Zijun Ye

About

Master of Environmental Architecture, Royal College of Art

Bachelor Degree of Landscape Architecture, Fu Jen Catholic University

During her undergraduate years, Zijun was mainly engaged in urban landscape design, ecological landscape restoration, urban and rural planning, and won the Taiwan IFLA Excellent Design Award in 2019.

At the RCA, her main research is about a series of environmental rights issues caused by industrial activities such as mining activities and the creation of relevant environmental information communication platforms.

Now, the main focus is on the possibility of future environmental architecture, considering the future state and mode of the environmental architecture in continuous technological developments.

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Degree Details

Statement

After a series of studies on the industrial environment, Zijun found that in the existing human-environment communication model, most users read the information on the environment visually. This kind of information is limited and incomplete and is mainly concerned with the stories of human activities and the prosperity of existing urban development. The continuous environmental changes brought about by human activities are often ignored by users.
Despite the large number of people who have gradually realized the importance of the environment, and many people have begun to explore and look back at the industrial ruins behind the cities, and to read the story of the land behind the cities. But, in the existing presentation method between the users and the land, the information we have got is very superficial in the physical space, most of the story is invisible and hard to read by our naked eyes.

In her independent research project, Zijun uses a method named "augmented landscape", connecting with the digital interface and the media equipment to cover the invisible and dynamic stories of the environment on the existing physical space, achieving the expansion and representation of the land memory.

Post-industrial augmented landscape

Interface-Augmented landscape
Interface-Augmented landscape — The invisible information about the vegetation in the augmented landscape. The augmented landscape is mainly focused on enhancing the user's experience. Enhanced elements like the growth of the vegetation, movements of the soil in a virtual data-intensive way, connect with particular equipment to cover it on the existing space, so as to trigger more interactive behaviors and communication between the user and the environment.

Background of the Post-industrial Site

Background of WangPing Mine
Background of WangPing Mine — WangPing mine was chosen as the site for two reasons. First, the mine was not cleaned after the mine was closed,. Thirty years of uninterrupted operation and traces of human activity are well preserved in the mine, making the ruins of the mine full of life. Second, after the mine stopped operation in 1994, the vegetation that had died due to mining activities began to recover and repair, giving the post-industrial ruin a vibrant look.

Application of the augmented landscape in the WangPing ruins

Workshop
Workshop —
workshop
workshop
Entrance of the mine
Entrance of the mine
Bulletin board
Bulletin board

Choose “The vitality of ruins" as the presentation point to represent land memory.
This vitality comes from two parts. First, it is the process of recovery vegetation which shows the tenacious vitality of ruins. Second, it is from the historical traces in the relics which showed the vitality brought by popularity.

Present each invisible element through the digital interface, which contains a series of virtual interfaces, such as App, AR, virtual image, device, video, and so on. By virtualizing invisible information and using physical devices to cover it in ruins, to achieve the expansion of the information.

Users are guided to experience the site in different ways rather than visually. Information is obtained through interactive behavior and an immersive environment. In the process of experience, it can also help the interface update the changes of the site.

Historical traces in augmented landscape

Reflection installation
Reflection installation — These cultural and historical elements, it is closely related to the previous social background. Connect the existing historical trace with the different equipment and the media information, to cover the invisible information in the physical space. And use AR on the mobile phone to scan the specific items to get more explanation. Use the reflection installation to reflect the previous image about these activities on the existing space. According to the principles of the reflector, users can be a part of the previous images when they enter the range of the reflected lights, to interact with the invisible information by experiencing this immersive space.
Information in AR
Information in AR

Facilities for the historical element

Recovery vegetation in Augmented landscape

Geo-phone and AR
Geo-phone and AR — Choose the geo-phone to help the users listen to the changes of the underground rock formations and soils and combine with the "magnetic anomaly" technology to convert the change of terrain to a plan and show it on phone application, to guide users explore the mining area and the environmental change by themselves.

Significance of "Augmented Landscape"

Augmented landscape
Augmented landscape

Compared with the traditional display in the scenic spot, this method can keep a more original appearance of the "historical site" to a greater extent.
Moreover, the experience is no longer limited to a "point in time", all explanations and explanations are specific to a particular period. The information in the augmented landscape is dynamic, and the changes in each period will become a part of the expanded information when users participate in the experience. Each media device and method will be adapted to the information in different spaces, to achieve the best expression of information.