Aspen Cheung
Parallel Construct
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Awards
Nominated for the 2025 RIAS/A+DS Student Awards
Work selected for publication in Mastering Type (2nd ed.)
Shortlisted for Beyond Isolation: Senior Housing, an architectural competition by Buildner
Shortlisted for top 15 in Re-imagining Cities Towards Carbon Neutrality, an architectural competition by UEH ISCM
Skills & Experience
- Graphic Designer for Crumble Magazine Issue 9
- Part 1 Architectural Assistant at Architecture Commons
- Intern at Kin Kay Machinery and Rental Engineering Co.
Project Description
The brief emerged as I reflected on my architectural education and recognised the difficulty of producing a plausible and pragmatic design. I struggled a lot with understanding how things are put together and the technical data regarding material properties. While there is a plethora of information online, it poses more difficulty in finding reliable sources. That led to the idea of a new facility specializing in material science for architecture and engineering students, as I thought the information I am struggling to find is not missing but siloed into another faculty.
Summerhall, being between the King’s Building Engineering Campus and the ESALA studios on Chambers Street, presented a great opportunity for such a new facility. This new department should close the gaps in knowledge between the two faculties by offering a place for collaboration between students of the two schools, where engineering students can offer knowledge about material testing or technical data, while architecture students can offer insight into making models for prototypes or the real-life application of materials.
Therefore, the new department will feature a material library equipped with both material samples and literature, various workshops, and opportunities for civility where student works can be showcased, or the facilities will be open for the public to use.
This atmoshphere of inventing and creating also responds to the existing nature of Summerhall, as there are hacklabs, 3D printing studios and Science labs and libraries currently in operation, which also opens up to opportunities of collaboration between the institution and Summerhall.
Summerhall Block C, Edinburgh, EH91PL
Summerhall is currently an arts and event venue for art practitioners and a major venue for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh Science Festival. The earliest record of the site indicated a brewery around the 1700s and most notably as the formal site to the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. It also provides many rooms for art exhibitions, drama and music performances, as well as studios for independent artists year-round.
Upon the site visit, I have selected Block C as it did not have a plan of a regular polygon. Its potential for a more civic presence is also not currently fully utilised with its street-facing facade.
Main Design Move 1: Existing Building as a Material Bank
An attitude established early in the semester was that I would treat the existing building as my material bank, where the existing building can be utilised to the maximum, and that the need for new materials would be minimised.
To develop my material reuse scheme, I needed to understand how much of the site we were actually able to see, and conduct a brief survey of all the possible materials for reuse from our limited access. Developed alongside the existing circulation diagram, I am able to recgonize that we could not access a majority of the building, therefore the degree of the material reuse is only limited to the visible extent.
Material Reuse Scheme
Main Design Move 2: Offsetted Grids
The idea of an additional offset grid came from the pivot doors from the gallery wing to the internal courtyard, which created a set of timber door frames that always sit between the existing grid. That sparked the decision to extend it to the interior, and evolving into a new set of structures that support the roof. This new system also responds to the idea of a self-supporting roof structure like the one in the Synthes Headquarters by Peter Markli (my studio precedent).
Existing Structural System in Isometric
Exploded Axonometric of the Structural Interventions
Main Design Move 3: Building as a Manual
Another design attitude developed early on was the idea that the building itself would also be a real-life example of materials and tectonics. This means that material junctions would be exposed wherever possible so university students can see how construction occurs in reality beyond books and online resources. Various brick bonding patterns would also be shown on the external facades to showcase the possibilities of bricklaying by making use of its dimensional constraints.
1:50 Bay Model
New Main Entrance
Due to the rhythmic and filigree character of the two wings, the new main entrance would be a more solid mass for a clear indication. It also needs to create a clear visual connection to the internal courtyard.
Internally, it will be a triple-height space where visitors will be met with an open space and be able to see the roof structure immediately as they step into the building.
New Timber and Metal (Non-welding) Workshop
The original entry point into Block C from the main building will be retained. It features a terrazzo corridor with a generous width to accommodate the previous needs of the transporting animals. Not only is the existing connection between the two buildings is now kept, but it also responds to the Synthes Headquarters with the idea of an ‘enfilade of open spaces‘.
This wing will be converted into a general workshop featuring woodworking and metalwork (non-welding) equipment. The selection of machinery is kept general so it can also be used by the public, and part of that selection would also be allocated for the Edinburgh Tool Library as their new pickup and return spot for tools.
New Earth Workshop and Material Testing Lab
The dissection room will be mostly retained for its structure and original characteristics of a lab as it will be converted into a more science-oriented workshop for material testing and prototyping earth-based building materials.
As this part of the workshop is more reserved for university students, it is logical to be placed on the first floor, while maintaining the connection to the open plan workshop beneath and the material library next door.
While the structure remain intact, the internal surface treatment is proposed to be stripped and allow the structure and metal trusses to be exposed, strengthening the idea that the building itself is a presentation of tectonic junctions.
Material Library
Similar to the dissection room next door, the structure will be retained and exposed (including the elephant elevator and mezzanine above), with rafters added in between to replicate the atmosphere of a dense structure in the Gallery Wing roof.
Gallery Wing
We were not able to access a lot of spaces in the south-facing wing as they are all currently individual private studios, but due to it being south-facing and do not having any rooms of historical significance, a bolder design intervention can occur on this wing.
Making use of the south-facing facade and being able to both look into the courtyard and out the street-facing facade, this wing should be the civic wing with lots of opportunities for people from different demographics to interact.
Seminar Room and Lounge: A seminar room and lounge/kitchen is added in this wing where the former can host activities such as the briefing room for grouped visits, any public/ university lectures, or just an activity room in general that is available for booking. Whereas the latter is a space for members of the university to wind down and interact in a less formal and academic setting.
Roof Structure: A roof with very dense structure is proposed to contrast with the triple heighted central open space, as well as offering visual interest as these structures puncture through the rooms, where the puncture can be seen inside or outside of the room. These glimpses also features exposed connections, hence responding to the main design move of ‘building being a manual,‘ allowing visitors to see the connections.
Courtyard: The main design change for the courtyard is to raise it’s level to meet the internal floor level and also to ensure and smooth and level external surface. Therefore the damaged materials salvaged (bricks/ stone/ slate) will be crushed and used as a gravel on site.
The courtyard should have no permanent structure to accommodate the possibility of an indoor event expanding outdoors, and just be an enjoyable and inviting garden space when it is not used for events or weekend markets.
1:100 Fragment Model
Building this model in a fragmented way had been my primary way to develop my design as I get to see multiple iterations simultaneously before making a decision, and to see what influence it would make to the rest of the proposal.
1:200 Model
1:50 Bay Model
This bay from the gallery wing was selected to be modelled as this is the instance where most changes are happening and it slices through the transitions between rooms, internal and external spaces. The density of the roof structure is also showcased through this model as well as the moments where the two structural grids diverge and converge, and when the structures puncture the room.
Appendix: Precedent Study on the Synthes Headquarters, Peter Markli
Sited in Solothurn, Switzerland, Märkli designed a headquarters building for Synthes, a manufacturer of medical implants. The building was envisioned to bring all stages of design under one roof, from initial research to prototyping and manufacturing. Blue and white collar workers were no longer segregated, and the building ‘rejects the functional and tectonic differentiation of office and factory areas.‘
Markli's philosophy of grammar and rhythm has had a direct influence on how I reproportioned the street-facing facade, and the circulation space in the Synthes Headquarters (known as the "boulevard") was also an idea used in the existing corridor.
Aspen Cheung
Parallel Construct
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