Design Practice

Studio RUAN Xing

1. Members of Studio RUAN Xing

1) Studio Director: RUAN Xing

                                                                                                                photo by Luisa Basso

2) Team

Lu Shaobo is a PhD candidate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He holds M Arch degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tongji University. He has studied and practiced in Li Xinggang’s studio in China’s Architecture Design Institute. In addition, he has published several research essays in academic journals and social media outlets on methods of architectural design.

Wang Hao is a PhD Candidate from the University of New South Wales in Australia. He holds a M Arch from University of Melbourne. His primary research interests are urban density, and the history and design theory of residential architecture and housing policy. 

Abraham Zamcheck is a PhD candidate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, originally from New York. He read East Asian Studies as an undergraduate at Harvard. Later he earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the Harvard GSD and a master’s degree in logistical engineering from MIT. His primary research interest is the history of Chinese architectural technology. 

Cao Zitian is a doctoral student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Li Wenxuan is a doctoral student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.​

Wu Xiongyin is a research assistant, and an architectural graduate from China Academy of Arts.

Luo Huichao is a research assistant, she holds a M Arch from University of New South Wales.

ZHAO Dongmin is a design consultant to the Studio and architectural director of the atelier s-h. She is a registered and licensed architect in Australia.

3) Contact Information

Contact: GUO Yubo

Email: yb0086@sjtu.edu.cn

Phone: 021-54742134

2. Design Philosophy

Studio RUAN Xing at Shanghai Jiao Tong School of Design was established in 2018. It is devoted to the research and architectural design with a cross-cultural perspective and an acute awareness of history. Its primary focus is the exploration of design principles and moral foundations for resilient and renewable architecture and cities, as well as the means for technical implementation.

3. Professional Scope and Features

Since its founding, Studio RUAN Xing has embarked on serval examples of diverse design work and research. They include the main building of Shanghai Jiao Tong School of Design, and other projects such as Centre for Design and Innovation in Shanghai’s Minhang District; the interior remodeling of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Engineering Building; and the design of a multistory Elizabeth Bay Apartment in Sydney. The studio curated the 2019 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season; it is an active participant of Shanghai’s cultural life.

4. Sample Works

1) The Shanghai Jiao Tong School of Design Building

Address: Shanghai Minhang District

Type: Institution

Size: 13,359 ㎡

Year: 2018-Present

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Design Building is a remodeling of an existing building complex.  Relying on the symmetrical plan of the original building, a new interior courtyard was created, forming a spatial sequence from a Chinese “Court and Hall” to a Roman peristyle. The central courtyard is a civic space for academic exchange between students and faculty. It is covered by an engineered timber truss derived from the traditional Chinese “lever arch bridge” structure, forming a hybrid space-frame of large spans. This particular approach attempts to find a way to gradually substitute unsustainable reinforced concrete structures.

2)The Beikun Garden at Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Type: Landscape

Address: Shanghai, Minhang District

Size: 11461㎡

Year: 2019 to the Present

The design is an attempt to open the university to the city, albeit visually and symbolically. By reorganizing the relationship between the campus boundary wall, elevation differences in the topography, and openings and closings in the line of sight, part of the internal verdure of Shanghai Jiao Tong University becomes accessible to the public. At the same time, a garden of social intercourse is formed on both sides. Landscape inside and outside the campus forms a continuum and retains its own sense of domain, allowing the university to have more meaningful interactions with the public realm beyond.

3) Centre for Design Inovation —— Concept Design Study

Type: Office

Address: Shanghai Minhang District

Size: 26807 ㎡

Year: 2019 to the present

The space and structural system of the building are conceived using the concept of renewable regeneration. The unified spatial organization provides possibilities for flexible and diverse forms of the design profession. The tailor-made steel structural system allows for growth and repair to the building. At the same time, the curved façade clad with terracotta tiles creates the screen of a unique urban experience.

4) University Teaching and Laboratory Building —— Concept Design Study​

Type: Institution

Address: Shanghai

Size: 32650 ㎡

Year: 2019 to the present

The teaching building is located at the intersection of a river and the gate to the university. The building complex takes the configuration of a U-shaped volume, forming a “college” open to the river. It has a distinctive multi-level inner court, continuous from the ground to the roof terraces. As for the internal spatial organization of the building, laboratories, seminar rooms and staff offices of different sizes are interwoven. This approach challenges the conventional zoning of discrete functions in a modern university building.

5) Curator of the 2019 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season

Type: Exhibition

Year: 2019

The Shanghai Urban Space Art Season in 2019 revolved around “waterfront space, and creating a better life.” It presented the cultural connotations and public significance behind the concepts of the “good life” and the “enigma of water.” In addition, it told stories with multi-dimensional displays through the curation of four aspects consisting of historical dimension, academic rigor, cutting-edge technology, and public participation.

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