Overseas NO.31: Ya You

海外存知己，天涯若比邻。

在海外专辑分享海外华人的故事。希望这份分享可以让世界更加海阔天空。

第三十一期为您奉上的是目前正在宾夕法尼亚大学设计学院学习景观的游雅。

 

为什么出国？

出国的想法源于读大学时对国内景观教育资源、行业状况的不满，希望有机会看到发达国家的设计师如何应对资源浪费、环境污染、生态破坏等城市化过程中遇到的问题。这个模糊的念头明确于我在广州土人景观和Plasma Studio/Groundlab实习、工作的期间，时逢国内众多的景观规划、设计项目打着“低冲击开发”、“景观都市主义”、“水敏城市”等诱人的理念口号，然而却少见甚至难见有将这些好的理念一以贯之、落实于成果中的好设计。甚至于在项目汇报会上我曾面对过来自甲方的质疑：“我们也想要这些美好的愿景，但如何做才能实现它？”我想这不仅是来自市场的质疑，也是来自我内心的疑问。

Why study abroad?

I was dissatisfied with our educational resource when I was in undergraduate school. With the hope of understanding how designers in developed country deal with resource, environmental and ecological issue, I had a dream of studying abroad. This idea was confirmed when I interned in Guangzhou Turenscape and worked in Plasma Studio/Groundlab. At that time I was involved in many landscape projects which always hold the concept of Low Impact Development, Sustainable Water Management, Landscape Urbanism etc. However, I could hardly see a design built under the guidance of these fabulous ideas. I even received a question from one of our clients, saying “we want that Landscape Urbanism, but could you please tell me how to make it true?” I think it’s not only a question from the Chinese market, but also a question in my mind.

 

在国外遇到了什么让你印象最深刻的事情？

最深的感触是看到了不同国情下设计师思维方式的差异。举两个例子：我本科的毕业设计是在有限的绿地率范围内，尝试对城市绿地斑块和廊道进行最优的空间分布设计。在来美国第一个学期的城市生态学课堂上，我迫不及待地问道“如果我们知道一个城市最多可能有多少面积的绿地，我们是否有机会得出让这些绿地最大化发挥作用的分布模型？”出乎我意料的是，老师又惊讶又困惑地反问我“你是怎么在一开始就知道一个城市会有多少面积绿地的？”；另一个例子是，在柴静《穹顶之下》的英文版视频出来之后，宾大设计学院的学生曾举办过一次公开的影片观摩研讨会。在讨论会上，我发现来自中国的留学生始终离不开着政府和权力机构讨论问题，喜欢将解决问题的希望寄托于上层规划。而美国的老师和同学却显然更具有个人责任感和市场意识。我很庆幸我能看到这些差异，它有助于使我从单一的思维中跳脱出来，从而看见获得更多解决问题的可能性。

Is there anything happened impressed you?

I kind of understand how different conditions shape different ways of design thoughts. Here are two examples. My graduation these was optimizing urban green space distribution under the limitation of green space rate in the Chinese city. The first semester when I came to America, in the class of Urban Ecology, I asked the professor “If planners know how much green space we will have at most in a city, is there a design way distributing the green space so as they work best?” Unexpectedly, the professor looked at me in surprise, asking in reply “How can a planner know how much green space a city will have at the very beginning?” Another example is students at Penndesign held a film screening and discussion about the documentary Under the Dome. In that seminar, I found students from China always focused on government and   powerful institutes, placing hope more on upper level planning. In contrast, professors and students from America have more sense of individual responsibility and marketing. I’m glad I was able to see this difference. It helps me to get rid of the limitation of mono-thinking and see more possibility.

 

最想念祖国的什么？

父母。以及充满变数但也孕育无限可能的土壤。

What do you miss about China?

Parents. Also homeland is the place with full of changes and possibilities.

 

你会回国吗？为什么？

我希望在有更多的思考和积淀后回国。一是源于设计师的社会责任感，觉得能为自己所熟知和生活的社会做设计很幸福。二是因为我始终认为景观的地域化研究非常重要。我的很多问题，最终只有在中国才能得到解决。

Will you come back? Why?

I would like to go back to China with more experience and thoughts. On one hand, it is out of the social responsibility of a designer. I feel really happy designing for those who I really know about. On the other hand, I believe that localization is really important for landscape design. 

 

出国后在不同的背景下再看中国是否看得更清晰，有哪些感触？

不敢说看中国更清晰了，但的确会从更多的角度思考问题。回顾自己当时在国内做设计的心态，有些过于热衷于大格局、大尺度、大规划了，却没有很好地意识到成功的场所营造、高品质的环境设计带来的社会影响力和辐射效应也可能是巨大的。我觉得我个人的心态可能多少反映了设计师在冒进、快速变化的市场环境下急进和谋求更大影响力的浮躁心理。而当我了解了纽约高线公园（当下美国最具影响力的城市景观作品）的整个发展历程后，我意识到，即便是再宏伟的格局，只有当设计师一点一滴地解读、推敲、进行艺术化的表达后，才能实现、运作并丰满起来。借用参与高线公园设计的Ellen Neises老师的一句话“设计师最根源的力量在于描绘美好的梦境并使它们变成触手可及的现实 (visualization) 。”时下国内的市场节奏开始有放慢的趋势，我认为这是让我们沉淀、研磨、推敲出好设计的机会。

Is it more distinct to view China in a different environment after going aboard? Any thought?

I am not confident to say that, but I now view it from different aspects. Reviewing my experience in China before, I found myself being too excited about making big framework and doing large-scale planning without realizing that successful place making may also bring huge social impact. I guess my flippancy may somehow result from the rash environment. However, after I understood how the High Line Park developed. I understand that even in the most fabulous structure, it is designers’ carefully study and artistic interpretation that makes the whole system work. Just as what Ellen Neises says, the greatest power of a designer is we can visualize a fabulous friction. At the moment when there has been a slowdown in the landscape business in China, I view it a good opportunity for us to design in a slower but more careful way.

 

你的学校有哪些教育特点？

宾大的景观有研究大尺度、区域性系统问题的传统，教学中非常注重设计逻辑的养成，近年来对发展中国家的城市化问题有比较高的关注。个人认为，Ian Mcharg铺垫了科学分析、理性规划的学科传统；James Corner和Laurie Olin给学系带来了“出发于理想、落实于设计”的务实之风；新系主任Richard Weller则开始在设计之外注重理论的培养提升，在设计同时输出文化和观念。

Can you discuss the pedagogical characteristics of the schools you attended?

Can you discuss the pedagogical characteristics of the schools you attended?
Landscape program in Penndesign traditionally focuses on regional and systematic issue and it pays more and more attention on the urbanism issue in developing country recently. We high value the development of design logic and thinking.

 

你现在工作公司的特色和有趣的地方？

目前在Mikyoung Kim Design实习。是一个以小尺度景观项目为主的设计公司，在空间塑造、材料的艺术化表达上有出色表现。美国的项目周期普遍比国内长得多。因而设计师有足够的时间进行设计推敲和模拟。从概念设计到施工建造阶段，公司里的一个小项目往往经历大大小小十几个实体模型的研究才得以实现：有研究材质如何随着时间变化的，有研究肌理形态的，有研究光影效果的，有研究建造结构的……而项目一旦建成，其效果几乎都能达到预期甚至超过预期。

Can you discuss the characteristics of the company you attended?

I am interning in Mikyoung Kim Design in Boston this summer. It is based on small-scale landscape projects, and famous for material use and space making. In general, the project schedule is much lower than that in China, thus designers have enough time to study and mock up. Usually we will make a lot of physical models studying the fade process of material, the texture, the light effect, the structure etc. during different phases of design. This ensures our design can always achieve the desired effects.

 

最喜欢的艺术家（绘画音乐电影等广泛范围）是谁？给你创作带来了什么影响？

我需要专注时喜欢听巴赫的弦乐作品，它冷静、理性，简洁，优美，旋律像钟摆一样富有变化却总能回归平衡。我觉得做设计就是在不断地找平衡，在不同利益方之间、在艺术与生态、个体与公众、责任与野心之间。

What is your favorite artist (in wider range such as art, music, movie)? What is the influence?

I like the strings work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The melody is calm, rational and elegant. Just like a pendulum clock, sometime it builds to a crescendo, but it will always return to a balance point. I think design is also a process of finding the balance point, between aesthetics and ecology, individuals and public, responsibility and ambition.

 

觉得自己的作品集有哪些迷人的特质？

这几份作品来自一个研究型设计课的作业，与关注美东北部发展的非营利性区域规划研究机构RPA合作。其着眼点不止在于解决问题，而是基于对现状和未来趋势的分析、解读，找到并建立各系统间的隐形联系，从而引入新的高效系统并提出具有前瞻性的规划、设计思路。它的迷人之处应该在于提供了规划的更大视野及启发了设计的更多可能性。

What amazing character do your works have?

These several work starts from research, trying to find invisible relationships between different systems and trying to introduce and create new productive system. I think it contributes to a larger scope and more possibilities for design.

 

什么时候开始看谷德网的？欢迎你提出建议哦，谢谢。

在国内工作的时候开始关注谷德，尤其喜欢各专辑部分，让年轻的设计师和事务所有机会发出自己的声音。设计师需要也应该更多地说话。觉得谷德未来可以拓展一下景观部分的内容，景观学科、行业在国内外的差异、差距比起建筑等传统设计领域而言都更大，交流碰撞起来的火花可能也更多些。另外也建议网站开拓一个版块整理国内外设计行业的竞赛、竞标信息，搭建一个让新生设计师走出去的平台。

When did you start to surf on gooood? Any suggestions? Thanks : )

I followed Gooood when I worked in Beijing. I personally like the “Albums” parts which enable young designers and studios find their ways to speak out. That will be better if Gooood can introduce more landscape project and designers. There is really a big difference in landscape subject as well as industry between that at home and aboard. Also, I hope that Gooood can build a bridge between young designers and their potential clients by collecting competition and bidding information.

 

 
Project 项目

1-1 TRASH TO TREASURE
Research, 601 Studio, Fall 2014
Instructor: Kira Appelhans

研究从分析城市纺织品垃圾的流量、流向和处理过程开始，探索再利用纺织品废弃物、发展新的产业、环境生态系统的可能性，试图提供一种结合废弃物回收处理、刺激新型制造业发展、完善灾难应急机制、恢复海岸生态景观的新思路。

Beginning with the analysis of the textile trash flow and business of New York City, the research explores the possibility of recycling textile waste to developing new industrial as well as ecological systems and creates a new relationship between textile waste, geotextile industry, fast-disaster-response system and coastal landscape.

作为世界时尚之都的纽约市，在每年消费超过672万件新衣服的同时，也制造了超过34万吨的纺织品垃圾。寸土寸金的纽约无法处理自行这些垃圾，继而将其所有垃圾即由卡车长途运输至弗吉尼亚州、宾夕法尼亚州等地区的垃圾场进行填埋处理。这场远途废品交易的过程消耗了大量能源，它于纽约市民而言是税收上的负担，而于垃圾填埋目的州的居民而言是一种长久的环境负担。而更重要的是，在潮流一日一变的大城市里，纺织物的平均使用时间极短，只被人们穿了两三年而后丢弃的纺织品，入土后通常需要超过5年甚至50年的时间降解。

抱着延长纺织品生命周期的想法，我开始研究纺织品的回收途径。传统上，由自然纤维制成的纺织品的回收途径很多，而由人工材料合成的纺织品的回收途径却很少。如何充分再再利用这些消耗量巨大、自然分解时间长，但不受传统回收行业关注的人造纤维产品？以回收材料制成的土工织物(Geotextile)进入了我的视野。在美国，用回收材料（包括自然纤维和人工纤维）生产Geotextile是一个快速发展的新兴工业。一方面因材料价格低廉、产品利润高昂、市场需求大（道路建设、海岸侵蚀防治、山体滑坡防治），另一原因在于，越来越多的州政府开始推行禁止无法生物分解的人造纤维直接进入垃圾堆的法令，这促使人们寻找途径处理这些无法天然降解的垃圾。

基于这样的背景，我尝试对纽约市的纺织品垃圾提出策略性的处理思路:
1_将纽约市的垃圾输出途径从道路运输改为海上运输。一方面不占用纽约城市、城际已经超负荷的道路基础设施。另一方面船运更为经济且节约能源。
2_在东北部沿海的港口工业区内发展Geotextile工业。即将废弃的纺织品作为原材料投入Geotextile产品的生产中，避免了其直接进入垃圾填埋场的浪费和对土地资源的占用。同时，海岸正面临严重侵蚀威胁的美国东北部目前是Geotextile产品最大的消费市场之一。利用港口资源，就近发展Geotextile工业，产出的Geotextile既可以就近用于海岸侵蚀的防治中，也可借助港口和铁路资源，出口至内陆甚至海外。
3_依托临海的Geotextile产业链，建立海岸灾难防御机制。在洪水、飓风来临时，工厂成为临时的灾难应急中心，向临海居民区提供以Geotextile制作的沙袋、防洪tube等防灾避险产品。
4_孵化新的海岸景观生态系统。Geotextile产品作为防波堤、固沙堤使用的同时，在海岸潮汐的不断作用下，逐渐衍生出新的地形并发展出新的生物栖息地，帮助恢复、发展出新的海岸生态和景观。

As  the fashion center of the world, New York City consumes over 672,000,000 pieces of new clothes each year. That means over 34,000 tons of textile products are thrown away one year. While the city itself has no place to dispose these trash, it pays and delivers all the trash to other states such as Pennsylvania and Virginia by truck. The trash business is not only a burden for New York City in terms of its energy cost and paid fee, but also a long-term environmental threaten for the states who receive these wastes. More importantly, in such a mega city where the fashion trend changes day by day, the life cycle of textile products is really short. While the textile products are abandoned after using only two to three years, it always takes 5-50 years for them to decompose naturally.

With the aim of extending the lifetime of textile products, I began to study the way of recycling textile products. Traditionally, products made from natural fiber could be recycled in relatively more ways while the  synthetic-material-made textiles can hardly find its way to be reused. How to make full use of the man-made fibers? Geotextile made from recycled material may be the best choice. Geotextile is a growing industry in America. On one hand, it’s because of the high profit and great market demand. On the other hand, more and more states are pushing the new regulation that forbid non-degradable material get in landfills.
Strategic Approaches:
1_Deliver waste by cargo
2_Develop Geotextile industry along the Northeastern Coast
3_Build a coastal disaster response mechanism based on geotextile industry
4_Nuture new habitats and landscape

 

 

 

 

 
1-2 Geotextile Cell
Workshop, 601 Studio, Fall 2014
Instructor: Kira Appelhans
Collaborator: Lanmuzhi Yang

在最后一周的workshop里，我们通过研究纺织品的吸水特点，讨论了以纺织品填充的新型防洪沙袋作为城市常备基础设施的可行性。

In the final workshop,  we came up with a proposal that the new geotextile cell filled with used textile products could be used as urban infrastructure in coastal communities.

在全球气候异常的大环境下，美国东北部的海岸居民区越来越频繁地遭到飓风、洪水的袭击。当灾难来临时，主要防洪工具依然是沙袋。然而目前使用的传统沙袋有很多缺点:
一是装袋效率低。装袋通常需要两人协作，准备能保护一个木屋的沙袋需要两个年轻劳动力超过八小时的不间断工作。这对于区域中大量的独居老人而言，是不现实的。
二是砂子只能在沙滩获得。在灾难来临时沙滩和海岸恰恰是最危险和不易接近的地带。
三是沙袋在洪水退却后既不易清理，也难以回收，对环境造成污染。
四是传统沙袋价格昂贵。除却人工、沙子的费用，一户人家平日需要在家里堆积超过400美元的沙袋以抵御一次洪水带来的冲击。
设计提出利用纺织品吸水变重的特性，以家中、社区回收站中废弃的纺织品代替传统沙袋中的沙子防洪；并探讨了在老龄化社区中发展这种新型沙袋为城市基础设施的可能性。

The Northeastern Coast in U.S. suffers hurricane and flooding a lot. The major defense measure is piling up sandbags. However, the sandbag using now has a lot of disadvantages.

Firstly, Fill and deployment of traditional sandbag requires significant human resources. It requires two men keep working for over 8 hours to prepare enough sandbags for a single house. This is impossible for the elder living alone in these areas.

Secondly, sand can only get from the beach. However, the beach is the most dangerous area before hurricane/flooding disaster.

Thirdly, Cleanup requires significant Resources. After the danger of a flood has passed, the task of cleanup can be monumental.

Last but not the least, while a sandbag may seem inexpensive, the costs involved with deployment and cleanup add up quickly.

Taking advantage absorbency properties in the fabric, we propose that geotextile cell, filled with recycling material, can be used as urban infrastructure in coastal communities and enable a faster response to emergency water disaster.

 

 

 

 

 
2_HYPER-PRODUCTIVE CORRIDOR
Research, 601 Studio, Fall 2014
Instructor: Ellen Neises, Kira Appelhans
Collaborator: Zhangkan Zhou

2050年的纽瓦克港(美东北部地区最大的集装箱港)预计将由现在的一个港口，扩张为沿Newark海湾-Arthur Kill河分布的13个分散港区。为了将服务于港口的集散中心、仓库、公路、停车场、货运铁路等设施串联起来，新泽西州将发展出一条平行于海岸的运输动脉（高速公路+货运铁路）。这将使未来的海岸港区，在具有传统港区“大面积硬质地面，低效地土地使用，大量频繁的交通流，裸露不受保护的污染源”的景观特征的同时，兼有一条对生态、社区环境影响巨大的污染、干扰源。

如何合理地在这条长达30公里的交通廊道上组织交通流、生态流、公共出行等活动，并最大化地降低其对周边环境的影响？我们首先研究了廊道上可能出现的三种典型边界形式：邻接大面积工业用地、邻接居民区、直接滨临水体或生态敏感区。

针对三种空间组织形式的问题和可塑性，我们提出利用高架桥下空间和道路铁路周边的缓冲空间，建立一条空间上相互交织、紧密结合、对周围环境最小干扰的高产值廊道，将工业设施、绿色基础设施、港口物流设施组织在一起。基于这个出发点下的港口运输廊道，将不再是反自然、反社区的。相反的，它应作为一条高效的、具有丰富体验、更小环境影响，和具备防洪、蓄水、灌溉、净化等生态保障功能的立体系统存在。

对此，设计提出了4种策略：立体化的流通系统、折叠的地表、复合功能的水系统、森林净化器。并针对3种不同的空间类型，我们设计了24种基本构成。

Till 2050, the Newark port will expand to be a series distributed port fields along Arthur Kill River and Newark Bay. In order to accommodate the growing distributed port-support facilities such as distribution center, warehouses, parking lots, road system, rail system and so on. There will be a new transportation corridor along the coast organizing all these industrial facilities. As a result, the future port area, will not only present as a “vast,  low, busy, bare” region, but also shown as a heavy polluted as well as noisy corridor.

How to well organize the traffic movement, ecological flow, public activities within the corridor, while reducing its impact in maximum level? We first study the three typical thresholds along the corridor which is traffic-industry, traffic-resident, traffic-water/wetland.

In response to the three typical thresholds, we propose that the easement and the space under heightened road/rail can be used to interweave and 3-dimensional organize the industrial facilities, green infrastructure, distribution flows, etc. Thus, the corridor with huge flows has a chance to perform as a hyper-productive, rich-experience, lower-environment impact system.

There are 4 critical strategies to reach this goal: Zero Interference Movement Network, Folded Surfaces, Water Machine, Forest Scrubber.

 

 

 

 
3_FLOAT(IN)SHOW
Workshop, 601 Studio, Fall 2014
Instructor: Kira Appelhans
Collaborator: Hannah Melin Davis, Xi Liu, Ruyi Chen

工业化让Delaware河的入海口区域呈现出一种极为破碎的使用状况。场地所在河湾的一边是美国钢铁公司的厂址，另一边是一个弃用垃圾填埋场的一角。空间格局上，长满杂草的洼地像一道屏障，将环境优美的Penn Warner游览区、居民区与串联了各大城市的水上帆船游览道隔离开来。生态格局上，密闭的口袋湿地是一座工业区边缘的生态孤岛。

利用流经场地中的潮汐，我们重新设计了这条水路。通过在水中放置一系列钢构筑，辅以当地的优势物种罗纹贻贝（Ribbed Mussel）和双向潮汐的影响，富含营养的泥沙沉积，水下地形改变，进而形成深浅不一、流速不等的多样化湿地生态。而钢构筑的水上部分，则可被改造成为一系列水上荧幕，从而成为铰接于Van Sciver湖和Delaware河游憩带之间的游艇电影院。

Past and current uses, including development, mining and industry – leave a key piece of the Delaware River edge in a fragmented state. The contrasting adjacencies of the US Steel operated industrial complex and a Waste Management operated landfill leave the Penn Warner recreational area and local townships in isolation from the Delaware river, which is a major recreational waterway linking cities, such as Philadelphia, to the far reaches of the upper Delaware River. Physical results of land use development in the form of small ecological wetland pockets exist in strict contrast against the cohesive presence of the tidal exchange and flow of the Delaware river.

Bridging both this ecological and physical gap, Float(IN)Show, is a waterway seeking to introduce water flow from both Van Sciver Lake and Delaware River tidal trends to an ecological infrastructure inviting sedimentation and the development of a new tidal marsh ecology.

In a nautical twist, these structural elements building in sediment and flourishing ecologically also create the infrastructure for a novel Boat-In movie theatre. Beyond functioning as a link between water bodies and a regional attraction for the seafaring folk of Van Sciver Lake, Tullytown, Penn Warner club, and communities along the stretch of the Delaware River, the project provides the instrumental ecological service of freshwater exchange and marsh habitat in an area where water processing ecologies and fundamental to the health of the landscape.

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When: 2014-Current
Where: Philadelphia, Boston
Who: Ya You 游雅
From: Shenzhen, China
School / Office: University of Pennsylvania, School of Design
Contact: yayoudesign@gmail.com