Kenneth Wong Portfolio

Portfolio

Kenneth Wong Architecture + Design

Kenneth Wong

Fifth-Year Bachelor of Architecture Student

Education

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Bachelor of Architecture, GPA: 3.81 (President’s Honor List)

Minors: Sustainable Environments, Japanese

Fourth-Year Study Abroad Programs:

Cal Poly in Architecture in Japan (Awarded Global Scholarship)

Cal Poly Los Angeles Metro Program

Experience

Architectural Intern

Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS)

Los Angeles, CA (718) 838-2287

wong.k0316@gmail.com

Expected Graduation: June 2026

Fall 2024

Winter + Spring 2025

Los Angeles, CA January - August 2025

• Participated in schematic design, design development, and construction documentation of three residential rebuild projects in Altadena following the Eaton wildfires.

• Drafted designs and prepared drawings for publication through AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator

• Created detailed Rhino 3D models for all projects. Translated the digital model to diagrams, renderings and physical 3D printed models.

• Coordinated files and formatted in Indesign for design competition submissions. Projects received awards in both AIA NextLA and SciARC Architecture After the Fires competitions.

Architectural Intern

Julia Y. Chen Design Inc.

San Rafael, CA June - August 2023

• Produced building document sets using AutoCAD for residential single-family projects throughout the Bay Area.

• Verified schematic designs to comply with regional building and accessibility codes.

• Attended client meetings and site visits, participating in design conversations and presentation.

Instructional Student Assistant - History of World Architecture

Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design

San Luis Obispo, CA September 2025 - Present

• Facilitated weekly discussion sessions with 30-40 students through prepared activities.

• Assisted in student communication, file management, and grading throughout the course.

Skills

• Drafting, 3D Modeling, Rendering: Revit, Rhino + Grasshopper, AutoCAD, Sketchup, Twinmotion, D5

• Graphic Design + Presentation: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, Hand Sketching

• Languages: English (Native), Japanese (Working Proficiency), Cantonese + Mandarin (Conversational)

Leadership

Team Captain

Cal Poly Lion Dance Team

April 2023 - April 2024

• Prepared and instructed multiple weekly martial arts practices with a team of over 40 members

• Scheduled and planned performances for on-campus student organizations and local businesses, schools, events, and cultural celebrations.

• Participated in planning and outreach for Cal Poly’s Chinese Students Association.

References

Professional:

Stephen Phillips: sphillips@sparchs.design

Studio Professors: Brian Osborn: bosbor01@calpoly.edu

Julia Chen: julia@jycdesign.com

Casey Benito: cbenito@calpoly.edu

Carved Convergence

Mixed-use Creative Hub

Downtown Los Angeles

Creative inspiration is at its best when collaboration is involved. Advancements in technology have allowed the creative process to be pursed devoid of human interaction. How can we reinvigorate the community aspect of art while educating the public on the process along the way?

Carved Convergence, located in Downtown Los Angeles, invites art and artists from the community while engaging various creative disciplines to collaborate. Visitors are invited to interact with the art showcased within the building’s various galleries, and connect with the artists who curate the space. The building provides housing and lodging for people from all walks of life, bringing together a diverse range of experiences and ideas.

Court Torus

Large open-to-air space providing outdoor galleries, public creative workshops, and gathering. This “creative court” is the heart of the building

Ground Torus

Long, sweeping tunnel carves through the ground level of the building, inviting people in from both corners of the building and bringing users from the street into the public galleries

Light Torus

Vertical cut creates a light well which pulls light into the shared housing spaces and the galleries on the mid-levels

Atria Torii

Pulls users from the ground tunnel up towards the creative court, gives light and experiential circulation for hotel guests and housing inhabitants.

5th Floor Plan - Art Galleries, Hotel Amenities

Program Diagram

Standard Housing

Transitional Family Housing

Galleries

Creative Studios

Commercial

Theater Boutique Hotel

Transient Hotel

Push + Pull

Assignment 2: Rowhousing

Kevin Liao + Kenneth Wong

Mixed Use

Row-Housing

ARCH 451 | Fall 2024 | Architecture in Japan

Kyoto, Japan

In collaboration with Kevin Liao (all shown drawings by me)

The townhouse is a commonly found housing typology in most high-density urban environments. However, despite the proximity of individual units, the existence of the “party wall” prevents any interaction between the units.

This housing cluster pushes some units away from the street and pulls some towards the street to create a shared public outdoor space in the front and shared private outdoor spaces in the back. The townhouse takes upon motifs from the traditional Japanese machiya, such as the rear garden and the wood-frame construction methods.

3F: LIVING + BEDROOMS

2F: DINING + WORKSHOP

1F: SHOPFRONT

PUSH + PULL

CREATE

CREATE

Perspective Section: Single-Unit Multi-Generational Living

Single-Unit Section

Blurred Boundaries

Climate Museum

Washington, DC

Contemporary methods of designing the built environment have caused us to lose touch with the natural environment by drawing explicit lines between indoors and outdoors. This has led us to underestimate the power of that buildings have to shape our experience of the world.

The Climate Center in Washington DC informs visitors on the impact of the built environment by using a series of shells to filter various natural elements of our world. The frequent transitions between conditioned and unconditioned space disrupt the conventional understanding of the building as a place of shelter. The climate-change focused content of the museum is experienced both indoors and outdoors, curating a museum experience that is inherently connected to the potential impacts of global warming.

Performance Section: Passive Season (Fall/Spring)

Performance Section: Active Season (Winter)

1. Indirect Northern Light

2. Natural Ventilation

3. Air Outlet to Outside

4. Opaque Shell

1. Indirect Northern Light

2. Heating Through Radiant Slab

3. Air Supply Through Shell

4. Return Air Through Shell

Detailed Wall Section

SUMMER SUN ANGLE: 75 DEG

WINTER SUN ANGLE: 26 DEG

6" TOPPING SLAB W/ RADIANT TUBING

STRUCTURAL REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB OVER 3" METAL DECKING

OPEN WEB STEEL JOISTS

8' LED STRIP LIGHTING

CUSTOM EMBEDDED STEEL L-ANGLE

TRANSLUCENT CEILING TILES DIFFUSE LED LIGHTS

REINFORCED CONCRETE SHELL

FOAM BOARD INSULATION

AIR GAP

LOW AIR SUPPLY CAVITY

ISOKORB THERMAL BREAK UNIT

FOAM BOARD INSULATION

HIGH AIR RETURN CAVITY

Artifacts of Informality

Constructing Capacity for the Polyrhythmic City

Undergraduate Thesis (Ongoing)

Urban space is shaped by overlapping rhythms — bodily routines, administrative schedules, and economic practices. These rhythms differ in duration and intensity, yet they occupy the same ground. When they intersect, they produce a polyrhythmic condition.However, urban infrastructure such as sidewalks, zoning envelopes, sanitation schedules, and street furniture are calibrated for legibility, efficiency, and stability. It struggles to absorb the temporal fluctuations of everyday life.

Vendor tables, umbrellas, milk crates, and portable carts are not simply objects — they construct spatial capacity. They regulate shade, define territory, manage flow, and support economic exchange. They operate as a parallel infrastructure embedded within the formal city.This thesis argues that informal practices are essential to the polyrhythmic city. If that is true, then architecture must shift from suppressing temporal fluctuation to designing for it. Rather than enforcing stability, architecture must register, absorb, and amplify everyday rhythms.

Through the analysis of informal artifacts, this project extracts their spatial logics — modularity, adaptability, lightweight assembly, and incremental growth — and translates them into architectural systems. These systems enter into tectonic dialogue with formal infrastructure such as lampposts, permanent canopies, and structural frames.

The outcome is a hybrid infrastructural framework — a kit of parts and a set of design rules — that allows formal and informal systems to coexist structurally rather than compete spatially.

Axonometric View of Sidewalk Artifact Integration

A. Milk Crate

Stacking

B. Fire Escape

Vertical Circulation

C. Wood Pallet

Modular Expansion

D. Wall-Mounted Sign

Horizontal Display

E. Parking Sign

Spatial Authority

F. Umbrella

Adaptive Shading

G. Awning

Structural System

H. Light Pole

Mechanical Delivery

Collecting Informal and Formal Infrastructure

The Butterfly House

Professional Experience at Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS)

Built 3D models using 3D printing; photographing and post-processing for clients and publications.

Participated in drafting, rendering, and compiling AutoCAD/Illustrator drawings for client presentation.

from Japan Study Abroad