My name is Kevin Yen-Po Chen. I am a Taiwanese Canadian who grew up in Vancouver before moving to Los Angeles to pursue my Architecture dream. I have just graduated from SCI-Arc with the Master in Architecture (M.Arch 1). I also have a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia. My background has given me plenty of experiences in modeling, designing, and understanding the nature of architecture.
Interning at architecture firms in Los Angeles (Synthesis Design and Architecture, B+U) and in Taipei (bioArchitecture) allowed me to gain further architectural experience in theater, multi-unit housing, research center, and shopping mall designs. I’ve also had experience working and teaching others in design and software as a teaching assistant for the AA Visiting School in Los Angeles. During school, I’ve had experience working with single and multi-family homes, theater, airport, library, and science research center. My studio instructors were Wes Jones, Wolf Prix, Nanako Umemoto, Herwig Baumgartner, Peter Zellner, Margaret Griffin, and Eric Carcamo.
I am experienced in 3D modeling in Rhino and have a great understanding in grasshopper. To further aid my studies in Architecture, I have researched and built my own 3D printer. Through researching, assembling, and understanding the electronics and software on how the 3D printer works, I gained understanding in fabrication and production. I love digital fabrication and construction methods. I am adept in Rhino, V-Ray, Grasshopper, Adobe Suite, AutoCAD, and Maya. I have worked with 3D Studio Max and Revit as a civil engineering student. Also, being born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, Canada, I am fluent in Mandarin and English, and can understand Cantonese.
On top of the intern experiences, I have had great team work experience working professionally for two years as a civil engineer in an engineering consulting office of more than 60 people. Other experiences include public open house presentations as a traffic consultant, and teaching children as a volunteer teacher.
AA Visiting School, Los Angeles, CA, US, Teaching Assisant
Provided tutorials and assistance to 30 students in a two−week fast pace design studio.
B+U, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, US, Installation Team Leader
Coordinated one of a team of fivestudents through a four−month installation process during the
school semester as a part−time intern.
Synthesis Design + Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, US, Intern Designer
Participated in design competitions by preparing drawings, renderings, animations, and 3D
designing through Rhino in combination with grasshopper.
Designed in depth the details of a theater interior including mechanical systems and ADA
requirements.
Communicated with the design team in Beijing for further design development for a theater.
Bioarchitecture Formosana, Taipei, TW, Intern Designer
Participated in three competitions by preparing drawings, renderings, animations, and 3D
designing through Rhino in combination with grasshopper, winning all three bids.
Designed and analyzed louver system for Taichong Engineering Research Center.
Communicated between English and Mandarin−speaking clients for design inputs.
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles, CA, US, MArch, Master in Architecture
SCI-Arc's M.Arch 1 is a three-year, seven-term, professional Master of Architecture program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board and open to applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent in any field of study. This program requires attendance for the fall and spring terms of the first two years, and the fall, spring and summer terms of the final year.
The core of the M.Arch 1 program is architectural experimentation and learning through making. The curriculum is horizontally integrated and vertically progressive, starting with a four-semester core sequence in which students develop a framework for the discipline of Architecture, as well as a strong foundation for critical inquiry and experimentation.
By integrally linking each semester’s design studio with courses in visual, cultural and applied studies, students are offered an immediate instruction in the depth of the relationship between architecture and technological advances, representation, and social change. With each progressive semester increasing in sophistication, students acquire a unique ability to address a breadth of complex architectural issues while testing their own intellectual and design convictions.
Upon completion of the core sequence, students are encouraged to pursue their vision, investigating design through the latest innovations in technology, advancing new praxes of design analysis and innovating through applied research with a choice of advanced studios and seminars. Students complete their studies with the presentation, in a public exhibition, of a thoroughly researched independent architectural thesis.
Throughout the M.Arch 1 program, particular emphasis is placed on the production of architecture, and the ways in which making produces a unique intelligence for the field. M.Arch 1 graduates are therefore prepared to further this intelligence through significant contributions in the profession.
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CA, Bachelors, Bachelor in Civil Engineering
The undergraduate program leading to the Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) degree in Civil Engineering is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in both basic sciences and specific civil engineering skills. Students have the opportunity to enroll in the general Civil Engineering curriculum, or in the Environmental Engineering option in Civil Engineering (starting in third year).
The common first year engineering program (taken by all engineering students at UBC), and the second year program in Civil Engineering, include fundamental courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and structures. In the third and fourth years, students are exposed to a variety of sub-disciplines, including environmental, geotechnical, hydrotechnical, structural, and transportation engineering. Laboratory work is integrated throughout the civil engineering program to give students practical hands-on experience in the application of engineering knowledge. The capstone design course in fourth year requires students to apply their knowledge to a significant real-world design problem, often in conjunction with a local community group or engineering firm. A number of technical elective courses in the final year allow students to take additional courses in a preferred area of civil engineering.
The program is accredited periodically by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers. Typically, about 400 students are registered in the program, and about 110 graduate in any one year. Civil Engineering graduates are employed by industry, government and engineering consulting firms that service the needs of local, regional, national and international clients.
