbor” house that would intrude the most private moments in Moriyama House.

plaster & rockite

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Moriyama House x Melnikov HouseWe worked in groups of two develping a new design based on the concepts distilled in the previous precedent study exercise. This is a design concept based on Ryue Nishizawa’s Moriyama House and Konstantin Melnikov’s Melnikov House. Two seemingly different projects both inspired us to question and challenge how spaces are shared and how multiple “volumes” could be joined in a communal living space.(In collaboration with Caroline Rosenzweig)Fall 2018, 3rd Design Studio @ MIT, taught by Maya Shopova

Double Encounter

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We studied how the cylindrical geometries, in the Melnikov House, could be joined differently to create unique ways of sharing spaces. The Moriyama House has inspired us to cut out a communal courtyard and manipulate visual transparen-cy to connect separate “volume”, building a sense of community.

sections

perspective plan isometric

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1 : 50 rockite models

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An Ideal RelationshipDouble Houses are a ubiquitous housing typology in Mission Hill as well as around the city of Boston. They commonly exist in two basic formats – stacked or adjacent, often symmetrically. In this project, we’re proposing a radical alternatives to this typology and establishing a new experience, using expanded notion of “the double houses” and site analysis from previous exercises. Each double house proposes ways to host long-term and short-term residents and suggests shared programs that engages a broader public beyond the residents of the house. (In collaboration with Caroline Rosenzweig)Fall 2018, 3rd Design Studio @ MIT, taught by Maya Shopova

Double House on the Hill

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Orchard

Park

1:1000 1 2 5 10mSite Plan

1:1000 1 2 5 10mFront Elevation

1:1000 1 2 5 10mBack Elevation

site planSite #5, our assigned site, is on the southside of a public park and orchard, a few steps away from the main access staircase, and is covered in trees. After studying how the public currently interacts with the park and the site, we felt the need to have the site be open to public to some extent, providing view points which are currently not accessible, taking adavantage of the landscape. We’re envisioning a home that brings together these residents and construct an ideal inter-neighborhood relationship.

front & back elevations

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1:1000 1 2 5 10m

visibility diagram

Quiet

LoudCommunal

Private

Master Bedroom

Children’s Bedrooms

Study

Children’s Playroom

Family Living Room

Kitchen

Student’s Bedroom

Study

Kitchen

Student Living Room

programmatic studies

We have programmed our “double house” to host a family(on the left) as the long-term residents and a group of students(on the right) as the short-term residents. A key step in the design process for this house is to determine which programs are the most effective when shared and which pro-grams are better separated.

The landscape of our site has presented us both opportunities and challenges. Extracting ideas from the previuous precedent studies on Ryue Nishizawa’s Moriyama House, we studied how the landscape of the site and different foliage densities could help us build different levels of visual transpanrency, creating various “public” and “private” moments in the house.

1:500 1 2 5m

Side Section

1:500 1 2 5m

Side Section

sections

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interaction collages

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1:500 1 2 5m

Ground Floor Plan1:500 1 2 5m

First Floor Plan

first floor plan - kitchen & dining second floor plan - study & library

1:500 1 2 5m

Second Floor Plan

third floor plan - bedrooms1:500 1 2 5m

Third Floor Plan

fourth floor plan - bedrooms

1:500 1 2 5m

Basement Plan

ground floor plan - living rooms

ground floor interior rockite model

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1:500 1 2 5mThird Floor Plan

ground floor exterior collage

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roof exterior collage

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyB.S. in Architecture candidatehttps://www.johnhsrao.com/

John Rao