Design Portfolio by Kara White

CHIOSTRO DEL BRAMENTE PIAZZA SANTA MARIA DELLA

DESIGN

PORTFOLIO

ABOUT ME

Aspiring designer with experience in landscape architecture and spatial composition, and is guided by a commitment to design practices that create environments which enhance the human condition. A growing focus is placed on expanding knowledge in sustainable and regenerative design strategies, and exploring how architecture can respond more responsibly and productively to ecological and social systems.

SKILLS

EDUCATION

2025

Bachelor of Arts: Architecture

University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture

EXPERIENCE

2020

2021

Cutco Cultery Sales Associate

Built relationships with customers by answering questions to encourage repeat business. Also assessed customer needs and utilized suggestive selling techniques to drive sales.

Mercy Hospital Pharmacy Technician

Answered incoming phone calls and addressed questions from nurses and other medical professionals. Also enhanced pharmacy workflow by assisting pharmacists with dispensing, labeling, packaging, stocking, labeling, and inventorying medication.

VOLUNTEER WORK

2010-2020

Trick-or-Treat so Kids can Eat

2013-2019

Stuff the Bus

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Heifer Ranch: Habitats of Regeneration

18

House as Museum

An Architectural Study

24

The Center

Architecture/Engineering Education Building

30

The Pavillian 21st Century Garden

Sports/Movement Facility Center

Heifer Ranch: Habitats of Regeneration 21st Century Garden

Perryville, AR

2025 Heifer International is a global, non-profit known for ending hunger and poverty by providing livestock, seeds, and training to farmers in need. This project introduces an opportunity for Heifer Ranch to educate all age ranges on regenerative agricultural practices. It provides opposing habitats by creating a balance with native and introduced species in the enterence to the ranch.

The project was presented to the client as three phases due to the lack of funding. Phase 1 clears trees on site, grades out the pond, plants new speices, and adds the main ciculation spine, inculding the first boardwalk, and an enterence to the bird blind. Phase 2 preps the barn for remodeling, and finishes adding the paths, boardwalks/bridge, and the remaining vegetation onto the site. In the Final Phase, the vegetation has started to mature, the barn gets rennovated into the education center and garden, pollenator cities get integrated into the native meadow, and signage gets incorporated throughout the site.

PHASE 1

POLLENATOR CITY

PURPLE

WILD TURKEY

NORTHERN

YELLOW

WARBLER

SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER

NORTHERN BOBWHITE

PURPLE

SIDEOATS

EASTERN GAMMA

GRASS

ILLINOIS BUNDLEFLOWE

LOBLOLLY PINE

ALL SPICE

BUCKEYE ARROWWOOD VIRBURNUM

RENTENTION POND

POND SLOPE MIX BANK STABILIZATION

TREE GROVE

ARROWWOOD VIRBURNUM

GRAZING HABITIAT

BLUE GROSBEAK

OZARK WITCH HAZEL

EASTERN KING BIRD

EASTERN REDBUD

NORTHERN BOBWHITE

HUMMING BIRD WOOD DUCK

BANK SEED MIX

MINNOWS

GREAT BLUE HERON TREE SWALLOW RIZOMES

NUTRIENT HOTSPOT

INCREASED SOIL AERATION

WOOD STRUCTURE

CORRUGATED METAL

2MM STEEL PLATE CONNECTION

JOINT CONNECTION

WOOD RAILING EMBEDDED IN GABION

WOOD PLATE CONNECTION

2X4” WOOD RAILING

2X4” WOOD RAILING

2X6” WOOD DECKING

6X8” WOOD BEAM

6X8” WOOD JOIST

6X8” WOOD SUPPORTS

1’ WOOD COLUMN

GABION FOUNDATION

NORTH

WEST EAST

EAST SOUTH

SOUTH

The barn remodel consisted of continuing the same structural system and added a bay for the opportunity for additional space. The interior was enclosed using cinder blocks, glazing, and the now three bays are seperated by folding wall, and two large sliding barn doors. This functionality allows for Heifer to hosts classes of all sizes or age groups and choose the type of space they want to create. The building practices thermal cooling methods as well as a regenerative water system that recycles rain water into potable sink water. It has a chain water collection barrel that is used for the educational garden beside it.

02 House as Museum

An Architectural Study

Prague, Czechia 2023

House as Museum is an architectural study of Villa Müller by Adolf Loos. This certified Iconic House showcases Loos’ architectural innovation in his Raumplan spatial design. This project studies his spaces with a series of articles and pictures in order to create a plaster casted model that showcases the Raumplan of the villa. The goal is to understand the impact of spatial perception of an image, and how the environment (negative space) of the images read to the viewer.

The study starts with a dive through the villa’s history. Once home to František Müller passed away, no one occupied the villa for two years (as seen in the 1970 photo). Although be done before the house was open to the public. The 1990 photo gives a sense on how layout used for the museum versus when it was lived in. The 2007 photo is the most but also through the interior layout being reverted back to the lived in orginial which

Müller and his wife Milada Müller, the house was completed in 1930. After Mrs. Müller Although there was no damage from the absence of life, minor rennovations needed to how the rennovations differed from the original, and showcases a different furniture recent in terms of changes, which are not only visible through rennovation repairs which was closer to what Loos imagined for the space.

Referencing the image on the left, the representation of what is seen in the photo is casted into plaster. Planes are made using the perspective lines the camera created, making everything in that plane read as the front and everything behind anything read as void. It captures the camera’s perception of the space in a 3D model that can be interperated, reinterperated, and studied.

The Center

Architecture/Engineering Education Building

New

York, NY

2023

In the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, the presence of the brick sets a vernacular of the area. Using local materials, this project is a representation of a heavy brick massing that breaks apart to expose a courtyard made of glass. The Center is a symbol of a canyon that opens up access for the sun creating a light well that disperses sunshine throughout the building. Since brick allows for more privacy, the classrooms and back of studios sit along the exterior, while communal areas gather towards the center.

This building is meant to house four college disciplinaries which include: Architecture, Environmental Engineering, Landscape Architecture, and Plant Ecology Each department has their own program designed for their individual needs, but has dispersed moments where unity and conversion is encouraged.

In the center courtyard on the ground floor, there stands a community garden and market that is grown and operated by the students. The glass becomes the viewing eye across the courtyard to display the studios of the different discplinaries, the model shop, and the social/study spaces. ADA accessible ramp bridges are the main connecting circulation between the two buildings, combining the classroom areas with the studios and other common spaces.

Visual [Colors/Form]

Taste [Edible]

Smell [Scent]

Insect [Attraction]

Carbon Dioxide [Aborption]

The Pavillion

Sports/Movement Facility

North Little Rock, AR 2024

This athletic program project is intended to connect North Little Rock communities with each other while utilizing the riverfront safely in respect of the flooding that the river experiences. The site combats the problem by rising four feet above the floodline, protecting the building from the river. Overall, the site is flat but the program cuts into the earth or protrudes up over the pavillian structure in order to give the program the maximum space depending on the sport. The ground is lined with pervious pavers, which naturally help with rainwater runoff, that slope into the planters to help drain the water into the river preventing flash flooding.

The Pavillion uses concrete columns and loadbearing walls which hold CLT beams that create a lattuce overhead structure. This helps connect the interior courts and rooms to the exterior, and also acts as a navigational tool. The circulation in the project happens under the Pavillion that guides the visitor throughout the site. It is mostly open with the occasional green stained glass to move the occupants to points of interest.

GLULAM WAFFLE CANOPY STRUCTURE

GREEN ROOFS/PARAPETS

WINDOWS/MULLIONS

SECONDARY STRUCTURE

PRIMARY STRUCTURE

CONCRETE GRADE BEAM FOUNDATIONS

CONCRETE PILES

The experience under the Pavillion pulls visitors to inportant places on site, but it also connects the visitors with nature and the river. There are pockets of planters that follow and/or cut out of the structures’ grid and a pond. It includes a cafe, and a sundeck for leisure, along with a pathway leading down to the riverside for when the river is not flooding. This leads visitors to the amp theater that is open for the public to use and enjoy.

1. GLULAM WAFFLE CANOPY STRUCTURE

2. DRIP EDGE 3. BOLTS

SLOPED WELDING

1. GLULAM WAFFLE CANOPY STRUCTURE

2. CONCRETE WALL

3. BOLTS

4. EMBEDDED STEEL PLATE

The facility supports indoor sports like badminton, volleyball, wallball, handball, and yoga. It also allows for outdoor sports like kayaking, basketball, tennis, and pickleball to be played on site.

CHIOSTRO DEL BRAMENTE

PIAZZA SANTA MARIA DELLA PACE

THANK YOU

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