The interesting points in the sites

Last week, although I had already overlaid the plan of Forbidden City onto the SOHO area, I nearly did nothing to present the interaction and further creation of these two totally different systems. After the logic I discovered from ancient China last week, it is imperative to find a special route, which is made of some successive points in the site area. These points must possess evidently features, such as the main entrance of Forbidden City, but also a crossing on regent street, or a dark corner of imperial palace, but also on the center of Golden Square.
Tomorrow, I will walk through the site via the two routes that I marked on the picture, and take photos as many as I can. This could help to build my own real experience when crossing the site. And if I overlay the successive photos onto the 3D models facade of Forbidden City, the real one and imaginary one may create some interesting, strange or unexpected things. We will see.

In ancient China, there were two mysterious pictures called "LUOSHU"and "HETU", which were considered as the origin of Chinese philosophy. In these two pictures, some short lines, solid circle and hollow circle, as the basic elements, represent the serial complicated principles. 
Some ancient mathematician concluded the graph into other ways: table chart. Then from the tables, people could see the regulation more clearly.
The number of the circle was written in figures in their initial positions, and the solid ones represent even while the hollow ones represent odd numbers. In the first table, the sum of any three numbers in horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions was always 15. In the second table, similar regulation could be found as well.
Apart from the main philosophical system, these two were also exert profound influence to design method from historical period. The Forbidden City was an excellent example of the principle.

The crossing and corners of Forbidden City and SOHO area

When I tried to find the relationship between the design system of Forbidden City and SOHO area, some interesting things attracted me. From the same scale, the size of Forbidden City is nearly the same to the SOHO area, which contains SOHO Square and Air Street. Of course, these two sites have totally different architectural textile and   geographic features, if the self-similar, mysterious structure from Beijing is applied to the site in London, or put these two together to find more unusual space, at least, I could see some potential sparks and space of further development.
So I made a 3D model, which piles the imperial palace and English houses together.

Imagination from the word 'forbidden'

When I dealt with fractal architecture, I used to focus on the pattern. But after the seminar last week, I was inspired with more interesting things related to my main idea.
First, when I was absorbed by the delicate decoration of Forbidden City, I almost forgot the essence of this imperial complex. 'Forbidden' is the foremost principle in the design process such as the layout of palaces, the high walls, the close corridor and the restricted movement space.
As the Forbidden City possesses the feature of self-similarity(the layout of 9 grids), if I extract the same operating system and apply it to the SOHO site in London, in this new self-similar space, some former space may be released while others may be restricted by the new geography and surrounding buildings. This could interestingly lead to another mysterious spatial experience. The released space could preserve some pattern and symbols from Chinese imperial palace, and the forbidden space just like the inside of wall, the crossed glass, the Hermetic space, could create some other strange patterns from the imagination.

This week, I just realized some assumption about the project made in last week. The more content I expanded, the more interesting potentials I found in the process. City in a chair was an example.

Until now, I have a general outline about the project. From city to district, to building, to furniture, to inside city, to district....... It could be an endless circle. When it comes to the inside city, the city style could be totally different from the formers. Nothing is impossible.

After the map of a city within a city

Last week, after tutorial, I thought about how to make my own map of Beijing city to give a comprehensive background for my project. Then I made some attempt.
Step 1: using 16 pieces of A4 paper to piece together a big Beijing map (maybe not big enough, anyway, it was just an attempt).
Step 2: piecing together other 4 pieces of paper to make up the Third Ring Road, which is the main structure of Beijing.
Step 3: outlining The Forbidden City in more clear view (because the former 2 steps use a little vague photocopies).
Step 4: figuring out the position I wish to put my project to in The Forbidden City.
After that, my project starts~
I wish to choose the most spectacular building, The Hall of Supreme Harmony as my site. Then going through the main door to the inside space, there will be another delicate palace which is created from my imagination. In this palace, going through another door, you can see some furniture and inside one of the chairs (because the Chinese classical chairs have hollow inside space), there will be another small city map. Also this city is a typical Chinese imperial city and designed from the same regulation and pattern as The Forbidden City. 

Self-similar pattern when ink dissolves in water