Chu Wen Ong is a recent graduate from Southern California Institute of Architecture's (SCI-Arc) B.arch program. Archinect connected with Ong to unpack her final project - END LINES. Advised by studio instructor Kristy Balliet, Ong questions the concept of paper and graphic constraints as a means to design inhabitable spaces. Ong explains "the fundamental property of a graphic line is defined by the two ends that determine where it starts and stops. By focusing on the set of ends, the collection of volumized lines starts to transform into a building where the ends are appropriated in ways that can adapt and react to different architectural roles."
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.
The thesis investigates the transition from ink on paper to volumetric lines with defined ends. As information transitions to the digital and virtual realm, the constraints of paper and graphic structure make way for sculpted lines packed with inhabitable spaces.
END LINES by Chu Wen Ong. Instructed by Kristy Balliet.
Briefly describe your thesis.
The project is an Evolutionary Library sited on the edge of Warsaw, Poland. The thesis investigates the transition from ink on paper to volumetric lines with defined ends. As information transitions to the digital and virtual realm, the constraints of paper and graphic structure make way for sculpted lines packed with inhabitable spaces. The fundamental property of a graphic line is defined by the two ends that determine where it starts and stops. By focusing on the set of ends, the collection of volumized lines start to transform into a building where the ends are appropriated in ways that can adapt and react to different architectural roles. The collection comes together as a building like tweaking a project sculptural piece. The parts start to negotiate their rightful place by varying themselves in a range of scales where the line weight of one becomes so heavy it could take on a whole program on its own, while some become so small and light they transform into columns and supports. However, they don’t try to outshine one another. Rather, they work as a system of parts that showcase different qualities.
The site is located at the edge of Warsaw, Poland that is at least a 15-minute-drive from the Warsaw City Center. It is surrounded by a lot of empty lands filled with greenery and is also intersected by the major freeways of the city. When a library is no longer easily accessible in the city center but a further drive away, it becomes a purposeful destination. In turn, it also forces the city to rethink the library typology. The building sits on the site like a monument with a sense of dominance. The landscape, however, starts to engage the transition between man-made and nature. It not only reinforced the playfulness of the building like a sculpture podium but also reconstructed the once austere greenscape to draw in visitors to experience this world of lines.
END LINES by Chu Wen Ong. Instructed by Kristy Balliet.
The change pushed me to explore all the other possibilities of representing the project virtually and also synchronizing this new format with how I would generate conversations about my project without physical artifacts.
How did your project change as studios transitioned to remote learning?
Before transitioning to remote learning, I was excited about making large models and drawings that would showcase the monumental aspect of the project. Although I did not get to do that for my final project in school, this transition ended up benefiting the project in many ways that the traditional thesis layout could not achieve. The change pushed me to explore all the other possibilities of representing the project virtually and also synchronizing this new format with how I would generate conversations about my project without physical artifacts.
I think that good time management and planning for the bigger picture can help reduce a lot of academic stress especially in this crucial time where thesis students also have to put an extra effort in adapting a new normal which was not initially prepared for.
Any tips for students working through their final projects
Most of us can get very ambitious when it comes to final projects, I think that good time management and planning for the bigger picture can help reduce a lot of academic stress especially in this crucial time where thesis students also have to put an extra effort in adapting a new normal which was not initially prepared for. Therefore, constant communication with the advisors and faculties is important to make sure that the projects are still on the right track.
Katherine is an LA-based writer and editor. She was Archinect's former Editorial Manager and Advertising Manager from 2018 – January 2024. During her time at Archinect, she's conducted and written 100+ interviews and specialty features with architects, designers, academics, and industry ...
10 Comments
Kristy Balliet had quite the impact as instructor I see:
https://bairballiet.com/MOMA-P...
God knows if the instructor compelled the student to follow that aesthetic or the student defaulted to it out of a lack of initiative
I have no idea, maybe archinect could follow up?
What's with the downvotes, anyone care to elaborate?
Both of the assumptions sound somewhat ignorant in the academic realm. If you had actually read both of the project briefs, both designers took on the concept of thickened line to tackle architectural problems in very different ways. My thought was the student and instructor were lucky enough to be paired together and even better, were able to develop the concept further. The choice of aesthetic might have been a byproduct from the translation of line from 2d to 3d, but does not seem like it should be the main discussion to me. Regardless, good work to the team
As such the instructor should be credited for the concept, no? Not just as instructor...
Beautiful work.
Well, the instructor was mentioned in the post? She is a designer herself so I’m sure her work has been published on many platforms before this. That does not mean the student’s involvement in investigating the concept further should be disregarded, no? The collaboration seemed pretty successful in developing the project this far. After all, many groundbreaking concepts were achieved by constant revisions of great architects’ work...
She should be credited not only as instructor in that case, but as designer or the one coming up with the concept. Or the project should just be: B.arch student designs project based on concept provided by instructor.
As a a SCI-Arc alumni, I can say that from my experience over the past decade or so, “thesis” seems to operates in one of three primary modes:
1. Student has an idea of what a thesis is and does a decent project
2. Student takes their most successful project from a lower level studio and tries to mine it for techniques and tries to identify a meta-concept that is pre-approved by the school’s ideology
3. Student has zero idea of what a thesis actually means, spins their wheels for a semester during thesis prep, ends something safe by mimicking a professor’s aesthetic
Don’t get me wrong, there I have seen many successful projects that operated under the second two modes, but in this case when a student is literally mimicking the same ribbing detail as the professor then one must question how much of this is being done for a genuine curiosity and passion for the subject matter rather than assuming that this is good because someone higher academic authority has done it, therefore it is good or it makes sense. Seeing curtain walls slapped on the sides of what is supposed to be an expression of lines and movement is also disappointing, and one must wonder if this is because the project that inspired it was a pavilion at PS1 and not an actual building which would have inevitably dealt with this problem.
I would also like to point out the fact that buildings with inhabitable, volumetric lines are everywhere in classical, baroque, modern and contemporary architecture. Moulding profiles exemplify the different qualities characteristics of a frame, opening, or edge. Look at Steven Holl’s research on Alphabet City and his subsequent horizontal skyscraper in China, Morphosis’s Giant Headquarters, Enric Miralles or even Zaha’s work and you’ll see lines being used as massing, structure, material differentiation, flat opening, volumetric opening as aperture…. etc etc. One must think of how to use the line as a compositional element to define space as much as it “becomes” space.
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