2023 Architecture Portfolio

Education

The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture

Master of Architecture, 2023

Almanac/McGurk Scholar, 2021-2022

Graduate Studio Award, 2022

Bachelor of Science in Architecture, 2021, Magna Cum Laude with Honors in Architecture

Faculty Award, Outstanding Student in Senior Cohort, 2021

Almanac/McGurk Scholar, 2020-2021

Major Lawrence Miller Scholar, Student Veteran Community Advocacy 2018-2021

Columbus State Community College

Associate of Criminal Justice, Summa Cum Laude, 2016

Professional

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Ohio State University-Knowlton School

Aug2022-May2023

Architecture Intern

DesignGroup

Apr2020-Feb2023

Graduate Research Assistant

Ohio State University

Sept2021-Jan2022

Student Veteran Community Advocate

The Ohio State University Military and Veteran Services

Aug2018-May2020

Architecture Intern

NKDSGN

May2019-Aug2019 + freelance

Police Officer

City of Delaware

Jan2008-Aug2018

Associate, AIA

www.aaronkuck.com

1. House of the Near Future

2. A New Traditional Care Model

3. Grasshopp(ing)

4. Convergence

5. Spectacle

6. Glen Echo Intermediate

Assembly Path

The blocks are pressed and sintered from local sand and recycled plastic, sorted, and organized for efficient construction by the BrickmakerBot

Locking Forces

The blocks are fit in a cyclopean ashlar pattern that resists applied force and settles back into position after seismic shock or extreme impact.

This project begins with a fiction that could become all too real: That a catastrophic storm event unlike any previously experienced tears a scar through the Midwestern region of the United States. After the storm, many citizens flock to new housing opportunities in regional metropolitan centers like Chicago or Columbus. It is determined that areas of the swath will be allowed to return to nature, to act as a green belt in the spirit of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City.

House of the Near Future

This view of the future was developed through a storytelling process to explore how the house of the near future responds to the worst weather forecast we can imagine for the Midwest. How will material use evolve and house typology change? How will the site be recovered? How do we live in a word that can destroy our homes in one night?

G3, Professor Stephen Turk

Above: Automated systems collect the debris of suburban homes and create from it PET-sand bricks and laminated timbers.

Left: A plan cut at 4’ showing three connected elements of the homestead

Below: The created materials are assembled according to plans held on their local network.

The new homestead includes pre-built housing quarters which can be dropped on site, used as quarters during construction, and are then dropped into place as construction proceeds. The central hall, garages, and root cellars are constructed as part of the kiva and shell. This arrangement better accomodates the commoning of non-traditional households. As part of the overall scheme, these homesteads allow for the dispersal of homesteads while densifying the use

of inhabited land.

Next two pages: A section cut through the primary ring which houses the communal kitchen/hall, drone shed, and surface transport garage. Construction on the third ring is visible in the background.

The central kiva contains a garden and vertical farming equipment to supplement the diets of the inhabitants with the goal of becoming fully self-sufficient. Water is collected in cisterns at the lowest level of the kiva. A root cellar can be seen, used here to store the team’s tracked motorbikes. The porches on the housing quarters also visible here can close to protect inhabitants

from the worst weather.

Creating community from previously disparate entities working toward a common goal is difficult. Here the residents pause at the end of a long day, reviewing the fruits of their labor and taking a moment to bond as a team.

PLAY CORRIDOR

ELDER APARTMENTS

WATER COLLECTION AND STORAGE

HERB PRODUCTION AND DRYING

An intentional community established on the western edge of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile with an integrated herbalist program facilitating networks of care between the elders, children, and the environment that is in line with the holistic view of health held by the Atacamenos. Traditional terraced gardens on the east side of the community bind the site to existing farms while there is a gradient of

A New Traditional Care Model

communality in terms of housing schemes from East to West. The western units accommodate a variety of family sizes while central courtyard units are more communal, with people have private quarters that plug into a shared living room and the Community Kitchens.

G2 Comprehensive Studio with Katherine Lubbers, Professors Andrew Cruse & Sondhya Kochar

The Atacamenos people of San Pedro, Chile have three spheres of care: Domestic, Specialist, and Biomedical. Ailments are categorized according to traditional values and fall under separate spheres of care. While the holistic medicine of the Atacamenos accounted for the introduction of Western biomedicine, that inclusion was not reciprocal. We therefor propose to create a community with an integrated Herbalist program which could facilitate networks of care between the elderly, children, and the environment based around a more holistic view of Health held by the Atacamenos.

Traditional terraced gardens on the east side of the community bind the site to existing farms; these are irrigated by means of cisterns placed below the raised central courtyard which are in turn fed by the system of fog harvesting nets hung from the upper pergola system. While the Herb terraces create the communal backbone of our proposal, there is a gradient of communality in terms of our housing schemes from East to West.

The western units accommodate a variety of family sizes while central courtyard units are more communal, with people have private quarters that plug into a shared living room and the Community Kitchens. The space between becomes a continuous dining and play corridor snaking through the site. An herbalist center, small clinic and rehabilitation fitness center anchor the corners of the site.

The materials chosen for the project are locally sourced and approached with simple labor in mind. The rammed earth primary walls of structures orient them to views while glazed walls are faced with corrugated metal to utilize an economical material to aesthetic ends. Traditional stone masonry complemented by gabion walls establish our terraced community as a semi-monolithic entity. And finally, the pergola system contains recycle steel and plastic from the local mining and agricultural industries.

The visual scripting tool included in Rhinoceros, called Grasshopper, has become a tool I use regularly. While interning, I was approached by the BIM Manager for assistance in creating a grasshopper script that would allow for an efficient iterative design interaction with the client. The end product was to be a custom built light fixture. I took this a step further than asked and created a cleaner, free-

fl

oating interface for client interaction.

Grasshopp(ing)

Hitchcock Hall

Knowton Hall

Convergence

with Rachel Schmitmeyer & Yuming Hsu under Professors Paula Meijerink, Kay Bea Jones, and Beth Blostein

This project sought to re-imagine the common area between Knowlton and Hitchcock Halls for the College of Engineering and Ohio State University’s Integrated Physical Planning Liaison Group. A cross-disciplinary team of architecture and landscape architects developed the plan through a semester

of focused research. We sought to create a stronger connection between the Knowlton School and the over College while establishing a more equitable landscape full of opportunities for rest, play, and study.

Information on current uses of the space and desires for the space were gathered through interviews with students and staff. Activities at the site were also observed at various times of day and recorded. This information was collated and refined through study to produce a list of key desires on which to focus. One notable use for the space historically has been the displays of prototype vehicles by major car companies as part of their relationship with the College of Engineering.This promped us to preserve existing space in the plaza and ensure the east-west corridor remained passable by vehicle. This allowed us to maintain traffic for service and emergency vehicles as well.

Our team indentified the hightest priorities for the space, key among these was to consider access for persons with disabilites. Rather than making accomodations an afterthought, we integrated it into the primary design from the onset. This became key to creating a variety of gathering spaces at multiple scales and elevations, with lighting conditions for each changing throughout the day. Consideration was also taken to create a landscape which continued to serve this mission, with a grass slope contoured to create seats and retaining wall benches throughout the corridor.

The stylobate creates an exterior zone for gathering or singular relaxation. It provides a viewing platform for life within, or a place for life within to look out upon. The relationship between viewer and viewed softens. Each window is the proscenium of a stage in two directions.

The studio explored a concept dubbed “benign indifference” through the scope of physical and psychological securities endemic to the built environment.

Benign Indifference recognizes the subtle behaviors necessary in maintaining the peaceful urban cohabitation per our social contract. This duplex manipulates the relationship of occupants utilizing architectural effects to affect a recognition of

Perforated Defenses

UG4 Vertical Studio “Professional Secrets” with Professor Jeff Kipnis

both the fragility of this arrangement and it’s importance in our everyday lives. The architecture of empire and industry is perforated, penetrated, and pulled open to allow for vulnerability by creating transparency in everyday life to encourage interrelationships and trust which helps build community.

The duplex is born of the factories of the industrial revolution with its ugly twin recalling the star forts of colonialization. It is set on a stylobate and approachable from all sides, as the green spaces of the neighborhood are open to all. The units are accessed through the central dogtrot which also allows entry to the shared interior courtyard.

The twin residences penetrate and wrap each other and open fully to the interior courtyard. The large sliding paned panels allow the inside out and the outside in; though as with many events in this neighborhood this sometimes occurs as the supercomputer wills it, not the inhabitants. The courtyard is available to anybody who requires a place for quiet contemplation.

The intertwining of the two abodes places residents in close proximity to each other at times where they might feel most vulnerable. This might not be immediately apparent due to visual obstruction but is hinted at through the play of light, hints of sound, or the eventual familiarization of self in relation to the form of project

The pentagonal abstraction was limited to create an illusion such as at Caprarola with Villa Farnese. This gentling of the sloped wall also greatly erodes its defensive nature . These forms are subtracted to create a palazzo-like shell, promising security and shelter but perhaps not fulfilling these as well as an inhabitant might wish.

Spectacle

Undergrad Studio, Instructor Bart Overly

This proposal for the Energy Research and Innovation Center at the Ohio State University is guided by the theme “science as spectacle” to inspire excitement and creativity by increasing the visibility of experimentation. The building is organized by a datum of sheer walls that create a series of labs differentiated by purpose but following a generalized scheme streamlined for Innovation, Production, and Testing.

The stepped form of the north facade reads as de-materialized ziggurat while the cantilevered shear walls allow for the stepped office and working spaces under which a large event space is situated. The large south glazing allows the concrete floor of the event hall to serve as a thermal mass to facilitate heating the facility. The concrete sheer walls contain a radiant heat and cooling system to further adjust the interior temperatures.

The shear walls are poured in place and utilize rubble from the destruction of the parking garage formerly located on the property as aggregate. The laboratory sections are manufactured and then lifted into place, seated on preformed concrete slabs bridging between the sheer walls.

Passers-by can gaze into the laboratories from the garden located in the center of the block while walking along the photovoltaic forest. More than just decoration, the forest serves as a testing ground for improved solar generation. The canal and integrated wave generator allow for a specialty lab researching coastal energy harvesting technology. Another laboratory within the primary structure utilizes a wind tunnel.

Glen Echo Intermediate School

This project utilizes both classical and modern building techniques to negotiate a challenging topography, creating a school that bridges the natural world and urban landscape. Located on North High Street in Clintonville, Ohio, this school is poised at the summit of Glen Echo Ravine. The ordered brick façade greets the street while a series of glass curtain walls allows light and nature to penetrate into the large massing.

Massive piers constructed in the Roman style utilize modern techniques where needed to hold aloft modular classrooms and provide poche for mechanical services. Reinforcing the teaching pedagogy, each classroom stands as an individual unit with workspace for projects and an en-suite restroom. Rather than desks the students and teacher utilize custom adaptable seating for a more comfortable learning environment.

The classrooms are connected by a series of elevated catwalks that penetrate the piers and span interior gathering spaces. In addition to a gym and library, there are specialty classrooms for the arts, sciences, and music, all of which look out over the ravine.

Undergrad Studio, Associate Professor Justin Diles

Personal Pursuits