Lauren Meister
Architecture Design Portfolio
“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness� -Frank Gehry
Table of Contents
01 Informal Settlement San Miguel Teotongo, Mexico
05 Artist Athenaeum Columbus, Indiana
09 Elective Studios Oxford, Ohio
02 Westcott Visitor Center Springfield, Ohio
06 Danish Community Center Copenhagen, Denmark
10 Champlin Canstruction Copenhagen, Denmark
03 Riverfront Disctrict Cincinnati, Ohio
07 Library Redesign Cincinnati, Ohio
11 Children’s Hospital Dayton, Ohio
04 Collaborative Construction Oxford, Ohio
08 String Assembly Cincinnati, Ohio
12 University Laboratory Urban College Campus
01
Informal Settlement
SITE San Miguel Teotongo, Mexico FOCUS Urban Planning Residential Design
At the edges of Mexico City limits lies a scarcity of dedicated cooperative housing typologies. The informal settlement of San Miguel Teotongo has many challenges where housing can be improved. The dramatic elevation change from street to street is too steep for typical construction methods of this area, so the housing complex also acts as a new retaining wall. By tackling this vertical transition with a new public stairway, the site becomes more activated with public amenities provided by a church plaza. These areas deserve the dignity and structure to provide amenities for all its inhabitants.
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02
Westcott
Visitor Center
SITE Springfield, Ohio FOCUS Landscape Design Commercial Complex
ORDERING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION YSTEM CONSTRUCTIONS: BALANCED l CENTRAL l FRA
LAUREN MEISTER l DAVID BURNS l AMANDA FUSON l DAMIEN WA
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LAUREN MEISTER l DAVID BURNS l AMANDA FUSON l DAMIEN WATSON
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FROEBEL GIFTS BLOCK STUDY INSPIRATION FOR F.L.W.
ORDERING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTIONS:
BALANCED
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LAUR
Following intensive research on Frank Lloyd Wight’s life and work, I collaborated with Architect Peter Bohlin and the BCJ Firm on a design proposal for a visitor center adjacent to FLW’s Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio. After completing a site plan with three other architecture students, the center was designed in response to the client’s needs for a larger gift shop, a cafe with views of the house, classrooms for student programs, staff offices, and a conference room.
02
03
Riverfront Disctrict
SITE Cincinnati, Ohio FOCUS Urban Planning
Using the site of an existing industrial yard, our studio created charette layouts of how an ideal riverfront district could be developed east of downtown Cincinnati. My team decided to slightly rotate housing blocks along the water’s edge, so that they were set back from the main road; this also allowed for an internal path to be framed by the housing against the commercial, and business structures (available for the residents and visitors to navigate through). Cultural touch points were located every 1000 to create destinations that grounded the disctrict across the site.
04
Collaborative Construction
SITE Oxford, Ohio FOCUS Product Design
In the atrium of the architecture hall at Miami University, noise echoing through the stairs interferes with day-to-day activities and presentations during critiques. I worked with a team of 30 students to design a sound barrier using recyclable cardboard. Within sub teams, we made templates, cut large framework pieces, glulammed multiple layers for the acoustic and transparent panels, assembled all the components, and attached them to the staircase for stability.
Our final design involved layering acoustic panels between vertical glulam pieces to create a wave form that extended from a concrete platform, under the staircase, and onto the atrium floor. This was a substantial exercise of collaboration, coordinating schedules and skills, reaching consensus on the design,allocating assignments,and achieving all desired goals of aesthetic characteristics.
05
Artist Athenaeum
SITE Columbus, Indiana FOCUS Cultural Center
In Columbus, Indiana, there is a need for a new facility that could host events and exhibits for the architecture and art community, while also housing studio residents for various periods of time. While creating interior spaces that fulfill these needs, I also explored different construction systems that could be incorporated into the facade and specific interior moments; these were prepared through an exploration of various section views to understand how they would be interpretted into Photoshop/Revit generated renderings.
06
Danish Community Center
SITE Copenhagen, Denmark FOCUS Mixed-Use International Design
I designed a sports community center that would meet the needs of the families/students plus athletes drawn to the adjacent Klovermarken soccer fields. This structure would create opportunities for differing demographics to intersect, increasing interaction between community members and athletes. To preserve the history of the site, an existing recycling plant would be gutted and renovated to become an indoor sports court with a skywalk connected to the new structure.
RESIDENTIAL BUSINESS DISTRICT STUDENT HOUSING PROJECT FOOTPRINT
The ground floor of the new sports center would be dedicated to community use with perimeter views surrounding a multipurpose space, cafe, and lounge. The first and second floors would be dedicated to athletes to exercise on the equipment floor or relax in the private lounge or team meeting rooms. There are balconies that would have views below to connect the athletes and community members, even if they would not be on the same floor.
07
Library Redesign
SITE Cincinnati, Ohio FOCUS Community Educational
While redesigning a public library, we sought to celebrate its corner site as a place for people to gather. By receiving feedback from internal constituents of the existing library, we learned which programming elements needed to be expanded. It was the intention that the open courtyard beneath the raised main building would encourage people to enter the space, either to relax outside with others or experience the library inside. Visitors would be able to feel the
CIRCULATION PUBLIC (ADULT) PUBLIC (KIDS)
connection to their community by taking advantage of the resources available: the offices would have views of the community outside; the multi-purpose room on the second floor would be extended beyond other floors; exterior views would exist from the staircases; and the green roof would allow visitors to enjoy the surrounding ambience of the neighborhood. Overall, this building would be not just a place of learning but a community hub for all to experience at many levels.
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08
String Assembly
STUDIO SITE Cincinnati, Ohio FOCUS Augmented Reality Mixed Media
With new technology becoming available to design and build with, our design visualization course gave us the opportunity to experiment with augmented reality using the Hololens (pictured below) in conjunction with the Fologram application. After uploading a three-dimensional terrain model that one of my teammates produced, we threaded string through a wood assembly while painting the heights of each layer along the way.
While wearing the headset, I was able to use hand gestures and voice commands to position our digital model within our surroundings to use as reference when marking each of the individual strings. The resulting installation transferred our digital design into a physical construction while allowing plenty of transparancies to see all the subtle undulation changes in our topographical plane.
09
Elective Studios
STUDIO SITE Oxford, Ohio FOCUS Furniture Metals Printmaking
Experimentation with materials has been a fascination of mine throughout my design education and career. I took a semester to design outside the field of architecture, and learn how to design and create with wood, metal, and ink. The manipulation of each of these core supplies gave me the opportunity to study connections, functionality, layers, and overall aesthetic on a smaller scale compared to larger architectural structures.
FURNITURE I wanted to create a bench that had versatile uses, depending on the need or the look. From 4x4 cherry, I was able to split the wood to create a sleek bench with continuous grain or a casual back support seat that could rotate up to create a more defined silhouette. With fifteen sections, there were endless possibilities for how this piece could be arranged.
09
METALS In my small metals studio, we were tasked with creating wearable pieces using various techniques to create patina and shape our materials. In all of my pieces, I used my architecture background to determine how these simple objects could define space and create various moments of interest depending on the perspective.
PRINTMAKING While this was an entirely flat medium, I overlaid imagery to create dimension in my pieces. I experimented with having the colors or textures compliment each other when they collided. Working with different tools to carve, scratch, or expose designs in wood, metal, and screens also gave me a new perspective on how to leave your mark on an object when certain forces are applied.
10
Champlin Canstruction
SITE Cincinnati, Ohio FOCUS Philanthropic Sculpture
Each year, Cincinnati hosts a Canstruction competition among architecture and engineering firms to create structures out of food cans that get donated to the Free Store Foodbank to be distributed to those in need. I’ve participated with our office team over two years to create sceneries from different stories; we had to apply our technical skills when laying out plans and elevations of containers while also creating a sculpture of intrigue that would captivate our audience.
For our “Feeding Dory Structure”, we came up with design solutions that included tall and short cans, a challenge when determining how all of the “floor” heights would coordinate. With “Cincinnati’s Web”, we devised a way to have cantilevered cans extend from the face of the wall so the web and lettering stood apart from our backdrop. Over the course of the two design iterations, I learned how to build with unusual materials and parameters while giving back to the city.
11
Children’ s Hospital
SITE Dayton, Ohio FOCUS Healthcare Professional Practice RENDERING BY OTHERS
My first large scale professional project through Champlin Architecture encompassed the interior fit out of Dayton Children’s hospital. My role on the team was to work on detailed elevations, plans, sections, and perspectives in Revit while collaborating with interior designers and graphic designers on finishes and signs placed throughout the building. I had to coordinate these details while adhering to strict healthcare building codes, which would allow ease of use for the professional staff.
While this project needed the most attention, I also had the opportunity to work on smaller projects where I was leading the design intent before gaining feedback from our principal architect. One example was the exterior wayfinding signs, which needed to include some architectural metal elements while fitting into a landscape design scheme that created a more inviting atmosphere for the community.
12
University Laboratory
SITE Urban College Campus FOCUS Higher Education Professional Practice
RENDERINGS BY OTHERS
I worked on a research lab structure being integrated into an existing college campus layout. As we were the architects of record coordinating with another firm, my role on this team was to create details that conveyed the design intent based on initial floor plans and elevations of the building. I created sections for ceiling transitions, casework, wood wall panelling, and glass partitions. I also reviewed submittals from subcontractors to confirm
that the interior finishes and equipment were consistent with our specifications and illustrated our design intent. I compiled an in-depth signage package based on the university standards to coordinate wayfinding throughout the building. I orchestrated coordination meetings among various parties (architects, contractors, clients) to verify that the various MEP systems did not pose conflicts with our architectural intent or to create solutions that appease each party.
lauren.lydon.meister@gmail.com | 513.300.9005