This is a mini autobiography. For a long time I used to go to bed late. I was anxious of future deviations. A machine and feather would appear in my dreams. This left when I got taller. I worked as a farm hand for years and saw seasonal striations that I still have no words for. I moved to Jackson Hole and thought I would be a cowboy for the rest of my life. I went to architecture school in Cincinnati. I began as an engineer. I went to Italy and became concerned with immanence and divinity. I read Deleuze Spinoza Jung Weil Proust and Sweedenborg and looked at a lot of Medieval and early Renaissance art. I came home and finished my degree and talked to my friends about the ancient mounds in my hometown then moved to New York. I met people into films and photography and would have watch parties with them and go to galleries to look at the usual work. I have had great time to marinate on what I want to do. I know I like serving people and communities and think architecture can be socially autonomous. I like archetypical things and stories and vernaculars maybe to a fault. I am interested in living a life of art by undulating between making and meeting and see architecture as the path for me to do so. Please enjoy my portfolio, I hope to add to it soon.
an architecture portfolio
Simon Roderick
Public
Architextural Studio 005
A Spoiled Net 15
Scultpure Architecture Studio 001
Banks of the Ohio 23
Mixed-use Residential Architectural Studio 004
Linden’s Loft 31
Private Outdoor Freelance Work
Caesar Creek 39
Public Freelance Work
Urban Necropolis
University of Cincinnati Architecture Studio 006
With the ever-increasing trend of cremation in contemporary American death-care practices, this project aims to integrate a large necropolis into the dense urban fabric of Pendleton, Ohio. This project is a loose critique on cartesian dualism and is comprised of two elements: a permeable recreational park and an underground crypt system of caryatids functioning as mausoleums for cremated remains. The utilization of extending Cincinnati’s Jeffersonian grid informs the assembly of these structural mausoleums. This organization is superimposed with the resurrection of previous nineteenth century site development, further coalescing the broken surface landscape and underground cemetery within the scale of the community.
Necropolis Landscape
Upper Landscape
Section Sketch
1:10 Section Model
As humans consistently pursue more advanced methods of achieving homeostasis I looked to shift this equilibrium by engaging both mind and body through plays on history and symbol, both recent and past, both personal and public.
The critique views sensation as the homogonizing verb to fuse the mind-body dilemma. A procession through signs and traces engages the nervous system thus collpases the binary into a flock of grey.
Site Plan
By implementing a “tectonic plate” system the large site was dissected into intimate micro-environments. These plates shift and slide amongst each other subtly unveiling the underground necropolis.
Landscape Matrix Parti Diagram
Birdseye View
Referencing the historic row housing development on the site allowed the project to seamlessly blend with its context.
The necessary program was then injected into each structure partitioning them into three distinct typologies: lightwells, transitions, and programs.
Program Axonometric
Transition Axonometric
Lightwell Axonometric
Welcome Center
Exploded Axonometric Drawing
LongitudinalSection
As one descends down swooping ramps, beams of light rupture the necropolis revealing faces, breasts, hands, then a tribe of lost Gigantes. An implemented point-grid system gives form to the caryatids which breaks through their uncanny interactions. Given this they are more than objects of structure, they also perform as individual mausoleums where each figure becomes an anthropomorphized tartan for a family’s cremated remains.
Caryatid Section
A Spoiled Net
University of Cincinnati
Architectural Studio 001
Tessellated figures allow one to understand the adhesive of a larger system. They provide evidence of structure which can be read as a mass or an individual. M.C. Eshcer’s work provides explanations of the variants a figure can hold which he then breaks to create optical illusions. M.C. Eshcer looks to fracture these geometries and test the individual viewer’s relationship with order.
In this project a dynamic figure was to be created, an object which could be used in various orientations. This figure could then test or break the viewer’s perceived relationship with a modular unit by simply being itself. The resulting tension is of a dissonance created from subject to part while the whole still functions structurally.
Sculpture
2020 AIA Ohio Student Honorable Mention Award
The figure created produces three arms that extend from a radial origin. These angles produce perfect circular voids which change in diameter according to the unit’s orientation. This diversity of outcome became a key concept for compositional results moving forward.
After the form was realized a silicone mold was produced from a CNC milled high density foam unit. Two inch scored PVC pipes created a simple joinery method at the end of each arm where units could be dismantled and reassembled quickly into different configurations.
Single Unit
The material, three parts Quickrete to one part plaster, presented a smooth quality which complimented the form. With each pour the mold deteriorated resulting in a mosaic like quality, a singularity between units.
The drawings are inspired by the sculpture’s principles and abstract the unit into different symbols. They test ideas of frame but are mainly concerned with compositional issues through different types of projection.
Tessalation #1
Tessalation #2
Massing Study
Axonometric Configurations
Banks of the Ohio
University of Cincinnati
Architecture Studio 004
The site sits within a marshland along the Ohio River between Newport, Kentucky’s Junkspace-esque shopping center and Belleview, Kentucky’s Lynchian single family neighborhood. It is a bit unsettling yet a completley American condition found in every Sean Baker film.
The prompt:
One hundred residential units, intertwined with spaces for commerce and amenities for the tenants.
The questions:
How can this site act as a hinge both literally and metaphorically?
How can this complex react to consistent flood conditions?
How can equal housing opporitunities exist within all of this?
Mixed-use Residential
Kentucky’s creekside housing vernacular, most notable in the Appalachain region, presents logical conditions both in form and function. These homes manifest as elevated masses on pilotis which shield the structure from encroaching flood conditions. A tertiary space between mass and landscape is created.
Principle ideas of line and volume emerged. The pilotis, epitomizing the concept of line, establish a rhythm of structure which was articulated as an unfinished cage. Within this framework units can be manipulated through pushing and pulling at will. The result became a porous facade of dog trots and equitably sized units.
Unit Configurations
Line Parti Diagram
Mass Parti Diagram
Site Plan - Ground Floor
Site Plan - Residential Floor
Axonometric
In lifting the site can tie the greater community to the river edge. Boardwalks are placed based on the projecting lines of the building’s structure. The building dilebtrilatley steps and rotates seeking views of downtown Cincinnati and its rolling hills to the east. Through this rotation a massive communal stair is born where tenants can meet and become neighbors.
Facade
Entrance to Complex
Linden’s Loft
Chillicothe, Ohio Freelance Work
A strip of green scales the Till Plains dotted with barns that scale their scene. The plateau rises then surrounds revealing its deep intricacies. Odd faces wrinkle in limestone sheaths. Still water drips by hawk’s wings. The land undulates and swirls into hollow towns. An ancient history on open coulee’s exists along rich ecologies and cosmic eternities.
The project pulls itself off of the hillside framing the Seip Earthworks on Paint Creek’s expansive valley below. Trees of all kinds surround the site where sunsets burn through, filtering dramatic lighting conditions. Two American Linden trees partially support this structure which rests within their crown.
Private Outdoor
This project was erected at the gateway of the homeowner’s wooded property. The client’s vision was a deck seamlessly integrated within the surrounding trees, designed to accommodate both large social gatherings and meditative practices. The site’s dramatic slope called for a bridge that would connect the property to the tree canopy. Implemmenting floating brackets, knee bracing, and concrete piers minimized stress on the two supporting trees. No trees were harmed or removed during the construction process, resulting in a nest like condition within the neighboring canopies.
Perspective Sketch
Elevation Sketch
Caesar Creek
University of Cincinnati Freelance Work
In 1978 the US Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of the Caesar Creek Dam creating a reservoir spanning 2,830 acres. The site, characterized by rocky gorges, narrow valleys and separated with extensive sections of bottomlands, was then superimposed by massive unnatural flooding.
The park now hosts a series of recreational activities promoted by its diverse ecology. What is missing is a proper nature center. A building that could could compliment the landscape and act as a point of locality for learning and activity.
Public Educational
To contest the site is a death sentence. It is obvious to explore vernacular work. The longhouse, the old barn, the saw mill, they all can and have performed perflectly here.
The project sits in an open patch, soberly. Earthen paths connect the building to trailheads, storage sheds, fishing docks, pavilions to cook, and a camp site to sleep.
Learning Center
Rhythm and Topography Study
West Elevation
North Elevation
East Elevation
South Elevation
The project presents itself in 3 parts: a plinth, a torso, and roof. The torso is clad in vertical cedar planks, tongue and grooved. The plinth is an ampitheater where demonstrations are held for students. The roof is capped in metal. Bent metal maybe aluminum, it is mostly concerned with the acoustics rain will make.
A breezeway divides two blocks which host administrative and educational spaces. A shifting action creates a porch where deep sills are found at seat height. The second level hosts an office space and cuts through both blocks. Skylights puncture the roof plane to the north and solar panels line the south. The construction utilizes simple joinery. An easily recognizable figure is the result, both legible and economic.
