PORTFOLIO_
ROSS LOYAL RITCHIE
portfolio of_ ROSS LOYAL RITCHIE 11 2nd Ave E. Ravenswood, WV 26164 304.532.7804 ross.l.ritchie@gmail.com
bachelors of architecture Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA Center for European Studies & Architecture (CESA), Riva San Vitale, CH
contents. 11
design a train station in clifton forge, va
10 f10
an urban proposal
10
urban sustainable transport center
09
study abroad
ss
f
ss
ff
virginia society competition ‘11
new urban core for blacksburg, Va
international competition for a more sustainable barcelona
riva san vitale, Ti, CH
design a consulate
international design in a multicultural environment
09
design a mobile home
08
design an outhouse
ss ff
detonation tower in a planetary garden
08
ss
3rd year competition
remembrance garden shadow garden + memory wall case study
07
ss
aldo rossi + modena cemetery
construct a 44 inch line 1st year competition
11
ss
Virginia Society Competition design a train station in Clifton Forge.
Per the process, the site is formed to lead the passenger to experience each activity and structure distinctly. From the contained ticket office to the outwardly gazed waiting pavilion, the structures make up a set field that is held by wooden pathways. This arrangement allows the site to be given back to the town of Clifton Forge in the form of a park as well as a train station.
10 f10
f
An Urban Proposal design a new urban core for Blacksburg, VA.
The urban condition of Blacksburg is delineated along one axis created by Main Street. Most of the buildings downtown are oriented towards the vehicular traffic passing through the city. Instead of creating a single point of density to allow radical growth, the town stretches along Main Street. Within this orientation, any chance of density is impossible. We have found this linear, car-centric orientation to be detrimental to the growth of the city. As an alternative, we are proposing that the inevitable necessity of the car can be utilized to establish a
loaded program parking structure. The structure occupies a site between Main Street and Progress Street, behind a row of restaurants and bars. The position of the lot is a crucial interstitial space between the outlying suburban areas, campus, and downtown. To this effect, the current use of the land as an open parking lot does not acknowledge its latent potential to the laterally expand downtown. We have seen the current site as a virtual tabula rasa within the urban context, a parking lot and an empty bar. While the space is empty, various pathways of desire have been carved out of it. We have observed these many paths through an undesigned space and used them to carve from the mass of the building. These boulevards of high traffic lead from the alley between the Cellar and Sharkey’s to Harding Avenue, and from Church Street to Wilson Avenue, providing
JACKSON ST
WILSON AVE
unimpeded access through the site, carved out of the mass. The bottom floors of the building are occupied by a parking structure and grocery store, with the top floors devoted to residential usage. The carving of pathways through the site have led to the dual orientation of the building, a unified, discernible facade and multiple interior facades. The building speaks both to the greater urban condition and also to itself. We have used the intersection of these pathways to create an urban park, an offering to the public. The mass and height of the building does not speak to the current urban condition, it instead proposes a future condition, stepping stone “b” between “a” and “c”.
10
ss
URBAN SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT CENTER
As Cerda sought to actively engage the city typology at the scale of the block, we look to engage the block typology at the scale of the car. The car travels through and under the block in a bold, slicing manner, physically bisecting the site and the buildings. As it reaches the center of the courtyard, the car is recharged through a drop carriage system. The process can be viewed from the plaza above, further looking to engage and educate the community in the ease and efficiency of the battery replacement system.
The breaks in the skin not only look to actively engage the pedestrian but to aid in the natural lighting and airflow schemes throughout the center.
ell
’urg
te d
om
el c
d rer car ndres
carrer de lo
com te
d’urg ell
4
carr er de l
Urban gardens for public use with provided irrigation from the center’s rain collection systems.
0
North
In an effort to strengthen the relationship between the dealership and the community the electric cars are displayed in a vertical lot, providing the city with an ever changing façade of cars. Section A1
Rooftop terraces allow inhabitants to access an outdoor work environment without having to descend to the courtyard. The upper levels are equipped with greenhouses for the growth of produce for use in the cafe.
carre
r de
1
londr es Urban courtyard provides the public with a safe gathering space away from the busy streets and also acts as a basin for water to drain into as it is one of the major components of the water collection system.
The faรงade was created in an effort to actively respond to the conditions of the city environment. As the cars are powered by the collections and dispersion of electricity, the faรงade aids in the powering of the building with the collection of rain water and the harnessing of solar energy through panels on the upper levels.
5 4 3 2 1 0
-1
Urban gardens for public use with provided irrigation from the center’s rain collection systems.
-1
Section A1
Section
A1
09
ff
study/travel abroad. abroad in Riva San Vitale, Ch.
The study abroad program in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland gave me the great opportunity to live, travel and study in the design centered culture of the Ticino canton. Architecture was everywhere. Sketching and experiencing the great works of architecture locally is something not seen back home. While studying acoustics, I visited and attended performances at the many great opera houses of Europe. Being in the place that you are studying is amazing in itself, but hearing what these houses sound like is an experience like no other. Bringing the experiences straight into studio is another great opportunity that I took full advantage of and will always take with me.
living, sketching and studying. from the opera to the cemetery.
09
ff
design a consulate. international design in a multicultural environment.
Using an arrangement of pure and working volumes, a scheme is developed to expand on the notion of a country’s(Netherlands) ideals and how it is shown through the architecture. Its free plan, holistic spacial volumes, and extreme transparency throughout lend their hand to the idea of this very open society.
site_ Lugano, CH
NORTH ELEVATION
SECTION
SOUTH ELEVATION
09 design a mobile home.
ss
from design to delivery.
sleep
live
sleep
1
2
3
Mobile housing provides homes for so many, but sadly has been neglected in the design world. In order to begin to analyze this typology, as a studio, we physically dissected a mobile home. The problems were immediately revealed when we entered into the mobile home. The space was cramped and fragmented and only small apertures allowed natural light to make its way into the home. The poor quality of structure became evident as we cut the trailer in half longitudinally. Using the observations we made during the dissection, I have developed solutions to these issues within my design. The purpose of this design is to create a fluid space while maximizing the natural light by blending interior and exterior spaces. This is achieved by
placing the bedrooms on both ends and allowing them to slide out, leaving the original footprint. Doors are placed in the openings that the move supplies, allowing light to spill into the living space that connects the bedrooms. The area that was vacated becomes a built-in deck for the entry and back porch. The new spaces created in this design blend the interior and exterior by opening up the living space to the outside. The exterior, clad with a corrugated polycarbonate, filters the light though the structure that then defines the faรงade. To address the problem of the feeble structure and assure the stability of the sliding volumes, a lightgauge steel frame is constructed with structural steel for the base and track. This steel frame
gives the much needed strength and the feeling of safety related with the traditional home. The polycarbonate gives a translucent look to the frame, that is repeated in the studs and cross bracing. The translucency allows openings to be created by a single wall assembly that uses the interior sheathing to differentiate the solid wall and openings. These openings can let more filtered light into the private spaces than traditional windows, because of the blurring effect of the material.
sliding detail. 1� dia steel ball transfer W 6 x 20 S 7 x 15.3
3 x 3 steel angle
2 x 4 cedar decking ST 9 x 27.35
3 x 3 steel square tubing
detailed section.
2 x 6 x 54 lightweight steel roof joist
screw jack supports
helical screw foundation system
rigid insulation
corrugated polycarbonate sheeting with uv-screen coating
constructing a mobile home. from structure to finish. The assembly of this mobile home is based on a one wall system with no punched out windows. The two bedroom modules that slide can be built at a different location and be placed on the stationary structure at a later time. The transportation of the mobile home creates many limitations for the design, that in the past has resulted in double floors and tires that remain on the structure for the entire life of the home. In this design, the chassis and tires are removed and the structure is built with a screw jack pier system that allows the home to raise up high enough to load itself on the tractor trailer. The home is transported to the site, then can be lifted off the truck and lowered to its resting height. The foundations are a helical screw system that is very quick to install and requires little disturbance to the soil profile of the site, yet still provides a very strong base.
08
ff
2” x 4” MAHOGANY TIMBER
1 3/4” MARINE GRADE PLYWOOD
DETAIL 1
ROOF PLAN 5’-0”
8’-1”
4’-0”
1/2” MAHOGANY DOWELS
FRONT ELEVATION
SIDE ELEVATION
2” x 4” MAHOGANY TIMBER
3/4” MARINE GRADE PLYWOOD
1 3/4” MARINE GRADE PLYWOOD 1/2” MAHOGANY DOWEL
1” 1.5”
2”
DETAIL 2
design an outhouse.
its shape is simple, its means minimal.
PLAN
SECTION
.5’
1’
4’
construct a full scale fragment.
08
ff
Detonation tower in a planetary garden.
Study of the dialogue between industrial, natural, and suburban typologies. The introduction of a foreign object, the tower, into the natural landscape is analogous to a pebble and a body of water. The impact of the tower into the landscape causes nature to be displaced but for only a moment in relation to the age of the planet(ary garden). The interaction of four typologies; suburban, industrial, natural, and time. Can architecture that exists dynamically in time be viewed as a certain and distinct typology? The architecture displaces nature, evolving; inevitably yielding to nature’s reclamation over time. Time as a scalable measure relative to the proximity of interrelated typologies. Energies or typologies as pebbles of varying sizes generate diverse effects on the natural landscape in the figurative form of ripples. The ripple is telling the story of the pebble by its effects on its relative environment. A Ripple through Time.
08
ss
rememberance
garden
A community owned facility that provides a place to mark individual and collective ceremonies marking rites of passage. The facility is also to be used for a recreational purposes. By calling the place a garden, considers this as a symbolic landscape that reflects upon the relationship between culture and nature as framed by birth and death, renewal and passing.
SCALE 1/2” = 1’
SCALE 1/8” = 1’
DETAILED SCALE 3” = 1’
DETAILED SCALE 3” = 1’
In journey through the garden, the visitor is immediately introduced to the human scale via the block(precast construction). In the manipulation of these elements, a series of rooms emerge that guides one through the intermitting walls that seem to come from the ground. Then before one comes to the caretaker’s dwelling, a slit in a wall gives the visitor a hint to the sacred garden within, nurtured only by the caretaker. SCALE 1/2” = 1’
SCALE 1/2” = 1’
08
ss
shadow garden. Using a set amount of material, an arrangement of forms is created to evoke thoughts of each person’s past.
memory wall. part to whole. using the cmu, the crypts, and columbaria to create a whole setting that would allow visitors to come and remember their loved one’s life in a peaceful and inviting space.
08 case study.
ss
aldo rossi. modena cemetery
07
ss
first year competition honorable mention
make a 44 inch line. given_ 24� x 36� bristol board