This article records the online review of the second-year students of the School of Architecture of Tianjin University on June 13, 2020 at the Tencent conference.

Introduction to the design brief

The site of this design brief is on the campus of Tianjin University, in a block for international students and foreign experts. It is a design of International Student Club, which has both a unit layout and a comprehensive function of residence and public building. Part of the communication space is not clearly defined, which is intended to meet the living needs of international students at school and create a relaxed space environment for them to study and communicate. The brief involves site issues such as traffic, landscape boundary condition differentiation, and interfaces coordination between residence and campus teaching, so it is of certain comprehensiveness. In the scheme design, it will take 8 weeks to complete the architectural professional design from partial planning, preliminary design to final drawing. In the teaching process, it emphasizes the development of design habits, design thinking, and the experience of the whole process of architectural design in the guidance of teachers.

Program introduction

1. Han Siyue

This program was completed in a special semester. With the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic around the world, the concept of a community of shared future has once again attracted our attention. The design of the international students' apartment in my heart should also reflect the spirit of the United Nations. During the epidemic, an ancient poem by Wang Changling was used by us to praise the community of shared future for mankind: "Though separated by a mountain, we’ll share the same clouds and rain. The bright moon belongs not to a single town." I used the image of "mountain" in the poem. I first divided the dormitory area and the public area from north to south. In order to gain better lighting and increase communication, I placed two central courtyard respectively. After that, the image of "mountain" was put into the roof, and the roof was lifted to form a large stepped slope roof with ups and downs. At the same time, the communication area of the dormitory was retreated to the west, so that the west side of the two courtyards was open, and people can reach the lake along the streamline. Part of the dormitory facing the lake in the west receded to the south, forming a retreating platform to ensure the continuity of the ups and downs of the block. The wall on the first floor of the main entrance was placed to increase the sense of ritual.

The facade of the public part along the street was made of glass curtain wall. Because of the bustle of the road on the north side, the external punching aluminum plate was added. In order to resisit the sun, the dormitories facing west added balconies and colorful panels. Some places retained the elements of punched aluminum panels. The whole facade was rich and colorful, symbolizing the diversity and individuality of different cultures.

2. Wang Han

The Halls of Residence for International Students is located on the east side of Friendship Lake in Tianjin University and on the south side of the Department of Architecture. Because the venue is far from the activity area, with many teaching buildings around, and the international students’ dormitory is the center of international cultural exchange, a two-level circulation platform was conceived to encourage students to enter the Halls of Residence for International Students. The volume of the building receded along the main road, echoing the surrounding buildings, introducing the road in front of the department pavilion, and opening the lake view on the west side as much as possible.

A detailed discussion was made on the living unit, the space and functions were sorted out, and a new dormitory living model was proposed, "8? or 4? or 2? or 1?" Everyone had their own independent space, and 2 people shared one bunk bed in “s” section. 4 people shared a small activity area, and 8 people can set up a flexible partition to share a large space. I hope that through this model, we will reduce dormitory conflicts and encourage exchanges.

It was regrettable that the overhanging beam in front of the dormitory was not well designed. The roof garden of the dormitory was not deep enough, the site design has not been very deep, and the layout of the exhibition hall was relatively simple, etc. I hope to do it well in the future.

Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Ren Jun who is excellent and patient and express my gratitude to the guidance of seniors.

3. Jiang Yizhou

The name of the design is Chang Suo, which is an attempt to go beyond the normal context and pursue the semantics of special places, so as to correspond to the psychological schema formed by the designer's cognition -- a mystical plot.

The design followed the New Rationalism idea of Aldo Rossi, adopted the design method of basic unit derivation and superposition, depicted the image of some external shielding and isolation, and materialized the picture of chericho's "elvish" metaphysical perspective, so as to create a kind of static, mysterious and eternal place spirit and fight against the current collage, flow and fast-food style social picture and culture.

The design hoped to build a relatively independent space. The new campus should be a place of spiritual cultivation, with its own ethos, deliberately shaping the atmosphere of "metaphysical" works like chericho's - the picture was quiet and distant, the house was closed and the light was strong.

The building used the courtyard, patio, slit and other regional space types to cut and hollow out the huge volume in different directions, dispelled the pressure of the building on the surrounding space, and was molded into a building "sculpture" with a strong sense of entity combination and an air breathing body filled with gaps inside.

In the internal space, we should try to separate the rough texture interface and the quiet body power displayed in the external space, and pursue a kind of differentiated place semantics to create a pure expression mode of space scene overlapping.

Every day, at some time, people can always see such a scene: the external flow of people is accepted by the quiet buildings. At this time, the buildings are like a filter screen, which filters out the inner restlessness and flashy desire, and restores a clear world and thinking field, which is the semantics pursuit of design.

4. Chen Shuyu

Each design finished, my mood can't be simply summed up with happiness or sadness. The complicated feeling in my heart is more like a loss of regret. In the face of the final drawing, recalling the eight weeks of entanglement, it seems to have witnessed a process of building up from the ground. In this magnificent achievement, there are also unwillingness to fail to be perfect.

In the design of the Hall of Residence for International Students, I tried the idea of modularity. From the concept, I jumped out of the comfort zone of "organizing blocks according to function". Under the guidance of the teacher step by step, the plan slowly took shape, and also met my own expectations. You can implement your own ideas along the way,then the happiness is self-evident!

Once again, thank my instructor, Teacher Dai, for her seriousness, which gave me a more tangible understanding of architecture. Thank my classmates and seniors, your enthusiasm made me calm down when I was restless.

5. Ma Qirui

I'm very lucky to learn from Brother Nan for three assignments in a row, who will support and help us to realize some interesting design ideas. The persistence of "constantly exploring the unknown" has a great impact on the formation of our architectural concept.

As for the drawing expression, it has been summarized before:”Modeling is very important.” In terms of design expression, I think it was not done very well. There were a lack of information, ideas and aesthetic strength. The main reason was that my depth was not enough, which led to the low modeling accuracy, and at the same time, I haven't arranged the time properly. Hope to pay attention to them in the future. 

6. Su Chang

The project took " courtyard " and "patio" in traditional Chinese houses as the prototype, and elements were extracted from these two forms. Through the modern translation, the design logic of "three courtyards and three patios" was formed. While ensuring the openness of exhibitions, dining bars, and the privacy of residences, the project used courtyard and patio to create an interesting spatial path, and also created good lighting, landscape conditions and public communication space for the users of the building. The three courtyards respectively adopted the theme of "water courtyard", "stone courtyard" and "Green courtyard" to express different atmosphere with different forms of courtyards, hoping to create a good living environment for the users of the building while making them feel the charm of Chinese architectural culture.

The process of this design was really twists and turns. After the middle stage, the scheme was completely changed, and I was lost in the deepening process. I didn’t experience these in the first three designs, so it was also a different experience (self-mockery).

Thanks for the teachers' kindness in the final review, they pointed out some minor problems to my project and also gave me affirmation at the same time, but I was not quite satisfied with my design this time. Elevation, detail, structure and drawing... A lot of things did not live up to the ideal in my mind.

In fact, compared with some students, I was lucky. At least I felt that I did not waste my sophomore year. I still learned a lot, and I still maintained my enthusiasm for architecture.

Finally, I still want to sincerely thank for the company of Mr. Zhang Xinnan, seniors and teammates this year. Looking forward to the start of the semester in September.

7. Wang Jiawen

Different people have different personalities; 

For students from different countries, the character difference is particularly obvious;

This design started from discussing the different requirements for living space of different students;

Introverts tend to live in private and independent space, who are suitable for living in single rooms;

Extroverts are more inclined to open space, so we provide such people with triple rooms;

The "intermediate character" people are suitable for living in double rooms with both independence and communication;

On the basis of the classification of living types, people with similar personalities were organized in group to live together;

In addition to the dorms of each group, there were also shared space for rest and simple cooking, which can promote the communication within the group.

8. Zheng Qi 

The design of the Halls of Residence for International Students consisted of an L-shaped block on the southwest side and a square activity area facing the campus interface, with connections between them.

The L-shaped block was the residential area under strict control, which was comfortable and quiet; the connection between the blocks made the flowing line form a closed loop, and people met in the activity area.

The design class in the epidemic was a new challenge for both teachers and students. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to teachers Wang Xuan and Zhang Xinnan for letting me see more.

9. Zhou Beiyu

This time I really wanted to make different architectural design, because we don't need to make the entity model. I boldly tried the modular framework concept of the steel-wood structure, and the forest greening was integrated into it under the teacher's suggestion. When the initial sample came out, it really surprised me, but I was also worried that whether I could insist on this untried concept in the later period.

There were indeed many problems encountered, but under the patient and meticulous guidance of the teachers, I have overcame those difficulties one by one.

On conclusion, we should try to jump out of the mindset and master as many common software as possible. (if I realize this earlier, I will not try to use lumion to cut perspective and use the headphone cable to find the perspective. Finally, I tried vray.)

10. Zheng Xinzhuo

At the beginning, I can't imagine the final design of the Halls of Residence for International Students, but under the guidance of the teacher and the later plane "shaping", it was completed successfully by a multi-level complex generation logic. I was touched by myself when the axonometric drawing was completed, the scheme detail of which was greatly improved because of my grasping and consideration of detail.

During the review, judges were favor of the concept of "roof platform" , which was also an affirmation of my design. Thanks to Han's software art lesson, it brought me new inspiration every time. This time the drawing style has also changed significantly.

I am very happy to go through the sophomore year, and I am glad to be with you all around. Come on!

11. Wu Wanlin

Teacher's suggestion: The story was well told, with a sense of atmosphere. It can bring people into the internal space, with the experience of people as the core. The facade fited the design theme, but the image and the response to the site were a bit rough. The site handling and building volume were simple. The block lacked elasticity and there should be a focus.

My feeling: I was at a loss to face such a big theme at the beginning, even I gave up myself at some time. Too many conditions constrained my thinking, and the accumulated formal language was not enough, so I went to a rigid path, but Mr. Zhu Lei gave me a lot of wonderful suggestions to save my plan. How to apply the things learned from various fantasy linkage courses to this design also gave me a lot of passion and motivation. I think the biggest gain of this design is to experience the whole process design.

12. Tian Yu

I think this project is suitable to be arranged as the last project of sophomore, but I am still a little astonishing. The previous projects, Exhibition hall( not even a public work), Villa, Books station in campus( really a small public work), involved operations on specific parts of the two kinds of building, public and private. However, all what we’ve learned and been learning(It’s you, Building Construction!) should be used on this project, thus it nearly worn me out in spite of progress in both skills and design. We added components to our design unconsciously, which on the one hand made our design real: construction, details, materials, microclimate, equipment, mobility and even management were all taken into consideration, on the other hand, we produced tons of glitches: fake constructions, inventing new objects and even opening the door with our spirits! Luckily we welcomed the mistakes. We were just in grade 2! What we’ve done will turn out to be what it takes. Be careful of taking something for granted rather than learning something deep. Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Get out of the comfort zone.

13. Chen Hangxing

It is a great honor that my instructor is the author of the design topic in this design. Therefore, it is easy for me to understand the implicit information, the integration of Chinese and foreign cultures, and the organization of dormitory units.

I hoped the building was friendly to the campus and not broke the aroma of books on campus, so I decided to make the facade simple, elegant and even a little boring. The interior of the building, through the shaping of the atrium, enriched the space and enhanced the interaction between people. No one can guess what the inside of a building looks like from the facade, but one would be surprised to get inside.

The experience of this review was very good. On the one hand, the teachers affirmed my idea, and on the other hand, they put forward many suggestions for me, such as optimization of traffic flow, ventilation of atrium space, deepening of plane logic, etc., which benefited me a lot.

It was worth mentioning that this rendering drawing, because I wanted to reflect the different features inside and outside of the building through a picture, so I chose this angle of profile perspective, through the exaggeration of perspective and rich details, the architectural illustration became rich in stories. It took two days of drawing, from sketch to reference, to modeling and post-photoshop, with no idea what the final result would be. I liked the unexpected process, which made my drawing week more exciting and made the drawing more interesting.

Students’ feeling

1. Du Jiacheng

The first group of comments gave me the feeling that they were comprehensive and detailed. The teachers each had their own focus, and provided students with suggestions from standard, practical to interesting. Mr. Chen Changyong brought the profound design background of the Department of Architecture of South China University of Technology, paid attention to praising the excellence of each student's design, and put forward suggestions at the same time. Mr. Zhang Yukun patiently pointed out the deficiencies of design and ways to improve, so as to lay a solid foundation for the unrestrained ideas. Mr.Zhang Xinnan, on the other hand, tried to make a overall plan, focusing on inspiring the interesting, creative and conceptual space, and reminding students to arrange the space in a reasonable order, so that the design space was rich and not boring. During the whole evaluation process, the complementary comments from different teachers gave me an overall understanding of the design, and I also understood the areas needed to be improved in the next design.

2. Lin Zheyu (International Student)

I am very interested and looking forward to the theme of this time's architectural design, the Halls of Residence for International Students, because I am an international student, and this theme is designed for our group. I live in the dormitory for international students, and I have a good understanding of the living habits and cultural customs of international students. I am also looking forward to learning about the design of dormitory for international students.

During the review, there were many intimate design for the dormitory of international students, which I liked very much. There were some additional functional space, such as personal speaking practice space, and space for talking with family members and so on.

In the early stage of the design, some students asked me about the needs of dormitory for international students. This time, I felt that I were not only a designer but also a long-term user.

All in all, I really enjoyed the design and review process this time!

Message from the judges

Chen Changyong | Professor, School of Architecture, South China University of Technology

Thanks for inviting me to participate in the second-year work defense! The setting of this topic required students to deal with the relationship between the building and the environment of the campus, the famous department building, and two beautiful lakes. At the same time, the various functional flow lines inside the building were also more complicated. Under the influence of the epidemic, the completion of the students' works was very good. The drawing and the defense process left a deep impression on me. The work reflected the solid basic skills, rigorous logical thinking, and excellent comprehensive control ability of students. It was worthy of recognition! Soon, the students will enter the third-year learning, and I hope that they will make persistent efforts to further cultivate their innovative ability and prepare for becoming a new generation of thoughtful architects!

Bi Guangjian | Professor, School of Architecture, Tamkang University

What impressed me the most was the integration ability of students: thinking, drawing, technology, and rendering were equally considered. Therefore, the creativity and discipline of the work were combined, and the exquisite rendering and technical knowledge improved the overall level.

Zhang Qian| Deputy Director, Department of Architecture, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology

The first half of the 2020 epidemic period was a special semester. Students can complete an architectural design considering site environment and complex function under the inconvenient conditions of online teaching and incomplete tools within 8 weeks. Everyone must have made arduous efforts no less than in the past. Seeing the achievements displayed by you, I sincerely gave praise to the hard work of every student! I hoped you would continue to work hard and gain more professional knowledge and skills in the new semester!

Xue Minghui | Director, Department of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology

In a special period, the design of the apartment on the campus of Tianjin University completed at home can still be full of reverie and vitality! Cheers for you!

Ha Ling|Shanghai Youan Architectural Design Co., Ltd. Business Partner/General Manager of Business Ten

Mr. Ha has said it seriously during the review process.

Tang Xu|Vice President/Design Director, Shanghai Bocheng Architectural Design Office

I am honored to have the opportunity to participate in the teaching work of my alma mater. This morning, I felt that I had returned to the familiar drawing classroom through the Internet. I was amazed by the overall level of finished work in the second year. I hope that students will cherish the rare basic skills training opportunities at the undergraduate level, and they can focus on solving certain basic design problems through each assignment and gradually accumulate knowledge. The learning and research methods acquired on campus are the ladder of continuous learning and progress in the future career. Come on, students, you will be better!