I believe architecture connects to a greater system of people’s lives, the local culture, and the environment, and the details of a design can profoundly impact quality of life, even beyond our clientele. I love to get to know my site and the people I will impact before every project so I can empathetically design my piece of the puzzle so it brings the most joy and health. My portfolio showcases a series of projects from my time at Thomas Jefferson University. I hope you enjoy!
Abby Winkler
Education
Thomas Jefferson University 2019 - 2024
Bachelors of Architecture Major
Urban Design Minor
GPA 3.81
Downingtown STEM Academy 2015 - 2019
Engineering Concentration
GPA 4.1
Technical Skills
Revit
Rhino
Autocad
Photoshop
Enscape
Indesign
Illustrator
Interests
Botany Biophilic Design Rock Climbing
Sci-fi Urban Design Hand-Drawing
Accomplishments
Tau Sigma Delta National Honors Society
Jefferson Honors Program
Jefferson Dilworth Design Competition 2021 1st Place
Honors Conference 2023
Presented research on green design
Rome Study Abroad Program Spring 2023
Grasshopper
Malawi Heart Center
The goal of the Malawi Heart Center is to create a comfortable and healing environment that encourages ease and recovery for patients, staff, and visitors.
Simple, familiar building forms inspired by the local vernacular that respond to regional climate conditions can foster a feeling of comfort for guests and staff. Buildings are kept at a comfortable human scale and allow access to most programs from the exterior circulation, a typical architecture strategy in this climate. The layout takes on a loose cluster of separated buildings reminiscent of the rural villages most Malawians call home. Buildings wrap around a centralized courtyard and spiral into garden paths.
The architecture works in combination with extensive healing gardens of native plants embodying principles of biophilia, which create a psychologically healthy environment, boost the local ecosystem, and passively manage stormwater in a climate known for aggressive flooding. Interior design uses biophilic principles and the RHED framework to ease high-stress points.
Thesis Project
Malawi
Malawi has a temperate climate, allowing much of its architecture to use external circulation and opt for passive ventilation and cooling instead of air conditioning. Because of its position in relation to the equator, Malawi experiences intense sun from all directions. Traditional architecture uses overhangs to create outdoor spaces and mitigate sun in the interior. Malawi also experiences intense rainfall two months out of the year, which requires roofs to be sturdy and angled to direct rainwater.
Public programs are made accessable from the exterior to keep with customs involving family members in the healing process.
1. Check-in 2. Offices 3. Admin
Conference
Recovery
Prep
Surgery
Schizachyriu m spp
Biofiltration
Schizachyriu m spp
Schizachyriu spp
Chloris gayana
Chloris gayana
Schizachyriu m spp
Schizachyriu m spp
Schizachyriu m spp
Eragrostis Setaria sphacelata
Chloris gayana
Chloris gayana
Eragrostis spp.
Eragrostis spp.
Setaria sphacelata
Chloris gayana Eragrostis spp.
Larger garden zones on site dip into bioswales with natural biofiltration systems. During the rainy months, native plants can help water drain on site, prevent flooding, and filter it for pollutants. Filtered water is chaneled into a cistern on the west of the site. Paths through the gardens are made permeable to further prevent flooding.
Chloris gayana
Themada triandra Var. hispida Panicum
Setaria sphacelata
Setaria sphacelata
Themada triandra Var. hispida Panicum
Eragrostis Setaria triandra Var. Panicum
Eragrostis spp.
Themada triandra Var. hispida
Themada triandra Var. hispida
Themada triandra Var. hispida Panicum
Panicum
Panicum
MULCH
Entrance Courtyard
Healing Gardens Lounge
High Stress
Scent Design
Biophilia
Stress Points
Bethlahem Music Workshop
The Music Workshop is a music and dance center for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, sustainably designed to give local college students the space to practice and perform their art in front of a large-scale audience.
The building aesthetics have strong industrial ties because of the community’s history with iron production and the context of nearby factory buildings. The project adaptively reuses and celebrates the preexisting arches of an industrial building ruin on-site and local materials recycled from demolished buildings. It also employs daylighting techniques commonly found in factories to use less electricity.
The hear t of the building, though, is its layout and how performers and visitors can cross paths.
Site Plan
Local Recycled Material Source
Student Circulation
Visitor Circulation
Industrial Complex
Visitor Circulation Student Circulation Support Structure on Ruins
Form Inspiration
Catwalk
Sawtooth Roof Furnace
Main Entrance
Includes an industrial catwalk. The bottom floor is a grand visitor entrance; above are views of the dance and music workshops.
The Drum
Is the main performance space and uses materials and forms that reference steel furnaces. Warm-toned wood, for example, references the fire in the furnace.
Rooftop
Includes an outdoor performance space with a sawtooth roof over the entrance and a metal stage as an industrial reference. The space has a view of the steel stacks.
Entrance Courtyard
Receives visitors entering from the steel stacks and provides seating and outdoor waiting space.
Day Studio Night Gallery
As part of a two week design charrette aimed to create an installation in Philadelphia to promote equity, the Day Studio Night Gallery brings exposure to underrepresented Philadelphian neighborhoods and gives the community an outlet for stress through painting. It is a modular design of plexiglass pods that individuals can use as a studio. The outward-facing wall is replaced at the beginning of each day with a Philadelphia Mural Arts paint-by-numbers piece of an underrepresented Neighborhood mural. Visitors paint from the inside, and at the end of the day, spotlights on the inside of pods turn on and emit a glow through the colored acrylic so it can be seen from the outside. People can gather in Dilworth Park and walk outside City Hall to experience Philadelphia's murals in one place.
Competition 1st Place
Site Plan
1. City Hall
2. Individual Studio 3. Studio Cluster
3
2
1
Studio Module
Modular aluminum frame with replaceable translucent acrylic panels with paint-by-numbers outlines for participants.
Night Gallery
When the sun goes down, lights inside the modules turn on and illuminate the murals for people to enjoy.
Timber Studios
The goal of Timber Studios was to create a sustainable building that unites the College of Architecture and the Built Environment in one building and connects it within the larger Jefferson University campus. It also serves to showcase the architecture program at Jefferson with a building that displays its structure both on its brick facade and internally through exposed wooden structural columns and beams.
The main structure is comprised of mass timber glulam beams with CLT floor slabs and a glass and brick envelope. The studio space uses slanted timber columns for an engaging facade, which continues into the ceiling, mimicking the rows of pre-existing trees on site. This space also employs a double-skin facade with ventilation for passive temperature control, daylighting, and views into the greenery.
In collaboration with Mary Perkins
A&DCenter3storiesArchitectureStudio FacultyO ces CABEConfrence
Provides views while regulating temperature with operable vents that can direct warm air out or generate warm air to be directed in. It also employs louvers and overhangs to control glare.
Studio Cross Section Structure
Studio Perspectives
Studios are made large and adaptable to promote collaboration. This environment is celebrated through unique structural columns, views into greenery, and views into the lounge space through the main stairs.
