Rachel Kuepers Undergrad Portfolio

Twist + Turret

Coworking Tower in Downtown Columbus

Completed with Elizabeth Sill

Instructor Bart Overly Spring 2022

Twist and Turret is a coworking tower composed of two towers that begin to overlap. The tower on the left is the turret which is organized by typical office space. The tower on the right is the twist which houses coworking space and is divided into five different neighborhoods. The neighborhoods are characterized by themes: playful, creative, mindful, formal, and adventurous. The neighborhoods are each centered around a certain amenity and a secondary mode of vertical circulation. For example, the playful neighborhood has ‘chutes and ladders’ as its secondary vertical circulation and a playground as its amenity. The bottom four levels act as an extension of the two towers and the park. They house a market, cafe, gallery, and daycare and have large doors which open directly towards the park in warmer months.

This render shows how the twist starts to merge into the turret side of the tower.

My roles: Digital Modelling, Rendering, Diagramming, Physical Modelling

NEIGHBORHOOD

FLOOR 35

FLOORS 32 + 31

FLOOR 30

FLOOR 29

FLOOR 34

FLOOR 33

This diagram demonstrates how the different office and amenity spaces overlap on each floor of the building.

Completed by ES

These renders look at the adventurous neighborhood and how the twist side begins to affect the turret side.

This illustrates opposing sides of the tower and the double-height amenity spaces.

This diagram clarifies the thematic organization of the tower.

Completed by ES

The model shows how the twist side of the building relies on the fins as a structural system.

These renders exemplify the different amenity floors: formal (top) and playful (bottom).

The ground-floor plan shows how the building opens up to the park and looks into the gallery and market spaces.

Jesse Owens North

Gym on Ohio State Campus

Instructor Sandhya Kochar

Fall 2021

This project explores what future gym culture could be like and how it can begin to influence the architecture of a gym. I applied those ideas to design a new gym for the Ohio State University campus. I decided to design a gym which would act like a supplement to the university. I did this by designing pods which can be used as independent exercise spaces but also for things like eating, sleeping, meditating, and working on homework. The building is also designed around a large, central pool room. There are terraces with workout equipment as well as courts for various sports looking out over the pool to create a very social space juxtaposing the more independent program of the pods. Some of the pods also become saunas and pools of various temperatures to create the experience of Turkish baths moving from the locker rooms to the pool.

This view shows the scattering of the pods across the first floor and how they interact with other spaces.

This view shows the terraced workout spaces and pods from the pool room.

This render is a view looking into the pool room.

The plan exhibits the central pool space as well as the building envelope weaving in and out of the pods.

This section shows the juxtaposition of the pods and the large open spaces above.

This section shows how some of the pods start to break through the building’s envelope.

This section model shows the look-out into the pool room through the terraced workout spaces around it.

Flat Out

The goal of this project was to design a pavilion which would sit on the Vitra Campus and house a single chair from the Vitra Collection. It developed from flattening a container and refolding and reconfiguring the flattened surface into a three-dimensional pavilion. The flattened box was also projected onto the surface of the pavilion to create a pattern which informed apertures. I utilized a Target box covered in packing tape which I translated into the stripes that appear on the pavilion’s surface. Because the tape is both transparent and acting as a binding agent, the stripes do the same for the pavilion. There are stripes cut out to allow light into the pavilion as well as to interlock pieces of the pavilion to create a unified form.

Display Pavilion Instructor Ashley Bigham Spring 2021

This axonometric exhibits one point of entry into the pavilion as well as the positioning of the chair within.

The image is of the original Target box previous to it being flattened and refolded into the final pavilion.

The image is of the unrolled Target box which was projected onto the surface of the pavilion as a pattern which influenced apertures.

The image shows the model developed from the original Target box after it had been flattened and reworked.

The plan shows the location of the chair in relation to the main path of circulation.

The section shows the interlocking of both roofs which slant toward the center of the pavilion.

The section shows the relationship of the placement of the chair beneath a slanted portion of roof.

Vitra Warehouse

Warehouse on Vitra Campus Instructor Ashley Bigham Spring 2021

This project sought to produce a warehouse space through the implementation of a field condition within the Vitra Campus in Germany where infamous furniture is produced. My strategy revolved around the use of organic forms to produce the field condition which were defined in the building through grids of different scales. These grids are made up of columns and furniture within the different spaces. Some of the columns become large enough to act as podiums to diplay the chairs of the Vitra Collection or to house restrooms. Though most of the building is open to the public, there are private spaces defined by thick walls, but to make sure light is able to reach them, there are clerestory windows as well as curtains wrapping around the spaces.

This axonometric shows how the grid defining each space is represented with columns and furniture.

These diagrams show the idea of the field condition and how it is exemplified by various grids.

The site plan shows the warehouse’s interaction with the rest of the campus.

The section exhibits the variation between exhibition spaces and workrooms as well the various uses the columns have.

The vignette displays the depth of the spaces within the warehouse as well as the variation in column types.

The section shows how the large columns in the exhibition space become podiums to display the Vitra Collection. The plan demonstrates how the columns and furniture begin to embody the grid to illustrate where one space ends and another begins.

Palace of Comfort

The Palace of Comfort is a place for people to come relieve their stress after a long work week. It looks to understand how comfort food can become architectural. Each major program suits different ideals of comfort. The amphitheater has spaces where live music can be enjoyed in a crowd, but it also creates spaces where live music can be enjoyed in a more secluded environment. The cafe provides various seating options to accomodate the fact that some people find more comfort in eating alone whereas others enjoy eating amongst friends. The project acknowledges that comfort is a spectrum, but that there are also certain aspects of comfort which are agreed upon by many people. There are even pools at different depths as some people would rather dip their feet in whereas others would rather be fully submerged. The hotel also has three different floors where the lowest floor is the most social and the top floor is the most secluded.

Completed with Hima Gobburu Instructor Ashley Bigham Autumn 2022

The worm’s eye looks at the relationship between the ground floor and the hotel above.

My roles: Digital Modelling, Rendering, Diagramming, Physical Modelling, Plans, Worm’s Eye

The Palace of Comfort looks at how comfort food can become comfortable archiecturally. We took a poll amongst our peers to determine which foods they felt were most comforting. Once they were decided on, we began to diagram them to try to understand what makes each one so comforting. The foods then took on different programs while still exemplifying their comforting properties. Mac and cheese became a seating area, and apple pie became a cafe. A samosa was turned into a library, a cinnamon roll converted into an amphitheater, and lasagna became the hotel.

This diagram looks at the properties of certain comfort foods that make them comforting.

This diagram shows how each piece of food takes on a different program.

The ground floor plan exhibits how the various buildings interact with one another. This render looks at the exterior of the amphitheater where people can gather.

The plan shows the scattered nature of the beds on the most secluded floor of the hotel.

Completed by HG

Completed by HG

The section highlights the library, hotel, and cafe programs.

Completed by HG

This render shows the interior of the cafe and how people can eat alone or with others.

This render displays how the shallow pool can be used for relaxation or play.

The first three images are study models looking at how food can become architectural, and the last image is of our final model.

Our final model looks at the material qualities of the individual pieces and how they all relate to one another.