Interdisciplinary Portfolio

SARAH KENNEY SELECTED WORKS

I posess both a Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Tennessee’s College of Architecture + Design. In addition to strong skills as an interdisciplinary designer, I have a scientific background, artistic representational style, and a 10+ year history of consistent community outreach work. I would appreciate the opportunity to bring my well rounded abilities to your firm. My previous experience encompasses community building, sustainable design, and high-end floristry. However, my transition to architecture has broadened the scope of my aesthetic ambitions. As a student, I focused on systemic explorations, theoretical design, and ecological research. As a practicing architect, I have adopted an innovative approach to architecture while prioritizing detail-oriented design inspired by Carlo Scarpa, infused with my own intellectual suppositions.

The University of Tennessee offered a young and rigorous program that not only facilitated rapid skill development but also encouraged adaptation to diverse design conditions. As both an architect and landscape architect, I have successfully managed contrasting modes of practice, including residential design, radical research, provocative systems, and environmental engineering, all while upholding my unwavering pursuit of beauty. This has led to a focused design approach that prioritizes sustainable beauty while maintaining a holistic consideration of broader social and economic systems of influence.

Over the past 10 years, I have actively participated in research projects across various locations, including Kenya, Iceland, France, Vietnam, Italy, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, and the United States. These experiences have honed my research and writing skills, which I believe will greatly benefit your firm. As a graduate student, I received several awards for my analysis of design practices within the global cut flower trade. This selfdriven project garnered recognition at both the institutional level, receiving the University of Tennessee faculty thesis prize, and the international level, where I was the sole graduate student panelist at a conference held in Portugal. Additionally, I have worked collaboratively on teams researching biodiversity in La Selva rainforest, conservation in the Smoky Mountains National Park, and the mechanization of the Tennessee River watershed. These experiences have equipped me with concrete skills in interpretive analysis, data collection, and social engagement, which I have successfully applied to site-specific design.

In an interview with Harvard’s “Talking Practice” platform, OMA principal Reinier de Graaf discussed the design for Seattle Public Library. He said, “When we were asked to do the library, we went to the bottom of what a library meant in the age of the virtual, and did a lot of unsolicited research. Mainly to satisfy our own curiosity and to avoid giving a superficial answer to a more complex question.” This intrinsic need to understand the world drives innovation. My interdisciplinary education has instilled in me the ability to pose profound, thought-provoking questions: Can we address urban food poverty by reducing ecological fragmentation? Is there a correlation between artificial neural networks and national parks? Where do crucial connections exist between childhood health issues and the availability of green spaces? We recognize that innovation stems from understanding, and understanding emanates from intimacy.

I would like the opportunity to bring my skills and passion back to New York City, a place which has profoundly influenced my adult life. I genuinely hope that you find the ideal candidate for your firm, and I would be deeply honored to be considered for the position.

Thank you, Sarah

Kenney

Master of Architecture

Master of Landscape Architecture

Bachelor of Natural Science

Fulbright Scholarship, Runner-Up Chancellor’s Fellow, 2019-2023

Faculty Thesis Prize, 2023

Aydelott Prize Fellow 2022

Graduate Student Senate (GSS) 2020-2022

GSS, Executive Committee - Fundraising Chair 2021

12.01.2022 To whom it may concern,

SARAH KENNEY (610) 574-3526 SKENNEY3@VOLS.UTK.EDU SARAHCKENNEY1@GMAIL.COM 2023

SARAH KENNEY SELECTED WORKS

Contents: Interdisciplinary Portfolio

Degenerate Menagerie | Udine, Italy

The Death of Casa Veritti

Territorial Disintegrations | Wrangell St. Elias, Alaska Stabilization Through Disturbance

Market Invisible | Los Angeles, California

Genetic Modification as Architectural Spectacle

Rural Resiliency | Savannah, Tennessee

Reflection, Absorption, Diffusion In Cutbank Edges of Hardin County

Post-Contemporary Bathhouse | Knoxville, Tennessee

The Return of Public Bathing in a Water Scarce World

Firefly Mating Grounds | Knoxville, Tennessee

Ecological Light Show For Appalachi

Save Marta | Atlanta, Georgia

Adaptive Reuse In Downtown Atlanta

Skill Showcase: Model Making

Laser Cutter, 3d Printer, Cnc Router

Skill Showcase: Research Visualization

Liminal Spaces: Analysis Of Temporal Landscapes Flowers |

New York, New York Selected Works

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FORM FINDING

WHAT IF CASA VERITTI WAS A MARIONETTE?

THE DEGENERATE MENAGERIE

THE DEATH OF CASA VERITI

STUDIO: ARCH 571

ADVISOR: MICAH RUTENBERG

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT FALL 2020

The architecture of Carlo Scarpa is famous for its craftsmanship. Casa Veritti is a masterpiece of architectural stratification and striking materiality, with lovingly crafted wood at the heart of the building. This project proposes a death for Casa Veritti and coreographs the ruin of a work of art.

A parasite, the strangler fig, engulfs and frames the architecture. Termites, degenerates in nature, metabolise only dead wood. They break down the existing architecture, revealing a literal reframing of the structure. What is left is the phantom of Carlo Scarpa; the final occupant of Casa Veritti is the shadow of a parasite. The tectonic circle is completed when the materiality of Casa Veritti is decomposed and returned to the site in its most raw form, a living plant.

Despite their facade of stability, buildings exist in a state of active decay from the moment they are built. Once a site has reached a state of philosophical inertia, its death should be thought of as part of the architectural system - a celebration of life, rather than a prevention of death. This project recognizes the secret ephemerality of architecture and questions preservation tactics in the profession.

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GROWTH

STRANGLER FIG GROWS ON EXISTING BUILDING

DECAY

TERMITES DEGRADE EXISTING STRUCTURE

PHANTOM IMPRESSION OF ARCHITECTURE

TIDEWATER GLACIER

TERRITORIAL DISINTEGRATIONS

STABILIZATION THROUGH DISTURBANCE IN WRANGELL SAINT ELIAS

STUDIO: EIDETIC VOCABULARIES

ADVISOR: ANDREW MADL

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SPRING 2020

The Alaskan wilderness of Wrangell St Elias is being threatened by climate change at a rate far more concerning than most other places in the United States. Permafrost stabilizes mountain slopes keeping one of the largest mountains ranges in the world inert. As termperatures warm, this permafrost is being degraded, resulting in destabilized mountains and massive landslides. This project proposes simulated annealing as a concept through which Wrangell St Elias can be temporarily destabilized in order to anticipate the future of the landscape.

Simulated annealing is a theorem used in machine learning algorithms which proposes adding a large amount of initial chaos into a system, followed by a targeted tempering period. This process allows a system to reach its most stable state of equillibria in an accelerated manner. Using simulated annealing as a framework, Wrangell St Elias will be heavily disturbed by initiating landslides inevitable in high risk areas. This will be followed by a tempered introduction of north bound plant and animal species. Together, this will cause a period of violent change and territorial level disintegrations to be followed with a stable ecosystem to welcome future climate refugees.

02

GEOLOGY

MARKET, INVISIBLE

GENETIC MODIFICATION AS ARCHITECTURAL SPECTACLE

STUDIO: ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ADVISOR: MARK STANLEY INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SPRING 2021

The world is coming closer to a food production crisis - agricultural sciences and technologies are racing to keep pace. One method for stabilizing food production is through genetic modification of crops for resiliency against harsh climatic conditions. I propose a building in Los Angeles that reframes the conversation around GM plants by directly connecting the public with experts. This architecture is a public facility for production of a drought resilient corn, allowing the public to witness the technological spectacle from test tube to test site. The structure houses all aspects of resilient corn production in a structure that is surrounded and perforated by public green space. The scientists perform their operation in zones physically closed to the public, but the form and materiality on site are defined by radical transparency. This allows the public to experience transparent production and celebratory choreography of a process usually defined by fear and conspiracy.

This building responds to the context of Los Angeles by approaching the design from macro to micro resolutions. From a regional perspective, this design embraces not only the climatic conditions of LA, but also its constraints. LA is plagued by drought and heat, which this corn was bred to resist. Furthermore, it is responsive to the social region by embracing the Hollywood paradigm. This design trades efficiency in production for celebratory choreography, a display which asks the question ‘what if GMOs were not just organisms, but a socially acceptable spectacle?’

Circulation paths between operational bodies kiss and part throughout the building, exposing people directly to the humans behind the abstract science of GMOs. Visitors can physically interact with the GMO as they might engage with any planting strategy in public green spaces, reinforcing the legitimacy of the corn as a real plant, not an abstract concept.

There is an embedded irony within this project, one that breaks down the utopia of design towards something more real. This design publicly proposes ‘radical transparency,’ however, it remains a staged experience. There is no actual research being conducted on site - just highly controlled replication of off site discovery. Furthermore, when viewing the facility from afar, it appears transparent and open; however, as an occupant in the site approaches a location of detailed scientific production, their views behind the proverbial curtain are physically obscured.

03

RURAL RESILIENCY

REFLECTION, ABSORPTION, DIFFUSION IN CUTBANK EDGES OF HARDIN COUNTY

STUDIO: RIVER STUDIO

ADVISOR: BRADFORD COLLETT, TENNESSEE RIVERLINE

ADVISOR: PIPPA BRASHEAR, SCAPE STUDIO

COLLABORATIVE CONCEPT, INDIVIDUAL DESIGN

FALL 2021

Resiliency projects in landscape architecture generally prioritize urban protection; however, problems related to instability and climate change affect peri-urban and rural landscape equally. These different conditions are reciporical landscapes - urbanism relises on ruralism in many explicit ways - and the vitality of cities depends on protection of the countryside..

This project is a rural resiliency landscape that protects riverine communities in Hardin County, Tennessee. On river edges, cut banks are on turbulent cuves where the river’s current runs the most quickly. This turbulence removes soil, destabilizing the river’s edge, causing mass wasting when there is sediment fall out.

This project uses methods from acoustic design to reflect, absorb, and diffuse turbulent currents and protect the communities on cut bank edges. The boardwalk provides areas where christmas trees and large landscape waste can be deposited. These trees will diffuse and absorb turbulent flow, protecting the river’s edge. The soil that builds up here will form seasonal tide pools.

04

INTERVENTION CONTEXT

PERFORMATIVE BOARDWALK AND DUNES

DUAL BOARDWALKS FORM PATHS FOR TREE WASTE DISPOSAL

SITE PLAN FORM FINDING

PERFORMATIVE BOARDWALK AND DUNES

DUAL BOARDWALKS FORM PATHS FOR TREE WASTE DISPOSAL

DEEP WATER FISHING PIER

OVERLOOK PLATFORM

FLOW ANALYSIS

EXPRESSIVE

BOARDWALK AND DUNES

METHODS FOR STABILIZING CUTBANKS

STRAIGHT

BANKED

BUFFERING TIDE POOL

CRESCENT

DOCKED

WETLANDS ACCESS

CONDITIONS SMALL MOUTH BASS LARGE MOUTH BASS STURGEON CRAPPIE BLUE CATFISH SPOTTED BASS CHANNEL CATFISH BLACK CRAPPIE WALLEYE WHITE BASS PLATFORM FOR: BIRD WATCHING STORM WATCHING SUNBATHING CHEROKEE SEDGE SWITCH-GRASS RIVER OATS JOE PYE AMERICAN CATTAIL MARYLAND MEADOW BEAUTY SWEET FLAG CARDINAL FLOWER PENNSYLVANIIA SEDGE AMERICAN LOTUS ADA ACCESS TIDE POOL IN SUMMER DRAINED WETLAND IN THE WINTER CHEROKEE SEDGE SWITCHGRASS RIVER OATS JOE PYE AMERICAN CATAIL MARYLAND MEADOW BEAUTY SWEET FLAG

TURBULENCE IN SIMULATED DUNE

05 POST-CONTEMPORARY BATH HOUSE

THE RETURN OF PUBLIC BATHING IN A WATER SCARCE WORLD

STUDIO: KNOXVILLE 2070

ADVISOR: JAMES ROSE

COLLABORATORS: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SUMMER 2021

She remembered the news that morning. Stories of deserts and dust storms, of homes destroyed in wildfires and farms without a harvest, of the stresses of rationing and wars for the right to wetlands had played on a tin drum long ago beaten to death. Feet rising to meet the surface, she let her head fallback toward the water, and as she did so, the words above the main entrance passed trough her field of vision:

Storms of yesterday

Now, labor in solitude

Joy! Water for all

Leaning back, floating, fingers breaking the surface to feel the first drops of the arriving storm. Her submerged head muffled the joyous cheer that came with the start of a storm – the people of Knoxville celebrating the first days of monsoon season. She arced her body in the water, arms open to the hard spits of rain falling from the sky. Water would fill every creek so quickly, that the TVA workers would be directing it to the bath house cascades where it would mingle with the pools. Most beautiful in the rain, made of rubble and waterfalls, the bath house would wake its sleepy lights and inaugurate the start of a new year - a temporary end to the austerity and subtle stress, to guilty pleasures and token actions, to infrastructural and the resource-driven inequality that permeated their postmodern condition. The winds whipped through market square, washing through the air, roughly cleansing the faces of bathers. Soon they would be freezing, and red faced, shivering and hungry, too worn out to continue celebrating - but until then, the city rejoiced the start of the new year.

RESIDENTIAL PLAN

MIXED OCCUPANCY HOUSING

FORMER TVA TOWER

RETROFITTED TO BECOME RESIDENTIAL HOUSING WITH STORM VIEWING ROOFTOP

BATH HOUSE PLAN

MODESTY AND PUBLICITY

PUBLIC BATHING AREA

RESIDENTIAL AND PRIVATE

NUDE SPACES ON THE UPPER FLOOR VERSUS COVERED SPACES ON THE GROUND LEVEL

FRONT LOBBY IS A DUAL RESIDENTIAL AND BATH HOUSE ENTRY WAY

FIREFLY MATING GROUNDS

ECOLOGICAL LIGHT SHOW FOR APPALACHIA

TECH SEQUENCE CLASS: OPERATIVE LANDSCAPES II ADVISOR: MICHAEL ROSS

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT FALL 2020

This design proposes a firefly mating ground for University of Tennessee’s Campus. Fireflies typically use short to medium height grasses as launching pads from which they begin their hunt for a mate. The existing bioswales on campus will be significantly redesigned and expanded in order to create this mating ground. While some aspects of the proposal will be effective in creating habiat for fireflies, that is an added benefit.

The main purpose is to create a mating ground that mixes isolated insect populations. This is important because other areas unbridled by the issues that plague college campuses are more effective for stable larval sites. Fireflies arrive at college, find themselves a mate, then settle down in the suburbs to raise their young. It is also important to mention that while this design targets fireflies, it is in actuality a proposal with wide spread faunal associations, assisting countless species in ovecoming the separation between west/south and east/north meta populations.

For humans., this will create an annual spectacular which can be experienced as a more ocalized pilgrimage, similar to the one that is world famous in the Smoky Mountains. As fireflies typically mate only in June, for 2 weeks every summer campus will go dark and encourage locals to come experience the spectacular. Campus will be closed to cars after 7 pm, until which, people will be permitted to park in the campus lots as they would for any sporting event. Street lights will go dark and campus security will be increased to quell any safety fears. This cost will be offset by parking charges. Students, families and ecologists can gather anywhere on campus to view the twinkling lights of fireflies as they arrive on campus to do what any good college student does: find a mate...I mean study.

This design is poetic, humorous, and most importantly, effective. There is no other event like this in the United States, and will attract students from all over the country.

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