Undergraduate Architecture Portfolio

PORTFOLIO

AYUSMA KARKI

a collection of works from 2025 - 2026.

Bachelor of Arts in Architecture University of Kentucky

AYUSMA KARKI

Lexington, KY | (859)-559-2339 | aka402@uky.edu | LinkedIn Portfolio

EDUCATION

University of Kentucky

Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, GPA: 4.0 Lexington, Kentucky | Expected May 2028

National Taipei University of Technology Study Abroad, Architecture, GPA: 4.0 Taipei, Taiwan | May - July 2025

Relevant Course Work: Material Reuse (ARC499), Architectural Detailing (ARC499)

ABOUT

Ayusma Karki (Ice-Mah) is a designer and architecture student at the University of Kentucky pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture. She is a Chellgren Fellow currently working under the mentorship of Professor Leen Katrib.

Her current research looks at material reuse in post-disaster contexts, with an emphasis on Southeastern Kentucky. Through this work, Ayusma explores how architectural design can engage waste materials and building strategies to support resiliece.

AWARDS & COMPETITIONS

2025 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship

2025 School of Architecture First Year Book Award

2025 College of Design Gregory Paul Schrodt Memorial Endowed Scholarship

2025 Reimagine Lexington Design Competition by Fayette Alliance - Participant

2025 UK Education Abroad Scholarship

2025 UK Alternative Service Break Scholarship

2025 Dean’s List Fall and Spring 2025

EXTRACURRICULARS

Graphic Design Chair (2025 - Present), National Organization of Minority Architecture Students

Graphic Design Chair (2025 - Present) , Beaux Arts Foundation

Volunteer (2025 ), International Rescue Committee

SKILLS

3D Modeling : Rhino 3D, Revit

Rendering & Visualization: VRAY, Adobe Creative Suite, Twinmotion, Blender

Other Tools : Grasshopper, AutoCAD

RESEARCH

Research Assistant, University of Kentucky College of Design Lexington, Kentucky | Oct 2025 - Present

Supported Professor Leen Katrib in the School of Architecture on her project, Undercommoning the Urban Campus Symposium.

Fellow, UK Chellgren Fellowship Program Lexington, Kentucky | Aug 2025 - Present

Selected as one of two students from the College of Design for this competitive, university-wide fellowship.

Conducting an independent faculty-mentored research project regarding material reuse in post-disaster contexts.

EXPERIENCE

Stage Designer, TEDxUKY Lexington, KY | Oct 2025 - Present

Collaborate with UK Production and Event Management team to understand staging requirements and technical constraints.

Assist with fabrication and installation of stage elements to ensure cohesive audience experience and production quality.

Produce initial sketches and concepts aligned with this year’s TEDxUKY theme, Ripple Effect.

Shadow, JRA Architects & Omni Architects, UK Job Shadow Program Lexington, KY | Mar 2025

Attended a bi-weekly project progress meeting to learn about collaboration between architects, engineers and contractors.

Conducted interviews with architects, project manager, and an interior designer to learn about their career paths.

Visited an active large-scale construction site to understand the real world implementation of architecture.

Featured Artist, Lexington Art League Lexington, KY | Oct 2023 - 2024

Selected to participate in the juried PRHBTN Exhibition 2023 and 2024, a state-wide contemporary art showcase.

Successfully created and sold seven original graphite drawings, demonstrating marketability

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FRESH SLAG PARKS

ARC254 | academic work spring 2026

MINI VILLAGE

ARC253 | academic work | fall 2020

04 . 02 . 03. 01. 0 5.

RESTORE

ARC153 | academic work | spring 2025

REIMAGINE LEXINGTON design competition | academic work | spring 2025

MISCELLANEOUS personal work | 2024-2025

01

FRESHSLAG PARKS

[ACTIVE PROJECT]

Second year studio. Spring 2026

Partners : N/A

Instructor

This project draws its conceptual foundation from Stan Allen’s Landform Buildings , using the idea of nature as a system rather than a sculptural form. The site is located atop Looney Ridge, VA, on a mountaintop removal site originally stripped for coal mining.

The project has progressed through site analysis diagrams and a series of preliminary physical models that capture the scarred topography due to mountaintop removal. It is currently in translation, moving from physical model to digital, where spatial ideas are being futher refined.

01

MINI-GARDEN VILLAGE

RURAL URBANISM ON EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS

Second year studio. Fall 2025

Partners:

Trey Hutchins

Enzo Fressola

Role/Contribution:

Main House

Folly Tower

Antique Mall

Site Model/Drawings

Instructor

Mark O’Bryan

Sabine Hot Springs is a rural garden village that explores the relationship between architecture, landscape, and community at the edge of the wilderness. The project is organized as an ensemble of buildings that emphasize collective gathering spaces with areas of retreat and solitude.

As part of the group, one of my main roles was to design the owner’s house, which consists of seven guest bedrooms. The design of the house draws inspiration from the hearth and the fireplace as social and spatial anchors.

The 300-acre site consists of dense tree masses, a sacred mound, a lake, surrounding mountains, and agricultural land, forming a landscape of diverse features.

SKETCH MODELS

Sketch models were created to create different organizational methonds of the different buildings in a cartoon scale. These sketch models involved testing out different ways of separate the private zones and public zones while also creating views and sightlines to highlight different aspects of the landscape.

VIEW FROM BACK OF THE HOUSE

The back of the house is where most of the activities occur and is more public than the front. The porch and veranda open up toward the lake, allowing daily activities to extend outward and engage directly with the water. Unlike the more front, this side of the house is intentionally open and social, framing views and movement.

Unlike the back of the house, the front side of the house is more inward facing, with closed off walls.

The stair case frames the living space, as well as the atrium to the right. The fireplace which stands firm and tall, represents a anchor in the house.

02 RESTORE

First year studio. spring 2025

Partners: n/a

Instructor Jesse Voigt

Restore is a pavillion created to study how the concept of comforting sounds can inform spatial form building. The process involved recording every day comfort sounds such as the human voice and cat purring. These audios were taken to the computer in order to generate a skin pattern which could be applied to the design.

The first stage in creating this site was blindly listening to music and drawing lines in response to different songs. The lines were then taken to Rhino and each topographic layer was created based off of the lines.

DIAGRAMMATIC STUDIES

tail to the street and buildings while maintaining simplicity.

The initial phase of this project consisted of taking audio recordings of everyday sounds such as the human voice and cat purring, as these are calming and restorative sounds to the human. in order to turn these recordings into visual sound data, they were imported into Sonic Visualizer where spectrograms were generated.

In order to turn the spectrograms into usable geometry that could serve as a skin for the design, they were imported into Grasshopper where they were fed into as algorithm that generated a pattern based on the brightness/values of the spectrograms. The brighter the value in an area, the larger the shape. These 2D patterns were then extruded based on the area of each shape; The larger the area of the shape, the taller the extrusion.

REIMAGINE LEXINGTON : THE CONNECTOR

Design Competition Entry

Second year studio. Spring 2025

Partner(s): Individual

Mentor Jesse Voigt

The Connector is a project that reimagines Winchester Road as a connective, walkable corridor that links isolated residential neighborhoods with newmixed-use and community spaces.

The surrounding apartments and single-family areas sit close to one another, yet lack safe ways to walk, bike, or access community amenities. This disconnect limits daily mobility and reduces access to shared public space.

The site photos show a lack of sidewalks, crossings, and bike paths, leaving nearby apartments disconnected. This design proposal introduces safe pedestrian and cycling routes that link these residents directly to the new site and its community amenities.

PERSONAL WORKS

CHALK PASTELS, GRAPHITE PORTRAITS, AND POSTER DESIGN