2023 Architecture Portfolio_Andrew Knighton

Andrew Knighton Portfolio

Contents

Professional Work

01. Wisconsin Garden Style Village

Firm: RINKA+

Team: Jessica Timmer (Project Architect)

Buck Knitt (Senior Design Director)

Karl Grehn(Senior Project Delivery Manager)

Kyle Resheske (Project Delivery Manager)

Megan Conrad (Project Designer)

Andrew Knighton (Designer)

Academic Work

02. The Eastern Market Apts Systems Studio. University of Michigan

Instructor: Ellie Abrons, Meredith Miller

Partnered with: Shawn Malcolm

03. AAA Learning Center Institutions Studio. University of Michigan

Instructor: Eduardo Mediero

04. Light, Heat, Sound Design Studio Two. UW-Milwaukee

Instructor: Andrew Cesarz

Partnered with: Max Rodencal

Models & Renderings

05. Sculptural Addition to Office Space Design Studio Two. UW-Milwaukee

Instructor: Mathew Messner

06. Life of a Vagabond

Visualization Two. UW-Milwaukee

Instructor: Nikole Bouchard

07. The Misplaced Dog

Representation. University of Michigan

Instructor: Ellie Abrons

01

Wisconsin Garden Style Village

Firm: RINKA+

2023

Proposed on a 28-acre former golf course in southern Wisconsin, this project is composed of 19 buildings spread across 3 different buildings styles with a total of 270 units. It is set within a larger devolvement that will include single family homes, duplexes, and the possibility of introducing retail and outdoor recreation. Our portion of this site includes a 1 club house, 6 townhomes, and 12 garden style apartment buildings. The club house incorporates a leasing office, club room, kitchen, gym, and an outdoor pool area. Townhomes are 3 stories, housing 3 units per structure. The garden style apartments have 2 variations (24 unit and 18 unit). There are 6 of each.

Dividing the 2 sides of the property is a pond that has been identified as a possible frog habitat. This is respected by all the buildings and leaves a green space that is great for walking paths, views, and a buffer between the east and the west.

The west is zoned as multi-unit low and the east multi-unit high. Therefore, a majority of units were placed on the east side creating the highest density. The use of the 24-unit garden style building worked well for this. The goal was to get as many units as possible to face the central green space. In order the hit the number of covered parking required by the client, the furthest east boundary was utilized as parking and acts as a buffer to the back site of a retail area.

The west side of the site has the club house placed central to a green corridor connecting the two side of the development. This is then flanked by the 18-unit garden style buildings with the premier units of the townhomes lining the outer edge and main road that runs adjacent the property.

Clubhouse rendering

Townhome rendering

KEY NOTES

The Eastern Market Apts 02

Systems Studio Fall 2021

The Eastern Market Apartments is a mixed-use complex located along the Dequindre Cut in Detroit, Michigan. The intent of the project is to re-exam the conventional double-loaded corridor in regard to its function and relationship to units. By utilizing a nail laminated timber structural system, we are able to place walls only where necessary for the creation of space and not for structural support. This increased flexibility works along side the floor plates giving various edge conditions to the exterior of the building allowing for windows on two to three sides of a unit. Bringing in extra light and better ventilation.

Partnered With Shawn Malcolm

Circulation Massing

Pedestal

1. Florist Shop

2. Co ee Shop

3. Bakery

4. Residence lobby

5. Brewery

6. Bike Shop

7. O ces

8. Mail Room

The building houses 43 total units ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments. The lower two floors feature a Florist, Coffee shop, Bakery, Brewery, and a Bike shop. These are meant to service both the occupants of the building as well as the surrounding community.

The corridor, still being double sided and a means of egress, features multiple changes in surfaces and programmatic use. This new type of common space is intended to change from floor to floor based on the unit lay out. The entrance into each apartment is also unique adding small areas for personal customization that are more inline with that of a single-family home. This includes areas for planters, seating, and the display of art or personal artifacts.

MULTI- FLOOR TWO BEDROOM UNIT: 1,800 sf

AAA Learning Center 03

The big box has become one of America’s most prominent architectural typologies. This is due to its quick and inexpensive construction along with its flexible interior. I was tasked to dissect the big box as well as another typology, the early 20th century automobile factory. This led to further exploration into American car culture. Economic issues, pollution, and limited accessibility all hinder the health of car culture. The AAA Learning Center (Ann Arbor Automotive) aims to be a community driven space of learning and creation to help combat these issues.

In order to maintain the building, certain areas will be leased out to retail stores and professionals working within the automobile industry. This mixed-use space will house all parts, tools, and personnel needed to repair/maintain cars. Taking inspiration found within these 20th century factories’, the project is cut into two sections. One side features the main hall with the other holding the classrooms, gallery, and retail space. This is for the safety of the occupants as well as a platform to view those working. The materiality is not that of a typical big box and is designed to have a greater sense of permanence while maintaining the large open floor plan.

First Floor Plan 1/8”= 1’

Elevation 1/8”= 1’

Section 1/8”= 1’

Render of Gallery Space

Render of work bench

Paper Model

Preliminary research of the big box typology. Represents methods used for placement of products in stores.

Light, Sound, Heat

Design Studio Four Spring 2019

Partnered With Max Rodencal

This studio focus is on three buildings placed on a site adjacent to the Milwaukee river. The project started with the analysis of the site. Once this was completed, we were then placed with a partner to complete the design work. Each of the three buildings where programed to help emphasis a specific technical aspect. The first, is an art gallery meant to focus on light. The second, a theater with a focus on sound. The third, a spa/boat house with a focus on heat.

The design worked was shared through each project with specific drawing or models being created by Max, myself, or both of us.

Art Gallery

The first building is placed on top of the hill and is the furthest from the river. This allowed for the greatest exposer to the sun and gave us the best opportunity to control the daylight entering the building. The program includes three different gallery spaces, a cafe with outdoor seating, and film room. Each space holds a different light quality ranging from dramatic and direct to bright and diffused.

Sun Diagram

These ranging qualities are accomplished with a wall system that only allows direct light to enter a space when desired. The system is made up of a catalog of surfaces where each is rotated and angled. It was then tested at different times of day. The amount of light hitting each surface is what determined then angle of the wall for the structure.

Max Rodencal

The program is set in a long linear fashion that allow for each room’s light quality to contrast the last. For example, our three gallery spaces follow one another and use this changing light quality in order to display different types of work.

The first gallery is intended for paintings and other two dimensional work as it uses a daylighting system to produce a bright room with diffused light.

The second gallery is the darkest and is intend for art work that needs more control using artificial lighting. Work such as instillations and work sensitive to daylight would be placed in this room.

The last gallery is the brightest and has the most direct light. This is intended for sculpture and other three dimensional work.

Short Section 1/4”= 1’

Andrew Knighton

Long

Andrew Knighton

Model at 1/4’’=1’ by Max Rodencal and Andrew Knighton

Photography by Andrew Knighton

Spa/Boathouse

The last building on the site consists of both a spa, located on the middle level, and the boathouse, on the lower level. The upper level is used as a general lobby space for the two separate programs.

Model at 1/8’’=1’ by Max Rodencal and Andrew Knighton

The spa has 12 individual programs so when deciding where to place program we chose to take each possible outcome and place them adjacent to one another. Each of these diagrams was then analyzed to show the relationship’s most desirable attribute. These where categorized by light, sound, airflow (heat) and circulation. We then designed and built a physical representation of the attributes we found to be the most fruitful and where they are placed within the building.

Model assembled by Max Rodencal Photographed by Andrew Knighton

Section cut shows all three floors. The upper floor lobby. The second lobby, loud bath, showers, cold bath, and hot bath. Along with the lower floor kayak and canoe storage.

Showing Outdoor and Sun Bath

by Andrew Knighton

Photographed

by Andrew Knighton

Max Rodencal and Andrew Knighton

05

Sculptural Addition to office space

The task was a 2,000 sq. ft. addition to be placed adjacent to the existing building. The program was not given to us so we got to choose the buildings function. I decided on an office building that housed an advertising firm that would employ 50 to 60 workers, The addition was to serve as a public plaza intended as a gathering space for public meetings, performances and leisure.

Life of a Vagabond

This semester long project was framed around the theme of a dinner party. The dinner party was then extended with a singular word. In this case it was vagabondage. A persona was developed within this context that began to change the original dinner party into a narrative explaining the characteristics and habits of a vagabond.

The character is placed within an urban setting. He has been wandering the city for as long as he can remember and is now starting to enter the later stages of his life. This is shown through various forms of graphic representation. Some of these include abstracted mapping, the design of his home, and a portfolio containing each project.

07

The Misplaced Dog

As part of a course focusing on architectural representation, this project is used as a way to practice modeling and rendering skills. I was tasked with finding a digital object and then designing a space around this object. I chose an old ceramic dog. During the altering of the dog’s texture, I added a small cat “tattoo” to the dog’s exterior. This served as the inspiration for the space that the dog would soon inhabit.

I imagined that for an unknown reason, this dog was trapped in a room designed for cats. The dog is now stuck in a room with nothing to keep him occupied. He only sits looking out the window, thinking about the only thing he needs to be happy. On this day it’s a big chewy bone.