Chun Wang
The plan shows the apartment room I am currently occupying in Ann Arbor. The bed is set near to the closet, right next to the wall, leaving enough space for people to walk into the room. The desk is next to the window, occupying the best part of the room with natural light. The floor lamp is set near to the desk but it can lit up the whole room since the lighting direction is up to the ceiling.
The room is 12-ft height, with a single-hung aluminum window at the north wall. The storage drawers and organizer provide not only the inside area for storing clothes and other stuff, but the above area to set some decorative things and electronics.
The diagram shows the hierarchy of different areas of the room in relation with natural lights. The desk area is next to the window, gaining more natural light comparing to the bed area. One dashed line dispalys the alignment of the window opening to the door opening. The other dashed line demonstrates the circulation of the room.
This actor network map shows my interest in the single-hung window in my room and my research about how this type of window have become widely used in America. New techniques of manufacturing glass and different framing materials have an essential influence on the prevalence of single-hung windows. However, as new types of window become more user-friendly and require less maintenance, single-hung window is no longer the best choice for domestic houses.
The figure-ground diagram displays a unique block at the center of my hometown Shenyang, China. The plan is composed of a central circular plaza, four roads perpendicular to each other connecting the center to the four corners of the block, and another four roads shifted 45 degrees to the previous, connecting the midpoint of the four edges of the block. The other blocks next to it are regularly planned with a perpendicular grid consistent to the main roads.
The buildings in this block are mainly six to eight story residential
buildings with the first floor used for commercial purposes, such as food
markets, restaurants, and convenient stores. Two towers were constructed as the
urban renewal around 2000. The highlighted one is built as a hotel apartment,
and the other is affordable housing for young people. For the low-rise residential
buildings, different additions have taken place at different times mainly to
meet housing demands.
Built in 1996, the hotel apartment tower is the first high-rise architecture in this district of Shenyang. The entrance of the hotel section is facing toward the main street, while the apartment section is facing toward the center plaza. A farmer’s market is embedded inbetween two low-rise residential buildings, and other forms of commercial stores and restaurants are located at the first floors of the buildings providing easy access and eye-catching facades.
The actor network map demonstrates the history of this distinctive block. After Japanese troops took the partial power of Shenyang in 1905, the local economy and market was mainly under the control of Japanese. Chinese government at that time wanted to construct a place that could compete with the district governed by Japanese. Therefore two generals from the military designed this street square plan, with both the intension to protect this block from invasion by Japanese troops and the aim to attract more citizens and business to this block. Nowadays, this block has been reserved for the construction of cultural tourism. However, the main user group is still the local people who would hold activities during festivals and spend their leisure time as their routine.