A Tower with Wind and Cloud 2018
The tower is the observation tower designed for Meijiawu tea garden near West Lake, Hangzhou, China. We design it not only as a platform for the view into the tea fields and West Lake, but also a circular “road” turning in bends and switchback up to the wind and cloud. The irregular spiral form makes the tower into a flexible structure system, so that it can sway slightly in wind. Wind can be both tangible and visible in this elegant spring tower. The ribbon view is designed into a continuous view like Chinese traditional scroll painting rolling along the hiking. And gradually extended void/window gives the hiker a dynamic and intriguing observation experience. Wind can penetrate those size-varied “gap”, travel and play with all the visitors. We want to create a linear public space for people, wind and cloud.
Robotic Fabrication – rippling iridescence 2016
With the advent of computational design and digital fabrication technologies, architecture seeks ways to establish a novel systematic structure and refurnish its long-standing perspective. Biosynthetic design strategy aims to reveal new intentionality and methodology to architecture. Transversion between micro and macro scales, the biosynthetic design intends to emancipate from scale restriction and top-down paradigm, expands architectural thinking and manipulates patterns into unpredictable but fascinating dimensions. The structural light phenomenon, known as iridescence, is a perfect agency for practice.
Deriving from the study of butterfly wing, we are fascinated by the kaleidoscopic iridescent effects that originate from a regular microscale structure and translucent material. Although diffraction phenomenon generated from pastry structure is impractical when applying to the macro scale, reflection and refraction can be amplified by these structures. By transforming microscale
Columns 2019
'Columns' explore the spatial tensions in daily images created by the 'column' as an intruder. In this series of street shots, columns can be railing postillers, poles, trees or wires. They separate the views into the foreground and background creating depth of fields. These linear objects reveal an expectation for panorama by sheltering or dividing the view as they exert a horizontality into the images. 'Columns' as lines emphasize the existence of the frame and enhance the association between the formless scenes and rectangular frames. And they insert gravity/anti-gravity into the views as a symbol of supporting objects. Intentionally I always shot in motion and the vertical 'columns' becomes the oblique indicators of the speed and tension.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Xiaoyang Fang
China
I’m Xiaoyang Fang, an architect and artist from China. After I graduate from Cornell University, I founded Uncertainty Network Office (“UN-Office”) with some friends in New York City in 2017.
Uncertainty Network Office (“UN-Office”) is an unofficial, unlicensed and unprofitable group of architects, urban designers & artists. We call ourselves an office while actually, it’s not; “An” and “Un-” is not only a pun but also conveys our focus on duality, contradiction, complication and ambiguity in architecture, art, urban and humanity. We’re fascinated by the uncertainty of post-modernity and post-capitalist society and obsessed by the network where various territories and hierarchies are converged. So we name our group as “Uncertainty Network Office”.