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Undergraduate por t fo l io by Tommy K im

Arch i tec tu ra l t ime l ine

Will be graduating with a Bachelor of ArchitectureThesis titled ‘Home’: a housing design for a children’s community

Fifth-year with Heiner Schnoedt and Ellen BraatenAwarded the AIA Virginia PrizeSharetz, Franklin, Crawford, Shaffner (SFCS) scholarship

Fourth-year with Marcia Feuerstein, Nic Geißendörfer, Paul Emmons, and PhD studentsCharles S. Worley scholarshipWarren Kark scholarship

Third-year with Elizabeth GrantAwarded as a finalist for the Virginia Tech third-year competitionAwarded with first place for the RCI Mid-Atlantic Chapter competition

Second-year with Christian Gänshirt and Ellen Braaten

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First-year with Dave Dugas and Marie Paget

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Home

L ib ra r y o f fo rb idden book s

P lace to v iew tu rb ines

W WI memor ia l

Lu ther Memor ia l Lu theran Church

Duck Pond to i l e t

Indoor house

Sk y chape l

Pot s

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Bus maintenance + s torage fac i l i t y

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Pot s

When asked about ‘what best embodies Korean art’, we can take our pottery. Silently, our pottery speaks of our landscapes, the breath of our ancestors, the faintly echoing folk songs, the patina of our history—we can hear the endearing poetry of our people. Long, slender, feeble, sometimes seeming haughty, sometimes with sorrow, warm, soft harmo-ny of curves; sat on top, just enough of a luxurious pattern, a blue, clear, and bright veil of light on this lady; this is the Goryeo celadon. Mature yet seemingly confused, speaking as directly as it could, with beauty from its good-willed, childlike, and simple nature; ugly roundness, honest, familiar, and a warm and ever-white light; veins of every Korean person, dressed in white, are all connected here. So to speak, it could be the taste of a deeply fragrant liquor or an easy-going rice wine—this is the world of Joseon pottery and the beauty of Joseon pots.

Choi Soon-woo [Leaning on the Entasis Column at Mooryangsoojeon]

Bowl-bowls (moon jar) Two bowls are thrown on the wheel. They are intended to be either equal or complementary to each other. They are indi-vidually trimmed to make the neck or the foot. The two trimmed bowls are joined at their lips to make the jar. The upper bowl and the joint are trimmed for structural stability and refinement. The shape of this jar is happenstantial, governed by laws of physics, material characteristics, and chance.

Above: 18.5cmRight-above: 19cm

Right: 26cm

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Bowl-bowl with lid. 29cm

My view of architecture considers the sensory and phenomenological impli-cations of its tectonic parts. I am interested in the ways that a building can influence space, therefore influencing the inhabitants of space. I believe that architecture gains meaning through the way it is inhabited.

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Chi ld ren’s communi t yHealing Springs, Bath County, Virginia.I2015 - 2016. Two semesters.Undergraduate thesis.

Overall plan cut at 14’ above first floor of southernmost houseshowing houses cutting into the hill

Home as an idea is amorphous.The sense of home is dependent on the inhabitant.An architectural space can offer a house for this sense of home.The architecture of a house aims to fulfill the needs of physiology, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.A house can be defined as an orchestration of:

a bed under the morning sun a window to nature a table for the family a cellar in the dark an attic for daydreaming

First floor

Floor plans of a typical house

Second floor Third floor

Cross section showing the five points

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Bedroom dormer as an attic

In-between the housesThe hearth can become the focus of the living room

Living room as a table

The building on the hill looks toward the creek and a spring house

Arrangement diagram

Photo showing the existing site slope

The small creek appears after rainfall

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A p lace to v iew tu rb inesEagle Rock, Virginia.2015. Three days.AIA Virginia Prize.

A space is determined, meaning finite, and fixed by its periphery and/or the objects in it. A space is meant for something, offers protection to something, or makes a thing accessible. It is to some degree specifi-cally made, maybe variable as regards function, but not accidental. A space has something object-like about it, even though it may be the exact opposite of an object[...] Yet space is a relative concept. A void in a house [...] gives a sense of space, as does an extra-spacious balcony, terrace, landing, stair, or porch. In each case it involves relatively more than one expects and are used to: space is beyond.

Herman Hertzberger [Articulations]

Currently, Virginia has no wind farms. This building not only meets the pragmatic demands of a turbine array but also engages the natural landscape with a large-scale human intervention.

An architectural promenade at one ridge of the Appalachian mountains is embedded as a block in the mountainside. At the main lobby is an unassuming door that leads into a 300-foot concrete tunnel, double-loaded with glass display cases containing a wind turbine wing and information plaques. At the end of the tunnel, open-to-air elevator continues the promenade vertically towards the light at the top. The elevator stops just before the top. A second tunnel gently ramps up and narrows to a point. The initial the pinpoint light at the end of the tunnel becomes a portal onto a platform that offers a view of the mountain range and the turbines.

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L ib ra r y o f fo rb idden book sOld Town Alexandria, Virginia.2015. One semester.

The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite num-ber of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings. From any of the hexagons one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors. [...] Also through here passes a spiral stairway, which sinks abysmally and soars upwards to remote distances. In the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates all appearances. Men usually infer from this mirror that the Li-brary is not infinite (if it were, why this illusory duplication?); I prefer to dream that its polished sur-faces represent and promise the infinite...

Jorge Luis Borges [The Library of Babel]

Stacks that reflect to “infinity”

This library holds a collection of books banned by dictating authorities, religious and/or political, throughout history.

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First floorGallery + lobby

Second floorLarge reading room

Third floorStudy rooms

200 ft

Duke St

Nursery

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Alternative school

Site plan showing the relationship between the building and the two plazas

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Looking south on Peyton Street

The stacks of books are shelved between steel columns at the core corridor of the building. The shelves are backed by plywood panels and attached to the columns to mimic book covers. Metal grate floors at every floor connect the stacks acoustically and thermally. At the north end of the corridor, a mirror makes the corridor seem to extend into a bright light. The building is wrapped with glass. In-between the two layers of glass, rhythmically-spaced metal louvers block direct daylight at the reading level without blocking the horizon-tal view. This glass façade is penetrated by volumes that branch out from the stacks. They become the overhead condition above the main stairs and in the large reading room. These volumes are woven with vertical shafts for toilets, egress stairs, and elevators. On the top floor, there is a long roof patio above the main stairs. On the other side of the stacks, offices and a house for the librarian serve the daily functions of the library.

T. O. parapet47’ - 6”

Fifth floor43’ - 6”

Fourth floor33’ - 0”

Third floor22’ - 6”

Second floor12’ - 0”

First floor0’ - 0”

Basement12’ - 0”

Main stairs as a semi-transitional space

Room penetrating the glass Longitudinal section through shaftsRooms from the central stack

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Peyton St elevation reveals the life within the building

Preliminary drawing shows the stacks “inside” the wall

Bus maintenance + s torage fac i l i t yNew England.2014 - 2015. Thirteen months.

Transit projects demand this primary concern: the vehicles are the buildings’ main inhabitants. The ar-rangement of rooms must derive from the scale, pro-grammatic needs, and the mechanic nature of these vehicles.

The large size of buses frequently push admin-istrative offices onto the second floor. Instead of relying on elevators, our team experimented with ramping up to the entrance of the admin-istration area. The massing studies showed us certain geometric qualities that informed later designs.

Bus entrance under ramp and plaza

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Wor ld War I memor ia lNorthwest Washington, D.C.2015. Two weeks.Team competition at Wendel Companies.

While those who fell in Korea and Vietnam, as well as in World War II, are honored and remembered with memorials on the National Mall, no such recognition is given to the veterans of World War I. In December 2014, one hundred years after the start of the war, the U.S. Congress authorized a new memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue, one block from the White House and with a commanding view of the Capitol.

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military personnel

49states/districts

Overall section through the thresholdDrawn by a team member

Field of gates as a symbol of trench warfare

World War I is infamous for its trench warfare. Metal portals are placed across an uneven land-scape as an abstraction of trenches. Two layers of walls cut across the turbulent landscape to carve out a plaza. Between the walls, visitors can place poppies in respect for the soldiers from their state or district.

Site plan outlining paths in the fieldDrawn by a team member

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Luther Memor ia l Lu theran ChurchBlacksburg, Virginia.2014. One semester.

The existing Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, located near the Virginia Tech campus, has a brick façade, a tall bell tower, and a sanctuary with a colored glass-block wall. A design charette with the church members suggested that the church needs to open its arms to the public at-large, especially the university. In addition, the membership is growing and the sanctuary will need to accommodate more people. The adjacent ministry center would function more effectively as an inte-grated part of the main building. The basement walls are molding inside and will need heavy repairs.

Nowhere else do I find this violence, this total absence of the slightest concern for beauty: nothing here is set down to please the eye. Even the numbers of the Stations seem thrown on the wall, bru-tally. (And I remember a remark Père Festugière made to me — that “the sacred disappears from art whenever a deliberate care for the beauty of forms intervenes.”)

Marie-Alain Couturier [L’Art Sacre: The stations of the cross]Wall section of a colored light well

VestibuleAbove: morningBelow: late afternoon

The vestibule changes color depend-ing on the time of day and season. The eastern wall glows in yellow. The western wall glows in blue. The ceil-ing glows in the color of the sun.

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Prices Fork Rd

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Virginia Tech campus

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First floor

Section S-N

The front part of the building, cladded with brick, serves the community activities. At one corner of this part, there are two courtyards—one of water, one of grass—bounding the cor-ridor that leads to the vestibule. The water can be used to clean before entering the sacred. The grass is the last glimpse of the open air before entering the vestibule.

After the vestibule is the sanctuary in white stucco. The processional path from the tall doors to the pulpit is not centered. The al-tar is offset from the path, and the cross is at the other end of the room. This arrangement states that the sacred can be found in more ways than one.

Area for community activities faces the campusSanctuary is connected by a vestibule

200 ft

Inside the sanctuary, light wells change depending on the time of day and season

South elevation showing two contrasting masses

Section through the processional path

#1: Stations to the sanctuary

#2: Winding path

#3: Two buildings; the sacred and the profane

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Duck Pond to i l e tBlacksburg, Virginia2013. Ten days.Virginia Tech third-year competition.

Accessible, thermally regulated toilet facility at the Duck Pond, Virginia Tech.

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East elevation

A long concrete wall cuts into the pond and earth to become a part of the landscape. Visitors walk down a wooden ramp and hear the sound of each step. They enter the toilet and see the pond in a new view as the roof compresses down to frame a waterfall.

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I ndoor houseSite to be determined.2013. Three weeks.

The given shelter is built with a system of 4x8ft structural insulated panels (SIPs). The initial unit is 16x20ft: 10 floor panels and 20 wall panels. This system allows for variation within itself through the use of interchangeable panels, but it also accepts traditional building forms as well. The shelter represents the structural core of a house that can take on almost any form. This standard shelter transforms into a house.

Preliminary sketch of inward-gesturing walls

Typical shelterSection N-S

The Indoor House adopts a rigorous gesture of sheltering. Load-bearing partitions are drawn in L-shapes that concave towards the original shelter. The original shelter is deconstructed and converted into an interior courtyard. The most secure location of the house is open-air. This house reuses the SIPs from vacant shel-ters after the initial phase of relief, reflecting the relationships and memories formed by the community.

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Seen from the living room, the courtyard as the deepest “indoor”

Small bedroom looks into the courtyard

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Sk y chape lBlacksburg, Virginia2012. One semester.

A little chapel for 25 architecture students.

Sketches of viewpoints in the entrance sequence

This chapel is conceived as a floating box for viewing the sky. The entrance to the building is a concrete corridor without a door. The corridor leads to a wooden door, past which is a wooden stair-case. Up the stairs is a small lobby. Visitors can enter the chapel through nar-row portals. The chapel gives a round-framed view of the sky that changes through time. (This design has now been compromised by new construction on campus.)

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Second floor

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Site with constant pedestrian trafficThe chapel floats as a result

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Tommy K im571.271.7101tk.tommykim@gmail.com

Thank you.