Yifei Yuan

1. Core I: Times Square Billboard Garden
2. Core II: W • A • L • L - More Highschool
3. Core III: Courtyard House
4. Advance IV: A City Run By The Youth
5. Advance V: New York Industrial Dairy Farm Tower
6. Advance VI: Olkaria Geothermal Steam Pipe Hacking Train
7. 2GB: University of Curiosity
   
8. 1GB: The Diptych kindergarden
   
9. The Room As ...
10. Vertical Transportation & Structure
11. Desert Oasis
12. /æ/
    

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The Diptych kindergarden Course: 1GB STUDIO Year: SPRING 2018 Instructor: ZEINA KOREITEM
This project is a study of the relationship between parts and parts to whole. It intends to establish a spatial and geometrical dialogue through scale, material, thickness, and circulation. The project first looks at SANAA’s Moriyama House (Image 1). The four facades are swung open with the axis at the corners (like opening the double doors of a French door refrigerator) to see the relationship and placement of windows to the floor plan. From the diagram, it is clear that the placement of the window is subject to the location of the staircase. Whenever a staircase is placed against a wall, there is no window on that wall. The largest window is usually placed at the farthest opposite corner of the stairs. If it's the top floor, the window is played where the landing for the staircase is. From the case study of Moriyama House, the relationship between openings and volume is further developed with several study models (Image 10, 11, 12). Cutting off the cube with different shapes and sizes of mass gives the cubic volume a kaleidoscope effect - with each rotation of the cubic volume, comes a different configuration of patterns of void and solid. The study cubic volumes are combined in two entities like a diptych (Image 13, 14). In a religious context, a diptych is any object with two flat plates which form a pair. As an art term, a diptych is an artwork consisting of two pieces or panels that together create a single art piece. These can be fastened together or presented adjoining each other. In medieval times, panels were often hinged so that they could be closed and the artworks protected. For a diptych, the pair shows differences, but the hinge connecting the two entities is also critical - showing certain interconnectedness. The two entities are separated and detached, yet they influence and renaissance each other. Therefore the design focuses on how to design these two entities with different applications of the same principles. The diptych uses the same basic units, the study cubic volume, but with different characteristics by scaling the cubic volumes in two scales. 

This design is about two small dwellings on a site located in a suburban setting of Los Angeles. The square shaped house is dedicated to the childrens, and the rectangular one for the single lady who runs the kindergarden. The entity with a study volume of a smaller scale is for children as the kindergarten, and the entity with a larger scale is the principal's office and residence. The ground level is also carved out with different shapes and sizes of the mass, continuing the formal gestures from the building mass to the ground surface. The mass for kindergarten has smaller scaled study cubic volumes but more quantity. Vice versa, the principal's office and residence have larger scaled study cubic volumes but less quantity. To be classified as a diptych, the ensemble of units follows a two-mass topology with a garden between them as the hinge. The diptych challenges and transforms traditional narrative, that is, a story built around the arc of beginning, middle, and end. In this project, the beginning is at the entrance of the kindergarten (Image 2, 3). The ground floor consists of the kindergarten’s entrance, kitchen, a big classroom, and the principal's office and guest meeting lounge, with a central playground connecting the two entities (Image 4). The children and the principals meet in the middle courtyard, but they have their activity zones. The second floor consists of the kindergarten’s study room, sleeping room, balcony, and the principal’s bedroom, mahjong room, kitchen, dining room, washroom, and balcony garden (Image 5). By the end of the day, the principals rest on the second floor with utility programs, and the children are picked up by their parents and go back to their homes. The ensemble of the kindergarten starts off on the same plane and begins diverging at one point creating a branching sensation. It is a diptych itself as it is made of four duplications of a single square unit, each with a tiny difference in its carved-out space. Lifting the building generates a shaded area during the summer and an open space for more interactions between kids. This is where the classrooms and lunch area combined to form a huge plaza space. By shifting the floor plates, a series of terraces emerged providing the occupants with a private outdoor space. The shift also partitions the house into two platforms, with the communal space at the bottom, and the sleeping/private area at top with access to the private terrace.

The elevation of the kindergarten is defined by the void/solid and window openings (Images 6, 7). The kindergarten building is painted with more vibrant colors and the principal's office is more subtle. The kindergarten has more window openings and a glass facade and the principal’s office has fewer and smaller window openings. The interior of the kindergarten is made of a big open plan on the ground floor for a big classroom, and four cubic spaces separated by walls. Two cubic spaces are for study and sleeping rooms, the other two cubic spaces are for the balcony and playground. The cross-section (Image 8) cutting through the kindergarten shows the entrance on the ground floor; the balcony and study room on the second floor, and the staircase leading to the third floor. The longitudinal section (Image 9) cuts through the principal's reading room, guest lounge, central courtyard on the ground floor; and the kitchen, bedroom, and staircase to the third floor on the second floor. It also cuts through the kindergarten’s kitchen and curved facade for the big classroom on the ground floor; the playground, and the staircase to the study room on the second level. The elevated height provides a more dramatic difference in circulation in the second floor, where the interconnected circulation defines the central focus of each unit and becomes the guiding principle of the interior program (living room). The end result is a heterogeneous ensemble that breaks away from the general trend in suburban housing, and attracts attention to itself and more importantly to the neighborhood.

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