Interior Design Portfolio
Abigail Kern
About the Designer... I am a 2020 graduate from Thomas Jefferson University with my B.S. in Interior Design. I will be completing my M.S. in Sustainable Design in summer of 2021. I am a firm believer that designers have an immense responsibility to our people, our society, and our planet. I am passionate about this career, a people person through and through, with a big dream of changing the world.
Abigail Kern
A personable and focused designer looking for an environment where she can engage both degrees of Interior and Sustainable Design in order to improve people’s quality of life and the world we live in.
Contact Information
Education
Phone 484.602.8452
20192021
M.S in Sustainable Design, Thomas Jefferson University
E-mail abskerny@gmail.com
20162020
B.S in Interior Design, Thomas Jefferson University
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/abigailkern-a22316183/
2018
University of Arkansas, Rome Center
- Sunrise Campus Hub Member - Tau Sigma Delta Honors Society Member - Feature projects in CIDA Accredidation - Features in campus print “Spacework” - Study Abroad one semester
Freelance Design Instagram @nimble_interiors
Experience 20202021
Graduate Assistant
20202021
Freelance Interior Designer
2019
Interior Design Intern at L2Partridge
Skills Software AutoCAD Revit/Insight Adobe Suite MS Office Suite Rhinocerous/Ladybug Rhinocerous/Honeybee Sketchup digital fabrication 3D Printing Laser Cutting
- Collaborator of a design build project - Coordinated event contacts - 3D Printed project pieces - Researched and Organized manuscript proposal pertaining to cybernetics and the built environment - Created a small business during Covid19 - Proposed Ranch renovation - Selected and ordered paint, furniture, and finishes
(3 mths) -
2018
Produced conceptual sketchup models Assisted with drawing redlines Took part in team meetings Assisted with Revit construction documents
Interior Design Intern at DesignPoint Interiors
Language English (native) German
(3 mths) - Maintained material library - Contacted and communicated with reps - Corrected redlines
Strengths
special projects
Positive Outlook
2021
Organization Time Management Independent, Fast Learner
Awards 2021
CABE Award in Nexus Values 2020 Academic Excellence in Interior Design
Synesthesia -An interactive installation to be showcased at the 2021 ECC Venice Biennale
FIELD INvolvement - Treasurer & Member, IIDA - Pursuing LEED Green Associate
Additional activities -
President & Member Jefferson Singers Involvement in church community Sunrise Movement Hub Member A deep love of traveling
Sustainable Concepts Agricultural Center, Graduate, 2020 Ecological Campus Plan, Graduate, 2021 Advertising Adjency, 2019
Table of Contents
Capstone Balnerium - Bath House, Senior Capstone, 2020
Interiors A Loft in the City, 2017 Audiology Office, 2018 Senior-Child Mentor Center, 2018 air_scapes Experiential Museum, 2019
Production Synesthesia, 2020-21
5 13 19
23 29 31 33 35
39
5
Thomas Jefferson University | M.S. Sustainable Design | Year 1
Agricultural Center
This agricultural center creates a fluid environment between indoor and outdoor space. Through programmatic, passive, and active design strategies, the building re-imagines what a sustainable building must look like, while utilizing zero energy. A series of analysis and synthesis were completed to maximize energy usage, daylight quality, and thermal comfort of the users. The building encompasses the community and learning gardens to use the land as its classroom all while avoiding the impending 100 year flood plain. Cisterns are integrated into the building envelope for not only water usage and irrigation purposes, but to thermally heat and cool the building. Exposing the systems helps the user to connect to the processes of the building and visually connect to its integration with the surrounding site.
Site Plan
PROGRAMS USED AutoCAD Revit Ladybug/ Honeybee Photoshop
Passive Design Iterations
Final SEction
Block Plan Iterations
Block Plan Validation
Massing Diagrams
Floor Plan
Site Section
Summer Thermal Cistern Wall Diagram
Winter Thermal Cistern Wall Diagram
Summer Shading Angles Diagram
Winter Shading Angles Diagram
13
Collaborators: Lindsay Ledder
Ecological Campus Vision
Thomas Jefferson University | M.S. Sustainable Design | Year 1
This project is an Ecological Campus Vision for the already existing Thomas Jefferson University - East Falls campus in Philadelphia. The ma jority of planning took place in the form stakeholder meetings and co-creative charrettes with those stakeholders. Through these meetings it was discovered that the site had a large responsibility to the community, while still upholding the wishes of campus faculty and the needs of the surrounding ecology. After this period of research and charrettes it became clear that Downtown, the focus zone of campus, could draw the neighbroing community of Germantown in with an outward facing campus, doing so through communal gathering areas and walking paths influenced by the historical pattern of the adjacent street Schoolhouse Lane.
Downtown Zone Plan
PROGRAMS USED AutoCAD Sketchup Sefaira Illustrator Photoshop
Community Engagement Discussion with Neighbors
Discussion with History/Theory Specialist
“we want to have dinner on campus” “there is too much car traffic” “we want to feel more connected with the campus community” “some neighbors love the historical feel of campus” “we walk our dogs on campus” “sometimes I feel like I’m not allowed on campus” “we would love a college town”
“was a place to reconnect with nautre” “a suburban escape” “don’t lose the hisotry of schoolhouse lane” “country estate surrounded by country is the essence of place” “the area has an exclusive, closed off hsiotry”
Action - Develop Commercial Hub (away from residences) - Out-ward Facing communal areas - Nature and Historic Trail - Activate road to slow Traffic
Stakeholder Engagement
Historical Account
Action - Communal areas reflect the historical drive pattern - Don’t build close to road - Historical trail follows buildings
Downtown Section through Schoolhouse Lane
Persepctive view down Schoolhouse Lane
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- Shaded by building in summer for cooling - Plant list must survive in shaded, cool breeze winters
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Microclimate 1
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Microclimate 2
Ou tw ard
- Breezeway cools southern exposure in summer - Southern exposure and pervious pavers warm in winter, while building blocks breezes
Natural Systems Diagram
East Sun
(Less - Desirable)
Stakeholder Engagement
University Responsibility
Ecological Influence
Discussion with author of “univercities”
Discussion with Park Expert/Volunteer
“We must shift focus from profit to people” “universities create “innovation districts” in the middle of esixting communities” “built on the poverty of what surrounds it” “we can help by designing campus as a commons”
“it’s important your site doesn’t flood the neighboring river” “various habitats reside in the neighboring park”
Action - Commercial popup shops to be inhabited by local business - first floor communal for meeting, wifi, and performance use, etc. -Tennis courts used as recreation area
Discussion with Landscape Architect “a healthy landscape provides ecosystem services” “it’s important to use native plants” “make sure various landscapes can thrive in microclimates” Action - Expand park with forest patches - replace lawn with meadows - design rain gardens for stormwater - plant pollinating species
19
Kick Ads - Advertising Agency
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 3
Kickads is a sports advertising agency that encourages the mantra “work hard play hard”. PROGRAMS USED This office environment is organized by areas of “jogging” or focused, durations of work interrupted by “sprints” or high-energy collaborative moments. There is a constant theme of AutoCAD monochrome, linear workspaces that are intersected by strips of color, movement, and play. Revit These activity areas are signified by enveloping perforated structures creating a visual band Photoshop of energy. This diversification of workspace allows employees a chance to work where they would best be productive, including secluded work spaces that can be closed off from the energy of the surrounding office.
Activity Envelope Structure
Activity Envelope Detail
Sustainable design concepts were explored in this project. The building itself was long and narrow, providing expanisve daylight, thermal, and ventilation opportunities. These qualities were diagrammed and influenced decisions with planning, material choice, window use, and wall height. Specifically, the incorporation of green walls was examined to see what spatial and functional requirements must be met.
Air Quality Diagram
Thermal Comfort Diagram
Water Collection Diagram
Sun Angle Diagram
23
Balnerium - The Bathing Place
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 4 Senior Capstone
Balnerium is designed based on a hybrid of bath and spa principles to provide holistic mental PROGRAMS USED and physical care with a balanced environment, a pause from daily stress, and a re-connection with ones inner self and others around them. As a response to the particularities of the modern AutoCAD vertical city, Balnerium redefines the traditionally horizontal, grounded experience of bathing Rhino into a vertical ritual of circulation paths, stacked water experiences, and light conditions. Photoshop Each floor possesses various temperature experiences and water states that intersect the Illustrator atrium, creating a variety of shifting masses and visual connections.
Coneptual Sketches and Models
Atmospheric Section
COLD BATH - NICHE
THIRD FLOOR FLOOR PLAN +43’0” Scale: 3/32”=1’ SAUNA AT THE DATUM LINE
MUD BATH WITH SHOWERS BRIDGE TO HOT BATH
SECOND FLOOR PLAN +21’0” Scale: 3/32”=1’
FLOOR TREATMENT ROOMS TREATMENT BRIDGE
CARVED STAIRWAY
GROUND FLOOR PLAN +/- 0’0” Scale: 3/32”=1’
BASEMENT CURTAIN SYSTEM
BASEMENT PLAN -17’0” Scale: 3/32”=1’
TEPIDARIUM
Custom Wall Details
Structural Plans - New Construction
Temperature Diagram
Longitudinal Section
Accessible Shower Detail
Floor Treatment Detail
Column Condition Detail
29
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 2
A Loft in the City
Inspired by the tunnel-like bamboo forests in Japan, the goal of this project was to create a unique experience when traveling from space to space. This is reflected in the design by ecompassing the stairs and upper balcony in steel cables; a metaphor for bamboo. There is a wall that punctures each floor, creating portal like doors passing from room to room. A grid pattern is created with the custom wall storage system that reflects the Shoji screens and tatami mats of Japanese culture.
Longitudinal Section
First Floor Plan
PROGRAMS USED AutoCAD Sketchup Hand-Render
31
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 2
When an individual is hard of hearing, what form of communication do they depend on? This PROGRAMS USED audiology office brings the focus to hands and how hands become the words that we speak. The curved edges and filleted walls mimic the shapes of our tendons when we spread our AutoCAD fingers wide. This shape creates an organic flow between public, semi-private, and private Rhino space while still maintaining boundaries, privacy, and accessibility. The office is designed with 3DS bright, joyful colors and textured materials to engage the non-aural senses of our bodies.
Audiologist Office
Photoshop
Overall Axonometric
Plan
33
Collaborators: Occupational Therapy Program
Senior-Child Mentor Center
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 2
The concept for this integrative afterschool experience was inspired by the question: what PROGRAMS USED do children like to do? Adventure is a large part of a childhood experience. It stems from curiosity, energy, and education. The forms of the space are inspired by topography and AutoCAD how nature is a playscape of its own. Artificial mounds and sloping surfaces provide areas of Rhino adventure throughout the space. The curvilinear shapes provide opportunities for wayfinding 3DS yet wandering at the same time. This is a space that both children and seniors occupy so it Photoshop was imperative that ramps and saturated and contrasting colors were incorporated for visual ease and accessibility.
First Floor Plan
Custom Seating Elevation
35
Collaborators: Sarah Scott
AIRscapes_Interactive Museum
Thomas Jefferson University | B.S. Interior Design | Year 4
AIR_scapes is an interactive installation with a focus on Philadelphia’s unconscious use of energy, specifically electricity. The exhibition offers educative angles highlighting recursive relationships humans have with their artificial environments. These concepts are actualized by engaging the human body in a playful relationship with soft air and netting structures. These structures are fed through real time climactic data fed by the surrounding city. The museum addressed the question: how to make something intangible like data tangible and experiential.
Longitudinal Section
PROGRAMS USED AutoCAD Rhino Photoshop Illustrator
Mezzanine Perspective
Protruding Stair Detail
Mezzanine Plan
First Floor Plan
39
Synesthesia
Collaborators: Loukia Tsafoulia and Severino Alfonso
Thomas Jefferson University | Graduate Assistantship | 2020-2021
This project is a technological installation, on display at the ECC Venice Biennale, that allows PROGRAMS USED the viewer to become a part of the artwork that it displayed. A physical embodiment of humans as data, the installation is an action reaction project: human views project, project Rhino views human. When a user looks through the various inlets of the fabric skin, their eye enters Cura Lulzbot the “brain” of the project: being collected, processed, and ultimately projected back onto the fabric skin of the installation. Synesthesia is an experience of the senses. When the viewer interacts with the project, the project reciprocates with sound and light. This project was a feat of collaboration I was a design assistant that 3D printed, helped with its installation, and orchestrated expos appearances surrounding the project.
https://www.synestheticdesignlab.com/blog
3d Print Components
Thank you