The initial concept for ‘History of A Roof’ was derived from an examination of residential roofs. Similar to a neighborhood, our design incorporates a series of house shapes clustered together. Those shapes would later become the little “dormers” in the design. They symbolize the history of residential design progression (or owner preference) within the last 100 years. The shapes are evocative of the gable, gambrel, hip, shed, and flat roof typologies.

We started our folly design with a derivative of the gable roof, an A-frame. This structure serves as an armature for the row of “dormers”–acting as a place to showcase their collective development and relationship to each other. The two primary roof planes were separated and shifted to allow views through the “dormers” and to separate the two different materials comprising those planes.

The wood main panel utilizes a series of reclaimed planks joined together to form a mass timber panel. Concrete was selected as a building material for its resilience and left exposed for the juxtaposition of a more “commercial” finish in a “residential” building form. Steel plates, rods, fasteners, and trusses were added for support and to add to the structural expression of the A-frame assembly.