Keefer DunnWork Samples

Particulars

Keefer Dunn3321 South Lowe Ave

Chicago, Illinois 60616678 634 4689

www.kdunn.info

Biographical Note

Keefer Dunn is currently pursuing an M. Arch. at Illinois Institute of Technology. He is interested in

architecture history and theory, but he knows his way around a detail too.

Georgia Mosque

Spring 2012Professor Sabir Khan

Individual project

This project for a mosque in the Atlanta suburb of Fayetteville drew heavily on a study of historical precedent, particularly the architecture of Mughal Mosques which use subtle shifts in material and elevation at the horizontal and large vertical planes to delineate space. This planarity also led me to draw from the spatial strategies of Mies van der Rowe’s Brick Country Villa. I was particularly interested in the dual function of Qibla walls, as architectonic devices that also spiritually collapse the space between the subject and Mecca. In fact, aside from the retaining walls and existing buildings that bracket the site and allow for a spir-itual separation from the surrounding context, the project contains mostly Qib-la walls. Because of the psychological and symbolic function of the Qibla the presence of prayer and closeness to Islam’s holiest site is felt throughout the whole building.

top. mughal mosque middle. model photo

bottom. mies’ brick country villa

left. model photographyright. plan

1/8”=1’ plan close-up

above, sections

model photograph

axonometric wall sectionshowing internal drainage channels

axonometric wall sectionshowing prayer room enclosure

left. axonometric wall section showing ablution fountainstop. model photo showing prayer hallbottom. rendering showing courtyard

Howard Street Hybrid

Spring 2014. Professor Tom Brock.Design Partner: Ferdinand Kuznik

The urban ambition of this project for a mixed-use development in Chicago’s Roger’s Park neighborhood was to strengthen the Howard street corridor on the northern edge of the site. To this end, we proposed a series of three pavilions and two towers that define a plaza on Howard. This plaza dialogues with the park across the street, nearby businesses, and the proposed pavilions. Urbanism also requires space for repose and reflection, thus we proposed a sunken grotto on the qui-et southern side of the site where residents and neighbors can gather under the shade of birch trees. The towers were situated care-fully to maximize views out, and maintain uninterrupted views of Lake Michigan from the train station and future development to the east. As guest critics noted, the project uses a modernist vocabulary, but unlike its cousins in Chicago’s downtown, the sensitiv-ity of the building massing to the urban con-ditions gave the project a welcome delicacy.

above, concept study collage

Plaza

Grotto

left, building massingright, public areas at ground level

Printing Press

8000sf of Printing Facilitie

s

For Artist and Residential Use

Roger Tower66 Residences (550 sf-1250sf each)

Howard Tower36 Artists Studios (250-375sf each)

36 Residences (950-1250sf each)

Market Hall

8000sf of Vendor Space

with Storage Below

Community and Offices

Upper Level - Offices

Street Level - Gallery a

nd Tower Lobbies

Garden Level - Community C

lassrooms

program diagrams

building in context

ground floor plan

typical tower plans

model photography

model photography

tower north facade detail

tower south facade detail

perspective views

speculative reimagining of the park across the street

The Disappearing City

Fall 2014. Professor Marshall Brown.Design Partners: Cameron Cortez,

Michael Finn, and Surambika Pradhan

Suring this semester long study, we devel-oped as a studio what we termed “scenar-iograms,” histories of a possible future envisioned using scenario-planning tech-niques, and presented in a short film. The scenariogram developed by my team was called “The Disappearing City,” and it imagined a future urbanism where im-mersive technology and driverless cars have rendered city centers obsolete. Within the context of this scenarigram, we developed an urban vision for a half-mile square site in the suburbs south of Chicago. The proj-ect challenges urban design values and many of the preconceptions about suburbs by showing how a kind of urbanism could exist in a low-density horizontal environ.

elements

1. pavillion2. theatre / stage3. park4. basketball court5. tennis court6. soccer field7. bioswale8. art installation / projection space9. playground10. pool11. monuments / lights12. driveway13. plaza14. gardens

elements

1. gardens2. pool3. parking space4. art installation / projection space5. monuments / lights

reimagined suburban streetscapes

1960CONCEPTION

THE METROPOLIS DRAWS NEAR, A

LOVING EMBRACE ENABLED BY THE

AUTOMOBILE. THE ONLY LITTLE DEATH

IS THAT OF LOCAL INDUSTRY.

2014TWILIGHT

YEARS

STAGNATION. IN ITS AGE, THE PERIPHERY IS MISUNDERSTOOD AND FORGOTTEN. A RETIREMENT HOME

IS BUILT.

1991ADOLES-

CENCE

IN THE ABSENCE OF STRICT ZONING,

EXUBERANT EXPANSION SEES BIG BOXES AND

TRACT HOUSES RUN WILD

1901FOREPLAY

A RAILROAD IS BUILT, THE

METROPOLIS TO THE NORTH FLIRTS

WITH THE STEEL AND COWS TO THE

SOUTH

1998MIDDLE

AGES

GROWTH SLOWS, BUILDINGS GET

FACE LIFTS, EMPTY TRACTS ARE

INFILLED WITH DOUR OFFICES.

1968BIRTH

THE UNION BETWEEN

METROPOLIS AND PERIPHERY BEGETS A MALL, AND THE MALL BEGETS A

NEIGHBORHOOD.

left, site location highlighted in reddowntown chicago at top of image,

eighteen miles awayabove, site history narrative

stills from scenariogram movie

Towards FlatnessA Prescription for the Disappearing City

Ourmetropolitanareasareflattening,atermusedby Judith De Jong to describe the suburbanization of cities and the urbanizing of the suburbs. It’s a simple enough assertion,butonethatdoesnotsquareeasilywiththehand-wringingaboutclimate,technology,andpoliticsfoundin architecture schools and media outlets across the country. Inspiteof varyingpositionsontheseissues,therightandleftare united in fear. Our American Dreams have given way to American Anxieties.

But Flatness promises more. Flatness is free of value judgements because the oppositions that cause us so much consternation have dissipated. It does not ignore the prob-lems,butbysidesteppingtheanxietyandreframingthedebate,itopensuppossibilitiesforustoenvisionapossiblefuturenotpaintedbyfantasyorfear,butrathertheideathatwe might be able to reconstitute a meaningful relationship between the built environment and daily social life.

Flatnessalsooffersusthepossibilityof recoupingtheAmerican Dream by challenging stasis. Our city centers have beenfreezingformanyyears,reducedtostaticiconographyandopenairmuseums,theyexistasmonumentstowaysof livingthatarequicklybeingoutmoded.Flatteningisnotthedestructionof thecity,butitiscertainlyitstransformationintosomethingdifferent.Weproposethatthefrozencityof todaywillmeltintoapoolof urbanity,fluidandflat,cling-ing to the surface and rippling with activity. The substance remainsthesame,butthestatehaschangedtoradicaleffect.Thefrozencityhasdisappeared,andwenowhavepermis-siontostopworryingandlovetheflatness.

urban condition before and after

Speculations on the FutureA Description of the Disappearing City

Theenvisionedfutureof flatnesswasrootedinastudyof eleven (sub)-urban fundamentals which we compiled into a book.Weresearchedthehistoryof eachelementandthenengaged in speculation about each elements future within the context of the project scenariogram.

Intheflatness...

thelandscapeisanintentionalbyplaceof repose,manu-factured as a matter of intent instead of neglect.

low-risesareclearinghousesof culture,dividedandredivid-edtoaccommodatetheebbandflowof specialinterests.

monumentsareelementalbeacons,configurabletosuitchanging common desires of a society disinterested in stasis.

curbsarerecessedreceptacles,nolongeravisualburdenasdriverlesscarsknowwheretheybelong.

signsareinvisiblecuestoaction,digitalligaturesmappingthe datascape to the urban territory.

streetscapes are distended cul-de-sacs where scape has takenoverstreet,andfrontyardsareboulevards.

turf istheshagcarpetof nature’shedonism,occasionallymanicured to accommodate the hedonism of people.

fencesaremixingboardsof virtualcamouflage,extendingdesired realties beyond boundaries.

tracthousesaresobercontainersof rudiment,animatedfrom the interior by immersive technologies.

bigboxesarepolestarsof commodityflow,carnivalsof consumption consummated by last-mile delivery.

both pages, selected pages from the urban fundamentals book

Aerial Photograph

site conditions 2014

site conditions 2064

1”=50’ site plan close-up

1”=50’ site plan close-up

Turf Area - Site (12.5acres)

paved area 2014

paved area 2064

top, remote lot for driverless carsbottom, new street morphology

and urban spaces

above, reimagining of a big box parking lot

the tract home of the future

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