2010-2012Kwanpo Cheng

MOVEMENT/TIME

MOTION MUSICWorking initially with animations and modeling clay,I explore the relationships between physical form and instances of music through the mental response.

The music evolves into a free-running course, tying timeframes in a pre-selected song to the motions of parkour. The course shapes the human body just as the music would. The entire length of the song is solid-ified into a two- dimensional strip which is then wound tightly into itself through a careful analysis of thesong structure. This separates choruslines from verse lines and bridge sections, generating multipleregions of experience inwhich the runner is freeto explore in.

free-running

Song

cho

ice:

Lov

ers i

n Ja

pan

by C

old

play

GREENHOUSE

Located in the city of New York, the greenhouse attempted to respond to temperate

weather conditions by generating both interesting and functional shade in its design.

This exercise will stay with me forever since it has taught me many valuable things simple

heat and light mechanics. The structure, connected to an adjacent penthouse via glass

doors, allows the trapped heat to warm the loft greenly and efficiently. Slats of varying

size and orientation add character to each cubical as well as cast beautiful shifting shad-

ows into the loft as the sun goes by each day. This feature underwent extensive sun-angle

research and testing to find an optimal aesthetic.

Out of light comes shadow.

greenhouse study

COURTYARD HOUSE

inside outside

The project called for a courtyard house that studies the

blurring between of interiors and exteriors. To accomplish this,

multiple overhangs and walls separate the house into varying

degrees of inside and outside. The heavy use of glass brings about a

visual transparency that transcends the experience of the two opposites.

The program of the house was also organized according to privacy from kitchen

to dining to bedroom. The central space becomes a sanctuary free of the stresses

of modern life, equally encircled from all sides. As the sun moves throughout the sky, its

position also gradually illuminates the house by section, highlighting its chronological usage

of spaces throughout the day.

courtyard house

o.ohidingshelter

The goal: A feast is to be held by the entire studio.The catch: We must build our own shelters from the rain.

The theme behind this shelter is hiding; the purpose of the structure is to allow its inhabitants the option ofhiding from other participants of the feast.

My initial individual idea was a structure akin to a bomb shelter, built to evoke the frantic, fearful, and socially congealing feeling of constant danger. We thendeveloped the ideas further as a team.

It was very important for the structure of the shelter to be able to withstand the elements. The design was borrowed heavily from wood-construction framing with studs and plates. The structure turned out to be excessively strong and I learn that underestimating the strength may have constrained the aesthetic design.

hiding shelter

Support

Having already borrowed the structural de-sign from a traditional wooden house frame, the structure was built in a similar fashion. What resulted was a structure that survived the hurricane storm that swept in days later.

The experience learned from hands-on construction is nothing short of magnificent. Among the most important is the quality of plywood, the development of a work-flow order, and the team-based division of work.

Construction

1. Assembling walls individually2. Me screwing in the roof panels

3. Completed Structure4. Initial model of wall panels

5. Full-scale wall panels

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hiding shelter

Kwanpo Cheng2011-2013