Inside-In
Architecture | Hybridity, Multiplicity of Asian Americaness
Architecture | Hybridity, Multiplicity of Asian Americaness
San Francisco, USA
Published in Retrospecta 45 : Yale School of Architecture 2021-22
In Collaboration with Jun Nam
Published in Retrospecta 45 : Yale School of Architecture 2021-22
In Collaboration with Jun Nam
Jun and I are Korean Americans thus, Asian American.
This architectural project is an investigation on the idea of Asian Americaness through the idea of multiplicity -questioning what Asian American is and how to understand ourselves in the context of America. As Asian Americans, we see ourselves as a collage of different cultural values that build up who we are. In these differences, we wanted to express the multiplicity of Asian Americaness. Parallel to this observation, in discussing identities today, it is evidently clear that identities are dynamic, interchangeable, and mutable, resulting in multiplicity and we believe so should architecture.
Situated in one of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the project attempts to integrate Portsmouth Square in Chinatown and the adjacent Hilton Hotel to embrace the multiplicity of culture, history, and use. Portsmouth Square stands as one of the oldest squares in SF history, much of its identity and use is singular and often monolithic while Hilton Hotel poses as a transient place where foreigners or outsiders come for leisure or business. Standing as gates between Chinatown and the financial district with two starkly contrasting socio economic topographies in San Francisco, an impasse driven by division between Portsmouth Square and Hilton Hotel stands as an evidence of deficiency in urban integration. In attempting to reorient the relationship between two places, the project investigates the concept integration from the very core of identity.
We do not define ourselves as Asian nor American we are Asian American.
Jun and I are both Asian American but we are not the same.
Asian Americans are not one but a multiplicity.
Multiplicity is not a singularity, we are a spectrum of in-betweenness
We are a collage of different cultures, of different experiences, of different values
Through collage new meanings are formed
We glean towards different culture, experience, and values
Jun and I are both Asian American but we are not the same.
Asian Americans are not one but a multiplicity.
Multiplicity is not a singularity, we are a spectrum of in-betweenness
We are a collage of different cultures, of different experiences, of different values
Through collage new meanings are formed
We glean towards different culture, experience, and values
Then how can architecture hold different types of identities, what are in-between spaces?
Different aspects of the project took different approaches to the investigation
Hotel:
- Massing as a means of space-making
- Program as an identity
- Existing envelope as a datum
- Massing as a means of space-making
- Program as an identity
- Existing envelope as a datum
Portsman Square:
- Planes as a means of space-making
- Sequence as an identity
- Existing slabs as a datum
- Planes as a means of space-making
- Sequence as an identity
- Existing slabs as a datum
To Glean is an act of understanding one another. It is a dialogue between one another.