Dezeen School Shows: a centre for meditation and mindfulness and a landmark that emphasises the creativity of Kentucky artisans are included in Dezeen's latest school shows by students at the University of Kentucky College of Design.

Also included is a multidisciplinary design project that addresses challenges through community engagement and an art project that aims to connect people to nature.

University of Kentucky College of Design

School: School of Architecture
Courses: Undergraduate and graduate design studios
Tutors: First year: Jill Leckner, Mike McKay, Brian Richter, Jason Scroggin, Regina Summers. Second Year: Liz Swanson. Third Year: Marty Summers, Michael Jacobs. Graduate School: Gary Rohrbacher, Brent Sturlaugson and Jeff Fugate

School statement:

"The School of Architecture at the University of Kentucky College of Design offers a four-year undergraduate pre-professional degree and a master of architecture degree.

"The students featured in this festival represent the breadth of our two programmes, with a particular focus on our undergraduate first-year spring studios, where we have fully integrated digital design technologies.

"The theme of the spring semester for the first-year undergraduate studio sequence was to consider the notion of object and field and how it relates to the negotiation of small-scale programme, inhabitation and context.

"In addition to our pedagogical emphasis on the integration of digital technologies, the other undergraduate and graduate projects selected also represent our school's commitment to engage with local communities on issues such as housing, sustainable design strategies, public access to culture and community design.

"Each studio topic also demonstrates how architecture can have a positive impact at the local, regional, national and international level."

The Viceroy by Emma Cockerham and Isaac Peck

"In partnership with the City of Lexington, second-year students engaged in 'Art on the Town', a competition that contemplated the role of the arts in the design of dynamic public space within the heart of the city's urban core.

"The winning proposal, The Viceroy by Emma Cockerham and Isaac Peck will be built this year and is currently in progress.

"Our ambition is to revitalise the city of Lexington by creating a landmark that emphasises the creativity of Kentucky artisans. Named after Kentucky's state butterfly, The Viceroy pavilion fans out and communicates with the surrounding environment and aims to inspire pedestrians."

Students: Emma Cockerham and Isaac Peck
Course: Second-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Liz Swanson

Group project: Studio Appalachia

"Studio Appalachia is a multidisciplinary design studio that addresses regionally specific challenges through community engagement processes.

"In 2021-2022, students from the College of Design worked with community leaders in Hazard, Kentucky to develop project proposals that encourage social, economic and environmental sustainability.

"The resulting exhibition, created by a team of graduate students in the School of Architecture and School of Interiors, presents a vision for developing sites in downtown Hazard and in the surrounding landscape.

"By establishing a network of projects, the exhibition showcases how communities might leverage an abundance of land-based resources to create healthier and more equitable futures."

Students: Zahra Daneshvar, Amy Delgado, Jordan Griffin, Rosemary Harms, Cierra Johnson, Claire Kemp, Brian Lightner, Yasmin Mohamed, Cas McGuffey, Peiwen Qin and Dalton Shewcraft
Course: First-year spring Graduate Studio
Tutors: Hannah Dewhirst, Brent Sturlaugson (with Jeff Fugate and Rebekah Radtke)

Everseason at the Bernheim Forest by Maggie Kinnel

"Students engaged with the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont Kentucky to propose an artist workshop and exhibition space.

"The studio focused on deriving architectural inspiration from nature and the surrounding environment echoing Bernheim's original mission of connecting people to nature through art.

"Situated in between Olmsted's Holly and Cedar Ponds, this project recalls the wild grasses found around the site, while the petal-like platforms seemingly bloom throughout each of the four seasons evoking an evergreen oasis in the center of a deciduous forest.

"The play on scale, density, layering, and aggregation generates an immersive environment that actively filters light, nature and atmosphere throughout the day."

Student: Maggie Kinnel
Course: First-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Jill Leckner
Instagram: @_maggiekinneldesigns

Forma: A Centre for Meditation and Mindfulness by Colin Bauman

"The students began the semester investigating 2d drawing methodologies considering only 'known' geometries. Through controlled combinations, these 2d drawings were translated into 3d spatial constructs exploring notions of light and atmosphere.

"The studio was asked to explore these concepts of light and atmosphere through the design of a centre for meditation and mindfulness.

"The students developed large physical headgear models in order to test ideas of light, space, and atmosphere. These tests allowed for confirmation and reaction to physical phenomena that a digital process could not reveal."

Student: Colin Bauman
Course: First-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Mike McKay
Instagram: @colinbauman_architecture

Objects, Fields and Photogrammetry by Katelyn Reese

"This second-semester first-year studio explores formal and spatial relationships under the theme of 'object and field'.

"Students are challenged in extracting component geometries from a series of photogrammetry scans of existing building conditions on the campus of the University of Kentucky.

"Working within an organisational system, or three-dimensional grid, students develop a spatial composition with a focus on scale, spatial variation, texture and materiality. Students also utilised digital fabrication techniques to translate ideas physically."

Student: Katelyn Reese
Course: First-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Brian Richter
Instagram: @k.reese.design

Dynamic Wild by Benjamin Oliver and Morgan Clark

"This studio addresses the tragic history of its site as a historic neighborhood was seized and demolished to create a 17-acre parking lot in Lexington, Kentucky.

"The studio aims to reinvigorate downtown with new housing developments. All studio members worked together to formulate a master plan that would define locations for individual housing projects as well as ensure that the existing context is considered.

"The concept of rewilding drove the way the studio approached the redevelopment of the site. The redevelopment aims to repair the site by implementing water sources and local vegetation in hopes of restoring the surrounding environment."

Student: Benjamin Oliver and Morgan Clark
Course: Third-year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Michael Jacobs
Instagram: @benjaminoliverdesign and @mlclark_architecture

775 Market Block by Mohammed Alessa, Dillon Day and Miles Smith

"775 Market Block investigates the collision and negotiation of two digital models constructed in overlapping virtual space, one containing formal, spatial ideas while the other fulfills programmatic needs.

"The pattern in the project comes from the retention of original layer colors, white or black, alluding to a diagrammatic relationship of programme that does not exist.

"Moments where the two original models intersect in space left a glitch artifact in the architecture, which is expressed as a razzle pattern, derived from how modeling software depicts co-located geometry.

"775 Market Block hosts DIY kitchens, podcast spaces, and a market to help provide the public with a way to engage with food culture both locally and digitally."

Student: Mohammed Alessa, Dillon Day, and Miles Smith
Course: Third-year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Martin Summers
Instagram: @dillon_day_arc, @moh.arcsm and @miles.smith.designs

Delta Elevate by Jonathan Chesser, Coby Goff and Kevin Hernandez

"How can we design with AI to provide an experience that appeals to a person's senses? Delta Elevate is a prototypical workflow of human and artificial intelligence-produced design.

"To create this bridge, the human design team worked with Fusion 360 to produce a series of generated outcomes.

"The team then altered the materiality and structure of a selected form to translate the outcome to appeal to human experience designing for the stimulation of the senses.

"This prototypical workflow produced a design that would not have been possible without the combination of human designers and artificial intelligence."

Student: Jonathan Chesser, Coby Goff and Kevin Hernandez
Course: First-year Graduate Design Studio - spring
Tutor: Gary Rohrbacher

Object and Field House by Taylor Beth Huff

"The theme of the spring semester of the first-year studio sequence is to consider the notion of object and field and how it relates to the negotiation of small-scale program, inhabitation, and context.

"These parameters may be considered as opportunities to think critically about the work we generate and how to respond to these architectural design problems with innovative solutions.

"The studio begins with a set of experiments that seek a working relationship between solid, void, and pattern to develop a geometry that is responsive to the conditions of inhabitation, programme and site."

Student: Taylor Beth Huff
Course: First-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Jason Scroggin
Instagram: @tb_ukyarchitecture

Skew House by Tice Hannemann

"The initial project, Deep Surface used graffiti art and specifically the work of Boris Tellegen as inspiration and research into form, language, and concepts. Students would combine this research with an 'operative verb' that describes actions that can be tested, observed, confirmed and assessed.

'This project used the word skew as its operative verb and considered the clients to be a visual artists and an artist of words, who would draw inspiration from the house that emerges from the garden/site. The raised section of the households the living, food preparation and gallery spaces for public viewing.

"As one descends into the site, they enter the private wing where the twins live separate from one another. As day turns to night, lights from the lower levels stimulate curiosity and draw the inhabitants into their own worlds."

Student: Tice Hannemann
Course: First-Year spring Design Studio
Tutor: Regina Summers
Instagram: @tice_design

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and University of Kentucky College of Design. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.