kerry weldon | design portfolio
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KERRY WELDONDESIGN PORTFOLIO
MEBD Candidate ‘13 | University of Pennsylvania B.Arch ‘12 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Selected Works 2007-2013
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Master of Environmental Building Design Candidate, 2013University of PennsylvaniaSchool of DesignPhiladelphia, PA
Bachelor of Architecture, 2012University of North Carolina at CharlotteCollege of Arts + ArchitectureCharlotte, NC
Website: http://www.kerryweldon.comEmail: krw@kerryweldon.comPhone: 704.264.7660
KERRY WELDONDESIGN PORTFOLIO
MEBD Candidate ‘13 | University of Pennsylvania B.Arch ‘12 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Selected Works 2007-2013
Professional
CONTENTS
Perkins+Will, Charlote, NC:+ New Belgium BrewingFuturePolis, Suzhou, China:+ Guiyang Eco-Building+ Fengjiu Apartment Towers+ Henan Office Pods
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141822
2630
3246546066
707274
University of Pennsylvania : + The Wellness Hub + The Garden BathroomUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte:+ Glendale Montessori+ Wilmington Prefab+ Houston Solar Research Center+ Charlotte Amtrak Railway Station+ Hive Pavilion
+ Box for a Drying Flower+ Temporal Narratives of the City+ Natural Diagrams
Academic
Personal
ProfessionalPerkins+Will - Charlotte, NC, 2012Futurepolis - Suzhou, China, 2011
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brewing beer; unity between the ele-ments creates an efficient, working machine; and harmony across the site establishes a holistic and connected system.
+ Contributions: Schematic design, sustainability research, diagrams, ren-derings, presentations and layouts
Project: New Belgium Brewing, East Coast Brewery Location: Asheville, North CarolinaFirm: Perkins+WillConstruction: 2015
Design Team: David Gieser, Rick Kazebee, Elise Rainville, and Rachel Myers
Concept: Responding to the industrial fabric of Asheville while formally opening up for both inward and outward views
Hinged roof planes on each part of the building and rise based on program: The entry rises to gather people, the tasting center and offices rise to view the river and trees beyond, the brewhouse rises to display the machines, and the packaging center rises as a sawtooth for natural day-light and bands of views toward the sky.
Three key ideas of the schematic design phase are Machine, Unity, and Harmony. The facility is an authentic machine for
New Belgium Brewing
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Professional: New Belgium Brewing
Tasting CenterView outward River, trees, wildlifeConnection to nature
PackagingView upwardSky, birds, treesDiffuse northern light
BrewhouseView inwardTanks, tubes, brewingCelebrating machine
Entry
View To River
View To River
Openings for Northern Light
View to Machine
Bars of program
Openings on one edge
Rising to emphasize views and encourage ventilation
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ON-SITE GRAFFITI REUSE STUDIES
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Professional: New Belgium Brewing
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Project: Mixed-Use Retail, Offices, Conven-tion, and Housing Location: Guiyang, ChinaFirm: FuturePolis Architecture + Planning, Suzhou, ChinaConstruction: 2014
Concept: Responding to the rolling moun-tain landscapes to create a new sustain-able icon for the city
As Guiyang develops as a sustainable community, it seeks a new icon that repre-sents the place, the culture, and its grow-ing environmental initiatives.
Guiyang is known for its picturesque roll-ing mountain landscapes, which inspire the curving convention center canopy. Housing towers grow from the base, carved as if the wind coming from the be-
tween mountains shaped them the way it shaped the land.
+ Contributions: Sustainability research, design development, primary convention center canopy design, renderings, detail and material development, full sustainabil-ity sections and diagrams
Guiyang Eco-Center
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Rolling Mountains
Canopy Response
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Professional: Guiyang Eco-Center
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Kerry Weldon | Academic18
Project: Apartment towers for Fengjiu Headquarters Master PlanLocation: Guiyang, ChinaFirm: FuturePolis Architecture + Planning, Suzhou, ChinaConstruction: 2014
Concept: Reflecting the painting of terracing mountains on the Shanxi Scroll and creating density near the land and lightness toward the sky
Fengjiu Liquor is the original Chinese white wine with a history of over 1500 years. The city of Shanxi is famous for an ancient Chinese poem linking the city and this liquor, which highlights the terracing mountains of Shanxi and a liquor store perched within their slopes.
My conceptual design for the apartment buildings incorporates a rough contour that splits the building, inspired by how
the painted mountains terrace on the ancient Chinese poem scroll and in the village.
+ Contributions: Full individual onceptual design, apartment massing and development, site plans, 3D models, renderings
Fengjiu Apartments
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Professional: Fengjiu Apartments
“A drizzling rain falls like tears on the morning day.
The mourner with a broken heart is on his way.
Where can a wine shop be found to drown his sad hour?
A cowherd points to a cottage ‘mid apricot flowers’.”
Shanxi Scroll and Poem
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Kerry Weldon | Academic22
Project: Office Building in the Henan Business ParkLocation: Guiyang, ChinaFirm: FuturePolis Architecture + Planning, Suzhou, ChinaConstruction: 2014
Concept: Building as a cell / context flowing around form / inward focus
The Henan Medical Development includes an office headquarter building, a convention center, professional housing, staff housing, and a research park. During my time on the project, I developed the office building in plan, section, and elevation.
Like a rock in a pond, or a blood cell in a vein (for the appropriate medical analogy), water and landscaping flow around the
round office building. An open central void maximizes natural daylight, while atriums throughout the building connect people to the center and draw the focus inward.
+ Contributions: Main office building design development, façade design, interior layout design, 3d models, renderings, atrium variation models.
Henan Offices
Original office form Peeling up for views Shifting for daylight
Hybrid form for daylight and views
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Shifting for daylight
AcademicUniversity of Pennsylvania 2012-2013
University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2007-2012
The Wellness HubCompetition: The 2013 ULI Gerald Hines Urban Design Student CompetitionLocation: Minneapolis, MN
Award: Honorable Mention
Team Members (Penn): William Wong, MArchEunjee Hong, MLASa Min Han, MLA Erin Feehan-Nelson, MCP
Concept: Connected communities, active lifestyles, clean environment
The Wellness Hub improves Minneapolis’ downtown livability, helps connect the city’s iconic cultural destinations, and redefines Downtown East as a holistic, health oriented district. The project provides new residen-tial and commercial corridors anchored by a hotel and resort complex. Fresh markets, sports facilities, and community gardens
grow out from the armory and form the new and revitalized zone.
+ Contributions: site research, schematic design, 3d modeling, renderings, sustain-ability studies, diagrams, primary design of residential blocks, primary design of Hub blocks with hotel tower and apartment tower, and the elevated bike loop system
Academic: The Wellness Hub
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NEW STADIUM
Bike Circulation
‘ THE WELLNESS HUB ’Bike Tunnel
Proposed Bike Loop(Long-term Vision)
Main Bike Station
Mini Bike Stop
WELLNESS LOOP
BIKE CIRCULATION
NEWSTADIUM
ART / CULTURE
WEL
LNES
S / S
PO
RTS
ART / CULTURE
Green Hiarachy
Primary Green Connection
Secondary Community Path
Winter Garden
Roof Garden
Art Sculpture
View Point
ART / CULTURE
NEWSTADIUM
ResidentialCommercialHotel / Spa / ResortSports FacilityCommunity Service OfficeParking GarageTransit Center
LANDUSE
Bike Circulation Green Connections Program / Land Use
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The Armory: Fresh Market Elevated Bike Loop The Hub Hotel and Sports Plaza
Kerry Weldon | Academic30
Project: Redesigning the traditional American bathroomCourse: Architecture and Ecology (2012)Professor: Dr. William BrahamSchool: University of Pennsylvania
Team Member: Katelyn Mulry, MEBD ‘13
Concept: Understanding how much water we currently waste in bathrooms and redesigning the system into a closed loop
Is it possible to create a bathroom that wastes virtually no water and uses only renewable energy? The above sketches demonstrate potential strategies for reinventing the way we use water in the
bathroom. Combined with a social shift, this room of every American household could be come immensely more efficient.
+ Challenge: Investigating the possibility of a zero-waste bathroom through using renewable resources, captured rainwater, gravity-fed systems, and composting toilets
Garden Bathroom
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Key points + Conclusions
Change is possi-ble at multiple scales and in multiple ways
We can drastically re-duce the amount of water used in the bathroom with small lifestyle changes
Having highly visible sys-tems will reduce waste [knowledge is power]
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Key points + Conclusions
Change is possi-ble at multiple scales and in multiple ways
We can drastically re-duce the amount of water used in the bathroom with small lifestyle changes
Having highly visible sys-tems will reduce waste [knowledge is power]
Shower greywater filtered through planter box, directed outside for irrigation
Sink greywater filtered and stored for exterior irrigation
Gravity release basin for sink water to flow toward filtration box
Gravity-fed water filtration system
Gravity-fed low-flow sink and shower fixtures
Composting toilet system with exterior removal chamber
Roof solar water heater to for shower and sink water
Captured rainwater storage tank
Kerry Weldon | Academic32
responding to the post-industrial site, integrating old and new.
How can the Montessori Principles facilitate a design where the building itself is a tool for learning, maintaining a playful and stimulating learning environment for children?
“The instinct to move about, to pass from one discovery to another, is a part of children’s nature, and also must be a part of their education.”
Project: K-5 Montessori Elementary, Spartanburg SCCourse: 5th Year Comprehensive StudioProfessor: Chris BeorkremSchool: UNC Charlotte
Award: 1st Place, 2012 Atkins Library Research Awards
Concept: A playful and engaging learning environment for children that blends interior and exterior and encourages movement
Five Montessori principles (below) drive the design. Each of them works toward creating an environment that embraces a child’s nature to move, explore, grow, and ultimately learn. - Ordered environment - Independence - Learning from/with peers - Movement + cognition - Connection to nature
The main challenge for this project is drawing inspiration from Montessori Principles while
Glendale Montessori
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Academic: Glendale Montessori
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1. Ordered Environment
2. Independence
3. Collaboration with Peers
4. Movement + Cognition
5. Connection to Nature
Educational buildings should have an underlying system of logic and organization. Establishing a system of order along a bar using existing site features establishes the 25’ grid, which breaks down into a 20’ and 5’ rhythm.
Classrooms should be independent, operating more like pods than large masses. Separating classrooms into individual spaces (and aligning them along the creek side of the site) creates separated pods along the building.
Students should interact with their peers throughout the day, ultimately learning from each other and learning through teaching. Combining classrooms into two-room pods promotes interaction and collaboration, connected in the middle by a thick, occupiable cubby wall.
Children should be moving and constantly engaging with different actions, views, and challenges. Pushing and pulling classrooms establishes consistent movement in the school and develops more varied identities. In response, the back “service wall” contorts and moves.
Nature should be a tool for learning and an extension of the classroom. Outdoor classrooms spill out from the main building towards the creek to bring the students outside to learn throughout the day. Terracing gardens embrace the natural terrain to activate the site as a playground for education.
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Academic: Glendale Montessori
The way we learn has fundamentally changed, but often schools are designed the same way they were virtually a decade ago. Educational research has revealed evidence for how to rethink schools-- programmatically, spatially, socially, organizationally--and the buildings have potential to shape individual educational experiences.
How can an elementary school be designed based on this research, where the architecture directly responds to the evidence?
These questions are first filtered through the lens of Maria Montessori, an Italian
philosopher and educator who questioned both the way we learn and the spaces we learn in. Her philosophy drives this design project as an underlying set of challenges and points of inspiration.
Each of the five Montessori principles works toward creating an environment that embraces a child’s nature to move, explore, grow, and learn interactively. For example, to “learn from + with peers,” classrooms are in pods of two grades. Each 1st grade classroom is attached to a 2nd grade classroom to facilitate communication. In order to establish a connection with nature, each pod opens directly to a set of learning gardens that
bring education to the outdoors.
The design developed as a focused response to three different contexts: the environmental conditions, the post-industrial site, and the principles of Montessori Education. Responding to the environment involves incorporating both active and passive systems that the children could see and understand. Reacting to the site in its existing built and natural features represents a delicate and purposeful connection to nature. Incorporating the Montessori principles creates an engaging, collaborative, and interactive learning environment for students.
Plans & SectionsGlendale Montessori
K-5 Elementary School, Spartanburg SCKerry Weldon | Comprehensive Architectural Project
Plans + SectionsGlendale Montessori
K-5 Elementary School, Spartanburg SCKerry Weldon | Comprehensive Architectural Project
Ground Floor PlanN
25 ftSection A
B C D
A
B C D
A
ProgramClassroomsResourcesOfficesLibraryGymnasiumCafeService
1234567
1 1
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1 1 1
kindergarten Kindergarten
4th Grade4th Grade
2nd Grade 2nd Grade Art
1st Grade 1st Grade
5th Grade5th Grade
3rd Grade 3rd Grade Music
1 1
11
1 1 1
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5
3 2 2 2 2
6
7777 2
Classrooms Classroom Grade Levels - Organization
2+34+5
K+1
Grid Organization Service Bar Entry and Exit to Site Public Private
The instinct to move about, to pass from one discovery to another, is a part of children’s nature, and it must also be a part of their education.
“ ”-Maria Montessori
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Academic: Glendale Montessori
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Academic: Glendale Montessori
Adaptive Reuse
Four existing brick towers and a variety of stone retaining walls left from the mill that burned down in 2004, and one of the buildings will be the library tower for my elementary school. Existing stone retaining walls will be torn down, reusing the stone other places.
The north side of the building is submerged into the landscape, allowing for passive cooling through a thermal mass. The building is sunken in to give the impression that it is emerging from the landscape.
Earth Sheltering
Orientation along the site takes advantage of prevailing winds, which mainly come from the south/southwest between 10 and 20 km/h.
Summer Winter
Site Orientation, Existing Wind
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Rain Gardens
Small stages leading down to lowest basin aid in gradual phases of filtration, managing stormwater runoff before water returns to the nearby creek.
[On facade of classroom] Water filters through the green roof system, re-use in greywater, toilet flushing, situated along the “cubby wall” since students can only reach 3-5 feet above ground, visible to students.
Infiltration Planter Boxes
Shades from sunlight in the summer and allows light to enter in the winter, and the thermal mass floor creates passive radiant heating in the winter. A shorter overall classroom volume allows for deeper illumination.
Orientation + Overhangs
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Academic: Glendale Montessori
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Kerry Weldon | Academic44
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Kerry Weldon | Academic46
Wilmington PrefabProject: Prefabricated affordable housing, Wilmington NCCourse: 4th Year, Spring Studio (2011)Professor: John NelsonSchool: UNC Charlotte
Concept: Separation of Public and private allows for versatile configuration possibilities, in both plan and section
Affordable prefab housing inherently has a demanding set of constraints and challenges. Limited by what can fit on two
trucks, my design is a 1500 sf building made of three smaller components. A 2D size study (above right) evaluates different configurations of modules that make up the 1500sf requirement while fitting on two trucks.
Embracing the modular and separated nature of prefab housing, this scheme utilizes a separation of public and private spaces. Two private modules are joined with a public module that is more open and has a higher ceiling. Narrow
volumes maximize cross ventilation and daylighting.
The goal in resolving this particular scheme was to make it flexible enough to suit multiple variations using the same pieces. In the second half of the project, I explored possible iterations based on this first scheme. A prefabricated house becomes a prefabricated system of parts that can suit different family sizes, lots, and orientations.
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Academic: Wilmington Prefab
Public Module: Three modules make up the system of parts for all variations. The public module can connect on the most edges because it is the most open floor plan. Two of the edges that can not be connected are the ones that house the kitchen appliances. Because of its versatility, the public module becomes a hinge for the composition of units. The private modules stem off from this open floor plan in all of the feasible configurations.
- 28’ x 14’ - 392 SF- Kitchen- Living- Dining
- 28’ x 14’ - 392 SF- Bedroom 1 (8’ x 12.5’)- Bedroom 2 (8’ x 13’)- Full bathroom
- 20’ x 14’ - 280 SF- Bedroom 3 (8’ x 12.5’)- Full bathroom
Private Module 1: Since the large private module has two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a laundry room, there are less possible points of connection than on the public module. As the above image demonstrates, there is a seven foot wide area that can be a point of engagement. When this connects to the public module, the opening can be the entire dimension or only a three foot opening, depending on the configuration and degree of openness desired.
Private Module 2: Similar to the large private module, the small private module can connect to the public module anywhere on the seven foot area called out in the above image. By only allowing this choice of connection, the floor plan inside the module can remain exactly the same in each variation. Opening up all seven feet to the public module will allow for higher visibility and ventilation, but may offer slightly less privacy into the master suite.
Public Module: - 28' x 14' - 392 SF- Kitchen- Living- Dining
Private Module 1: - 28' x 14' - 392 SF- Bedroom (8' x 12.5')- Bedroom (8' x 13')- Full bathroom
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Deck Module 1:- 14’ x 14’ - 196 SF
Deck Module 2:- 14’ x 7’ - 98 SF
Deck Module 3:- 14’ x 7’ - 98 SF- Entry stairs
Deck Module 4:- 7’ x 7’ - 49 SF- Connector
Deck Module 1:- 14' x 14' - 196 SF
Deck Module 1:- 14' x 14' - 196 SF
Deck Module 2:- 14' x 7' - 98 SF
Deck Module 2:- 14' x 7' - 98 SF
Deck Module 3:- 14' x 7' - 98 SF- Entry stairs
Deck Module 3:- 14' x 7' - 98 SF- Entry stairs
Deck Module 4:- 7' x 7' - 49 SF- Connector
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Academic: Wilmington Prefab
Variation 4: PinwheelVariation 3: Cross Shape
Variation 5: Push / Pull Variation 6: U-Shape
Variation 1: Sliding Bars Variation 2: T-Shape
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F F
E
E
Variation 4: Pinwheel
Variation 5: Push / PullModules slide away from each other, opening up more faces to the exterior. The public module is the most open, and two of its sides host a wraparound porch. In suit with the prefabricated project, structural trusses in section are identical for mass-production.
The system is prefabricated yet customizable. Different arrangements, such as the six called out to the left, offer a wide range of solutions. They have 2 to 4 bedrooms, 700sf to 1200sf, dense to open layouts, and most importantly, all use a combination of the same three original modules.
Variation 2: T-Shape
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Academic: Wilmington Prefab
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Kerry Weldon | Academic54
Houston has adopted an initiative, despite its deep roots in oil, to embrace solar energy. Woven together like Houston’s own diverse threads, the campus promotes searching for solar innovations, exhibiting progress, and engaging the community. Science, culture, and housing combine to create a place to work, live, and discover.
The design began with a system of
Project: Houston Solar Initiative Research Campus, Houston TXCourse: 4th Year, Fall Studio (2010)Professor: Chris JarrettSchool: UNC Charlotte
Concept: A system of bars that weave together research, housing, and retail while addressing two unique contextual edges
shifting bars bridging the city and the river while touching the site lightly. Responding to the waters edge and the urban-organic dichotomy of the site, the bars begin rigid near the city, spreading and transforming as they protrude towards the water.
How can the urban edge respond with a rigid order and expand out toward nature on its organic counterpart while maintaining programmatic continuity?
Solar Research Campus
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Order against chaosResponse to water’s edgeSystem of shifting bars Hybrid solution
ORGANIC
URBAN
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Academic: Solar Research Campus
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[Galleries + Retail]
[Circulation] [Program Woven Together]
[Solar Research Towers][Housing Units]Discover
Connect Integrate
WorkLive
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Academic: Solar Research Campus
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Steel Stru
cture
Poured C
oncrete
Glass
Precast U
nits
Roof Gard
ens
Solar Arra
ys
Kerry Weldon | Academic60
Project: Charlotte Amtrak Railway Station Location: Charlotte, NCCourse: 3rd Year, Fall Studio (2009)Professor: Bryan ShieldsSchool: UNC Charlotte
Concept: Pushing and pulling to influence movement and facilitate circulation from the site to the train tracks
Bound by the tracks and an urban edge, this building is both a destination and a point of traveling through. One edge opens up toward the city to gather people inward, while the opposite edge pushes out toward the track to guide people to the train. Compression and expansion manipulate form in both plan and section to respond to program and ideal movement.
+ Challenge: Funneling passengers from the low topography of the parking lot up to the train tracks
+ Inquiry: How can the building embrace the transverse movement of the train and subtly expand and contract to influence the traveler’s path?
Charlotte Train Station
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Academic: Charlotte Train Station
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Interior Compression
Pedestrian Movement Expansion and ReleaseCirculation: entry to tracks
Rhythm Development Section Integration
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Academic: Charlotte Train Station
Ground Level Plan
1 2 3
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Entrance Perspective - Compression Interior Perspective - Rhythm
1 Entrance Lobby2 Ticketing Threshold3 Restaurant4 Interior Waiting5 Exterior Waiting
Exterior Atrium Perspective - Emerging
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Ground Level Plan Ground Level Plan
1 Entrance Lobby2 Ticketing Threshold3 Restaurant4 Interior Waiting5 Exterior Waiting
Emerging from the ground, the train station entrance embraces the steep topography and gathers people from the lowest part of the site. A tapered angle funnels circulation into the point of compression: the ticketing box. An atrium in the center brings light down below to highlight the ticketing threshold and information desk through which all travelers pass. Beyond this threshold, the building grows and
expands again in section towards a large public space. Here the building opens up to the tracks with a restaurant and gathering space for passengers to wait for the train. Eating and waiting spaces spill out on the east side of the building, allowing for exterior engagement with the park. Linear programmatic gestures emulate the transverse movement of the train, moving forward while looking out to the sides.
Kerry Weldon | Academic66
Project: An open park pavilion based on a human-scale gridCourse: Digital Methods (2009)Professor: Jeremy RohSchool: UNC Charlotte
Concept: Developing a flat grid based on the space occupied by a human body, contorting it to create different modes
of 3-Dimensional space, and applying a structural component inspired by nature
Starting with a rectangular grid, this project explores transformation through twisting and pinching. The grid becomes deformed, but retains an underlying system of order. As a result, places to sit, stand, lay down, or climb, emerge within the new form.
Utilizing an octagonal structural module derived from a bee’s honeycomb, my script arranges the component into a surface condition applied over the digital form. The honeycomb shape offers a natural element along a once-square gruid. An underlying order remains and reveals the original twisting pinching with more dense clusters of structural components.
The Hive Pavilion
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Personal
Kerry Weldon | Academic70
Flower Drying StandProject: Creating a stand for a drying flower, inspired by an artist and architect, while experimenting with connections in wood, concrete, and steel.
Concept: Understanding how concrete, wood, and steel connect on a full scale model
The model itself is a house for a dying (and drying) flower, superimposing nature and the man made artifact. Beginning with an artist and an architect for inspiration, the project springs from derivatives of their process, style, and use of materials.
Artist: Yuken Teruya:Yuken cuts out one side of disposable paper bags and assembles a tree from the cut-out part (below left). Each tree comes to life in the same bag that it came from, revealing an honest and minimal solid-void relationship.
Architect: Saucier + Perrotte:Saucier + Perrotte’s superimposed volumes are composed of rich and contrasting materials that respond to the context (below right). For example, a building side against the forest features rough-cut wood while the edges open
to views are light, transparent, and composed of steel and glass.
+ Challenge: Understanding how to put the different types of materials together at 1:1 scale and respond to the ideas demonstrated in the two precedents
+ Inquiry: How can superimposed materials respond to the solid and void relationships of Yuken Teruya and contrasting materials of Saucier + Perrotte?
Artist: Yuken Teruya Architect: Saucier + Perrotte
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Steel Wire Connection:The delicate wire runs taught through the middle of the box, suspending a flower by its stem below
Wood Connection: A solid steel dowel runs through both types of wood to allow the lighter pieces to float
Concrete Connection: Steel bolts anchored in the concrete create a steady connection from wood frames to the base
Kerry Weldon | Academic72
clear central axis sprouts parallel arteries. Dividing the city into four wards, the central axis becomes less prominent but still important. Its role within the city is a main corridor from which development spreads outward. At this time, the identity of Tryon begins to blur with its context.
A scene from 1880’s Charlotte shows a small, mid-rise town. The image suggests a slower city, one traveled by wagon or on foot. Here Tryon is a main artery of transportation. Roads that start to sprout off from this point do not rival the main axis and only serve small clusters of houses.
To its furthest roots, the last (and deepest) layer of the city is the Great Wagon Road. Running from Pennsylvania to Georgia, the road slices through Charlotte where Tryon Street lies today. At this time, the road was the only axis, primary in a sense that nothing else existed around it. Travelers would settle along this trail, sprouting up small towns and villages along the way.
Concept: Peeling back the layers of a city through collage, revealing a temporal narrative of growth, expansion, and shifting hierarchies.
Charlotte, a relatively young city, is a node in the landscape that grew from a historical axis. As the primary axis in the city, Tryon Street was once the only road in Charlotte. This axis has changed – in material, in scale, in speed – but its function remains fundamentally the same.
The first layer represents the city, as we know it: a network of steel and glass rising from the asphalt sea, speckled with people below, organized along a rigid grid. Hierarchy is sectional, and regulated roads repeat through the building corridors. Tryon brings people in to the city and back out. The road is not for lingering, but for moving through the city and to its inner destinations.
Shedding back one layer of time, the second set of information references the development of the city grid. A
The axis connected everything.
As a central organizing artery, Tryon is to Charlotte what the Great Wagon Road was to the region. It functions as a central core, but it now blends with its surroundings. Tryon is the same width as surrounding roads, and composed of similar materials and buildings. It is primary because we know it is in the center and because it extends past the city to draw us in. However, when traveling on this road, drivers can rarely even make turns or park without a shroud of warning signs. As this axis grew and developed over time, its role in the city came with rules and regulations.
What still rings true is that the city is organized along this spine of activity, although the activities themselves have changed. The central axis acts just as it did when Charlotte was founded, and it will conceivably remain as a dominant organization and functional driver of the city in the future.
Temporal Narrative of the City
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Kerry Weldon | Academic74
Natural Diagramsing of the buildings. Exploring form, pro-portion, and order while visiting the build-ings offered a new way to see them, much different from looking up drawings and photographs.
The on-site models and reconstructed drawings demonstrate the raw under-standing of each building, uncovering their unique essence in the form of a dia-gram constrained by the site.
Project: Capturing the fundamental es-sence of a building while on siteProject Location: Switzerland, France, and Germany
During a four-week study abroad, I ab-stracted and distilled a set of buildings to their purest diagrams. At each site, I used found materials to create diagrammatic reconstructions of my perception, experi-ence, and understanding of the buildings
on their landscapes in the natural world.
For each building, I projected a set of plans and elevations based on the visit to the sites. Instead of making projections based on existing drawings, I would walk around the structures and uncover sets of proportions and rhythms that enabled 2D reconstruction of the space.
Each study provided a new understand-
Saint Benedict ChapelPeter Zumthor
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Ronchamp
Signal Box
Frietag Flagship Store
Basel Main Train Station
Shelter for Roman Ruins
Beyeler Foundation
La Tourette Chapel
Halen Housing
Villa Savoye
KERRY WELDONemail: krw@kerryweldon.com
phone: 704-264-7660website: http://www.kerryweldon.com
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