All images by Yang Fei.

Yang Fei is a recent graduate from the Harvard GSD. Archinect connected with Yang to learn more about his final thesis project, which was nominated for the 2020 James Templeton Kelley Prize at GSD. It is a renovation and extension project for an 18th-century townhouse located in the heart of old Montreal.

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Students were displaced as schools shut down, academic communities had to adapt to a new virtual format, end-of-year celebrations were canceled or changed dramatically, and now these students are graduating into an extremely challenging employment market. To support the 2020 class we're launching a summer series of features highlighting the work of thesis students during this unique time of remote learning amid COVID-19. Be sure to follow our 2020 thesis tag to stay up to date as we release new project highlights.

Briefly describe your thesis/final project and your inspiration.

The site of the project is located in the historic harbor of old Montreal. Through dating no further than the seventeenth century, the historic birth of the city shares key characteristics with the much older central Paris, and medieval mile of the City of London. All three cities could be categorized as sedimentary entities, which saturated with layer upon layer of the construction, demolition, and partial recycling of physical boundaries and foundations, determining everything from the scale of the city’s grid to the alignment of thousands of party walls, and the persistent outline of streets and passages. The relationship between consecutive layers may vary considerably. It may involve extending, stitching, covering up, digesting, or even demolishing.

Deciding on a strategy of intervention thus requires an honest assessment of possibility. What the project is looking for is a palimpsest of physical building layers that can accommodate the program of a contemporary art museum while preserving the authenticity of the original. The existing building sets the keynote by its materiality and spatial organization. The topography and slat-organization of spaces were considered as the specificity and were preserved. The objective is to construct a gradient of temporality through three different but complementary approaches: integrated restoration, restoration that has an explicit presence of the new, and new construction. Rather than providing spaces to accommodate contemporary art, the project is trying to construct sensory experiences. One will experience a transition from somber and ambiguous spaces to a neutral background; a transition from spaces with a presence of the past to a space that suspends the reality.

How did your thesis change as studios transitioned to remote learning?

Remote learning is not exactly a negative thing for me. Indeed online learning almost makes model making and model-based communication impossible, which is a very significant change. But on the other hand, the limitation of physical conditions will also turn the focus of work to the production of images. This has prompted me to devote more thought and effort to materials, spatial quality, details, etc. My personal experience is that the frequent Zoom meetings give me more opportunities to communicate with the instructor and see the design progress of my studio mates.

Any tips for students working through their thesis?

Although my project is the last option studio in my student career, I think one tip for friends who are about to start a thesis design will be: Don't compromise your design because of the current situation. Be creative, resilient, and always willing to learn new skills.