Shawn Khokher | KU Arc/D 2015-2018

Architectural Portfolio
 Shawn Aziz Khokher - 2019
Portfolio
________________________

University of Kansas
School of Architecture and Design
Contents
1............Cover Page

2............Title Page

3............Contents/About

4 - 7........Rock Chalk Prairie Acre: Henrichs Medlock Pavilion - ARCH 509

8 - 11......Lawrence Makers’ Center - ARCH 502

12 - 13....KUKA Robotic Arm Clay Print - ARCH 600
14 - 15 ...Case Study: Clyfford Still Museum - ARCH 281
About
My name is Shawn Aziz Khokher. I am currently a 22 year old
4th year student of architecture at KU’s School of Architecture
and Design. I am enrolled in the 6 year program and am on
track to graduate May of 2019 with a BA in Architectural Studies.

I plan on continuing right after graduation with the remaining

2 years in order to achieve my M.Arch, a professional degree. In
hopes of getting into the program I have compiled this portfolio
documenting the work I am most proud of over the course of my
college career. I cover a range of topics from Computer Modeling
and Robotics to Design-Build Studios.

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Rock Chalk Prairie Acre:
Henrichs Medlock Pavilion
ARCH 509 Fall 2018
The Project
The Rock Chalk Prairie Acre (RCPA) is the culmination of my ARCH
509 Design Build Studio with Professor Paola Sanguinetti. This
studio was perhaps the most important studio I have taken to
date as it taught me a wide range of skills from working with
clients to welding.
The project was an addition and retrofit to the previous semes-
ter’s Prairie Acre Ribbon Classroom (PARC). The name change
occurred due to the fact that when viewed from behind the PARC
sign read as something less than appropriate. Our addition to the
project included a flooring system and pavilion while the retrofit
was to stabilize the concrete benches on the previous semester’s
gabion wall.
Drawings
The area in which I worked the most was with the retrofit. The
design process was rather lengthy but ultimately, we ended up
with a “Steel Lattice” of sorts. This final design was accompanied
with many Revit drawings and consultations with our engineers:
Thornton Tomasetti. I learned from this process the skills to make
and organize CD’s or Construction Drawings as well as handle
feedback and adjust drawings as needed.
Retrofit
The entire process of building the retrofit started with contacting
metal suppliers. We had to determine the most cost-effective re-
sources as we had a limited final budget of just over $12,000.
Once we had the metal in hand we began taking field dimension
of the gabion wall so as to accurately build the lattices but it be-
came clear that it would be too difficult to do by hand. Through
connections between professors we were able to borrow the Trim-
ble TX5 3D Laser Scanner from the Engineering Department. I
was in charge of operating the scanner and with it successfully
generated a Point Cloud (seen to the right) of our site which could
be opened as a 3D model in AutoCAD. From this scan I generated
accurately dimensioned drawings. The actual construction of the
pieces required a large amount of welding. While I didn’t work
solo entirely the people I worked with often got drawn into other
projects leaving me with most of the welding. I can’t complain
though as I gained a valuable skill that came in handy later on in
the project. With the pieces fully fabricated they fit on site almost
perfectly requiring only a little adjustment. The benches sat on the
pieces perfectly with any discrepancies being due to the workman-
ship of the previous semesters gabion wall and benches.

Clients and Fundraising

Throughout this studio we had a number of meetings with our
clients (KU Facilities, Planning & Development). This gave me the
opportunity to present in person to the clients which enhanced
my public speaking ability and my skills for being concise with
updates on the project. The fundraising process was one that I
had not experienced before. We began with a meeting with KU
Endowment through which we set up a landing page for people
to donate. The process included a lot of social media work and
developing incentives. The Donors who donated the most would
have their names most prominent on a donor wall while all oth-
ers would have smaller names included.

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Henrichs Medlock Pavilion and Concrete
The settled upon flooring system was to be a striped concrete
pattern which required building formwork and learning to finish
concrete. Through various long and painful days, we worked
tirelessly through conditions of poor weather or lack of light to
complete the concrete work in which I worked to trowel the con-
crete to a flat finish upon which we applied a broom finish. The
pavilion took perhaps the longest to design of all the aspects of
the project. The actual construction occurred across two days be-
tween the end of classes and the final presentation of the RCPA. I Reflection
used my new welding skills to weld together the sign upon which While it didn’t seem apparent during the studio, looking back has shown me just how
we would affix the donor names and it was clear that it was my beneficial this class was. It did test our abilities to work with and put up with people but
best work. it also taught us a lot about the architectural process along with construction skills. This
class had a lasting effect on my education.

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 ing. It was a combination of the two former parti models in that it
would have two volumes on the lower level and would have some
sort of set back to allow acces to the roof of the lower level. I also
opted to have a bridge connecting a series of second floor outdoor
spaces seen in white. The angles of the building were determined
by the overlaying of two grids. One was oriented axially with the
the river front and the other with the main entrance. The reason-
ing for this design was to connect people entering the site with the
Lawrence Makers’ Center building and those in the building with the river. This form also
ARCH 502 Summer 2018 created three pods which would aid in the programming of the
space later in the design process.
The Project
The class was Studio ARCH 502 with Dr. Hui Cai. The purpose of Precedents and Programming
this project was to design a mixed-use creative living space for
There were a couple precedents for the design in terms of pro-
the Lawrence community. It was to include 6 residential studio
gramming and materiality. In regards to programming I studied
spaces for artists to live and work in, a makerspace for said artists
the Burnie Makers’ Space in Tasmanina. It laid out space in a way
as well as visiting artists to work, gallery spaces for temporary
that fully incorporated all uses from public to private by isolating
and permanent exhibitions of the work created by the artists, as
them from one another but buidling in overlapping areas. In
well as a cafe and adminstrative spaces for staff. This class was
regards to materiality I chose to follow the guide of the Clyfford
a summer studio thus lasting only 5 weeks as opposed to 10 or
Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a largely concrete building
more so this design process was accelerated.
that uses wood and glass as both accents and a way of sectioning
off spaces.
The Site and Design Process With these precedents in mind, I began drawing up plans and
This project is located in Lawrence, Kansas along the southern façade designs. Pictured on the next page top to bottom are the
edge of the Kansas River and West of the Marriott. We visited the first floor, second floor, third floor and a zoomed in version of
site on a day that hit 106˚F. The site was exceptionally hot which the residence studios. Next to them is the programming layout.
led me to notice how enclosed it was. To the East there is the
Marriott and all other sides are lined with trees. This prevented
air from flowing through the site over the much cooler river. This
became the starting point for my design: Let air flow through the
building and site. With this in mind I began the design process
with 3 parti models.
The recurring theme through all models was that they were all
raised structures on either two or three lower volumes. The upper
volume would bridge the gaps between these lower volumes cre-
ating holes in the façade through which air could flow. The third
parti model ended up being the design I would continue develop-

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 The third floor holds only the residence spaces. The north wall is
lined with the studios while the south holds the living space, exer-
cise room and office. The living space has a cutout that produces a
small sort of atrium space that creates a sort of visual connection
with the artist residences and the makerspace. The residences
were to have a kitchen, bed, bathroom, living room, dining and
closet space. Due to the form of the building, I was required to
create three different layouts. They are simply reflected on the
other half of the building.

Façade
The Façade design was based on the precedent of the Clyfford Still
Museum (materiality shown next to the Burnie Makers’ Space on
previous page). Its use of concrete with wood accents and glass
was what I focused on. I started with glass and concrete layouts
and would later add the wood around the windows. For some
odd reason the renders chose not to show them as wood but the
shapes around the windows are meant to be wood. With the main
form and layout complete, all that remained was to place it on the
site and design the parking and road layout.

In the first floor the two volumes are separated by function. The
left most is the service building that houses the mechanical and
electrical, storage, freight elevator and loading dock. The right
most is the main entrance and holds the administrative offices
and reception.

The second floor is layed out in a similar manner. The left most Reflection
volume is the makers’ area which houses makerspaces, studio
Despite being a fourth year student this was my very first true studio with the School of
rooms and a dust room. The right most volume is the more public
Architecture and Design at KU. It was very fast paced and demanded a lot of time and
space with the cafe and the gallery spaces. The central volume is
energy but it was without a doubt one of my favorite classes I have taken. It taught me
were things mix. The northern half holds the continuation of the
so much from studying precedents and analyzing a site to taking those analyses and
gallery space and the learning space while the southern half holds
formulating my own designs and ideas. It taught me how to generate plans in Revit and
the continuation of the makerspace. This was chosen because of
just how many iterations it takes to reach a final design. This was an outstanding and
the precedent of the Burnie Makers’ Space seen on the previous
important addition to my education.
page color coded. It was laid out to give the public an opportunity
to interact with the makers while they work and see how the art
pieces are created.

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 Project 2
As mentioned, this project’s pieces were required to tile. The other
major aspect of the project was that they had to be printed on
foam. Within Rhino our group’s shape when tiled was similar in
appearance to and egg carton thus we named it the egg print.
Using Rhino and Grasshopper we constructed the inverse of the
egg and generated a set of commands for the KUKA to execute
while using a hot wire cutter.
KUKA Robotic Arm Clay Printing
With all the pieces cut and in a form we began printing. The piece
ARCH 600 Fall 2017
was so large that we attempted to print it in sessions but we soon
learned that the new pieces would not join with the already cured
The Project clay. We reworked the script to print everything at once which
This class was titled “Special Topics in Architecture: Intro to Fabri- resulted in a 5 hour print session; we had 4 to print altogether.
cation with Robots” and it was my first class with then Associate When the prints were completed they had to set undisturbed in
Professor Paola Sanguinetti. We were tasked with learning how order to cure for 4 to 5 days. Once set we carfully flipped them
to operate a KUKA Robotic Arm and using it to deposit clay in the out of the formwork. In the end the way in which the KUKA printed
same manner that a 3D Printer works. We had two projects to the clay constituted a renaming of the Egg Print. I present the
complete over the course of the semester: an exploratory project Ramen Noodle Print.
and one that would produce a tiling system.

Reflection
Project 1
This class taught me a lot from material exploration to Rhino and
Being an exploratory and experimental class of sorts we contin- Grasshopper. Rhino continues to be one of my favorite modeling
ued working with information gathered by the previous class. softwares and I keep learning more because of this class. As of
They had put together a Grasshopper script for Rhino that would January 2019 I continue to work in the Robo Lab assisting other
take a shape and convert it to a set of commands that the KUKA students of this class learn from our mistakes and theirs.
could read and execute thus producing the shape. The script was
by no means perfect and required a lot of problem solving in turn
teaching me a lot about Rhino and Grasshopper.
For this first project we chose a Nuclear cooling tower as inspira-
tion for its form. As seen in the images to the right the form took
into the tube forcing the clay out of the nozzle end. This complex
on a number of iterations until we arrived at a final design that
process required at least two people to execute: one to operate
included a type of internal structural support.
the air pressure and one to operate the KUKA’s speed. The clay
Another noteworthy aspect of the class was the material explo- itself required a proper mixing and ratio of clay and water. Any
ration. The way in which the KUKA prints clay is by holding a inconsistencies would be obvious in the printing also visible to
pressure rated tube filled with clay and capped with a nozzle and the right. A proper mix of clay, speed and air pressure led to our
hose attachment through which an aircompressor would pump air final product.

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 single bay or in our case gallery space. I included a picture of the
actual painting hanging in that gallery. From this 3D model we
began building a physical model.

Case Study: Clyfford Still Museum
ARCH 281 Fall 2016
The Project
This class with Adjunct John Trefry tasked us with reserching and
subsequently modeling both digitally and physically the wall sec-
tion of one of a few buildings. I chose to explore the Clyfford Still
Museum in Denver Colorado.
Research
The research process was a group effort but the modeling was an
individual assignment. For the most part the research was largely
done online as most of the references were there in places like
Arch Daily and the Museum’s website. There were a few referenc-
es at the architecture library on campus as well. We attempted to
make contact with someone from the museum but were unable
to do so. After enough online research was done we had enough
information to begin the process of drawing up the wall section.
Modeling (Physical)
I chose to make my model out of bass wood. We built everything
from the foundation to the roof. The exterior wall of the Clyfford
Still Museum has this linear textured concrete appearance and I
chose to create this by runing a board along a tablesaw a number
of times. The rest of the modeling process was fairly self explana-
tory. I also included the painting.
Photoshop
The last major thing we did was take our 3D and Physical models,
select images and photoshop them in a way so as to appear re-
alistic. This was my first real attempt at photoshop and it taught
me quite a lot. I included the concrete texture mentioned and also
clone stamped an image to appear like the complete gallery. All
images are included in the next page.
Reflection
This class taught me a lot from 3D modeling to Physical modeling.
It also taught me how to research buildings and use Adobe Photo-
shop. This class had a great impact on my Architectural Education.

Modeling (Digital)
We began the digital modeling process by first studying the layout
and form of the Clyfford Still Museum and then making a massing
model in SketchUp to better understand the form.
From the massing model we determined which wall section would
be best achieved from the drawings we had. Having that we be-
gan modeling the section. In my section I put in as much detail as
I could find like the insulation and weather barrier on the roof. We
extruded the wall section out to be 3 Dimensional and modeled a

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