Archinect
Desiree Edge

Desiree Edge

Mansfield, MA, US

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Urban Weave

The main objective was how to use weaving strategies to make connections at an urban scale of the Huangupu River to an industrial area that needed revitalization to influence a growth of commerce and entertainment for tourists and locals.
Orientation + Interworked Movement:
Based off of the urban strategy of connecting to attractions within the context, the towers were rotated to allow for a woven motion in and out of towers for enhanced views from ground and elevated levels. This wrapping motion was carried into the twisted structure and enclosure as well which allowed for connections of the retail amphitheater locations and the sky park connections to the towers.

Multi-View Integrity:
The multi level view integrity was designed at five main levels to allow people to experience the new city from different vantage points. The exterior programs on the ground, elevated, and sky park, help bring in more green space into the city as a way to create break out spaces. The interior programs mostly in the towers themselves to make them more private and to help bring people into the different exterior levels. Since the design is based off of the idea of drawing people into the site through a series of opportunities to experience the old and new city through visual connections, the design makes diverse interactions with different levels. The shoreline is changed by pushing in and out to bring ferry stops towards the center of the site to draw people into the heart of the project. The design grows over the road to make direct connections to existing ground paths for smooth connections to the parks. The same motion is used in the sky parks outside of the hotels that make direct connections to adjacent towers for continuous external movement.

Glass Panel Support System:
The idea of this system was to make a more interactive glass frame that not only created structure at a more human scale, but could also be inhabitable for a multipurpose function. It is basically a layered triangular module that wraps and twists around itself into the glass panels supporting the system on both sides, interior and exterior to play on exposing the structure. The system would wrap around the main tower structure with the vertical columns to give additional support and create a dialog of turning the corners of the subtle twisting tower. The supporting frame is inhabitable in the center opening of the module which allows for a more interactive enclosure to the exterior patio spaces in between each level.

 
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Status: School Project
Location: Shanghai, CN
My Role: Renderer, Model Maker, Diagrammer, Designer, Drafter
Additional Credits: Houzhe Xu