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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

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Drawing of the exterior of a building
BOTANICAL GARDEN DESIGN In her design for a botanical garden in Los Angeles, Yin designs a building that features a number of indoor and outdoor rooms surrounding a double-height atrium filled with diverse plantings. The project features education facilities, a research center, and a cafe.

August 8, 2024

Qing Yin’s Passion for Storytelling Informs Her Design Process

In designs for projects like the Material Research Center in Santa Monica, California, this Future100 graduate uses convincing first-person drawings to articulate architectural concepts.

By: Stephen Zacks

The torqued, bubble-infused Material Research Center by Qing Yin with studio partner Mingxi Cao takes a nondescript Santa Monica, California, warehouse and repurposes it as a place to showcase and test new building materials. Using ETFE as a lightweight plastic outer skin, the third-year UCLA MArch students designed a warehouse extension that preserves the original structure while opening the interior to public views. 

Two volumes rotate around the existing warehouse, one lightly touching the ground at one corner, the other touching the ground on one facade. Yin and Cao worked with engineers at UCLA to develop a double facade system that would allow the interior bubble to maintain its form without outside support, then wrapped it in a translucent steel-and-ETFE lattice through which the inside bubble would be exposed—especially when lit up at night. 

rendering of a building and streetscape
MATERIAL RESEARCH CENTER “The Material Research Center focuses on the exploration and implementation of lightweight construction materials and showcases cutting-edge materials such as ETFE and bendable steel plates,” Yin writes.
triptych drawing of the interior of a building with pink walls
A PIANO PIECE ON THE SEA In this project Yin designs a Carnival Cruise ship space based on Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor. Considering rhythm and mood, Yin divides the space into three sections based on the emotions evoked by the music. Her design transforms musical notes into spatial form.

The desire to exhibit the structure’s interior may be related to Yin’s passion for storytelling. Before switching to architecture for her master’s, she had been an undergrad art student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she produced a series of remarkable studies of rooms. In A Piano Piece on the Sea, comic-like sketches illustrate the concept of a cruise ship that gives spatial form to Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor. In her Botanical Garden Design for a 2022 UCLA studio, colorful hand-drawn perspectives evoke the experience of visiting a scalloped, biophilic building that overflows with plant life. 

“Architecture, for me, every project is a story,” says Yin. “What we want to achieve is to tell this story well. The comics communicate to people who don’t have an architecture background. It’s like a storyboard in film design: to show them as a first person how you step up into the space to the final stage.”

Yin completed two internships in Los Angeles, exploring different building scales and types, from small residential projects to larger commercial ones. She’s already had the chance to work on a skyscraper during an internship last summer. “It was interesting for me,” she says. “I’m not sure what scale of building I’m comfortable with, so I want to explore more to find out what I feel best in.” 

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