WORKS SAMPLE

Roger Mainor is an architect, designer, builder, writer, modern nomad, and serial epiphanist. His interests lie in understanding and exposing the processes that support and produce society, the environment, and building practice. His experiences range from international travel and study, local research and building, to non-profit project management. What follows is a small selection of academic work created within the past four years.

The first project was completed with professors Lebbeus Woods and Christoph a. Kumpusch, titled “Fluid Manhattan.” This conceptual project explored the idea of the vertical section in New York City, relating different scales of the city and its infrastructure, from deep within the earth to the vastness of the sky above. [Summer 2010, team project]

This second project was completed with professors Caroline O’Donnell and Peter Eisenman, titled “Piecelines.” Belfast is a city divided, but not in the conventional sense. Unlike previous walls that delineate clear boundaries, “us” versus “them,” Belfast’s peacelines are fragmented and dispersed unevenly through the city, confusing the state of the conflict and the reading of urban space.This new paradigm of urban space is projected further upon one of the wall fragments, breaking up the wall, propelling its pieces into the urban fabric. The pieces collide with buildings, frustrate movement and circulation, and freeing o n c e - r e s t r i c t e d movement. The result is a space that at once retains the traces of the past but projects itself into a future where the conflict boundaries no longer exist. There are only fragments and specters. [Spring 2010, team project]

The third project was completed at the Rural Studio with professors Andrew Freear, Daniel Splainguard, and Danny Wicke. The year-long building/research project examined the potentialities of building with pine thinnings to stimulate local economies and construction. This was the first project in what is now a series of Thinnings projects at the Rural Studio, and the team’s research has been a valuable asset to subsequent teams. The project culminated in the production of a book, documenting the research, numerous prototypes and building experiments, and the construction of a full-scale test section for a proposed pavilion at Payne Lake, Talladega National Forest. The pavilion, to be built entirely with wood harvested from the National Forest, went through numerous iterations and rigorous, code-compliant testing for structural integrity. [2008-2009, team project]

The fourth project was completed with professors Christian Dagg and Justin Miller. The Villa Mirabello, located in Gabbro, Tuscany, has been unoccupied for over twenty years. Despite this decay, the villa remains beautiful and in sound structural condition.

First, the studio visited the villa and the town of Gabbro, exhaustively documented the site, and then prepared a set of drawings and models for the community. For the project design, the inadequate circulation became the primary focus. The villa was left largely in its present state with the addition of several stair systems on the site. One corner of the villa’s nine square grid was commandeered for a new interior stair, built with local, contemporary materials. Rather than blending into the existing structure, the addition juxtaposes and differentiates the new and the old for use with a new generation. [Summer 2008]

ROGERALANMAINOR

designer, writer, builder

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roger.a.mainor [a] gmail.com

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2159 S McKenzie StFoley AL 36535

[work, research]Van Alen Institute, Program Manager [August 2010 - June 2011]Auburn University Rural Studio, Thesis [2008 - 2009]Auburn Study Abroad [Spring and Summer 2008]Quina Grundhoefer Architects, Inc., Intern [Summer 2007]Beaufort Engineering Services, Inc., Intern [Summer 2005, 2006]

[education]Cornell University, Master of Architecture [2010]Auburn University, Bachelor of Architecture, magna cum laude [2009]Auburn University, Bachelor of Interior Architecture, magna cum laude [2009]

[skills and software knowledge]Manual drafting, drawing, and physical modellingGeneral web and graphic designOne-to-one prototyping and construction experienceAutoCADRhino and SketchUpAdobe Creative Suite [Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects]Microsoft Office [Word, Excel, Powerpoint]

[published work]“Fluid Manhattan” and “Notes from the Underground,” Changing Lanes, ed. Christoph a. Kumpusch and Mark Morris (Cornell University: Cornell AAP, 2011).

“Surface Cities: Renovating the Image of the 21st-Century City,” John Zissovici, The Cornell Journal of Architecture 8: RE (Cornell University: Cornell AAP, 2010).

Thinnings at Rural Studio: An investigation in building with loblolly pine thinnings, Anna Bevill, Lori Fine, Ian Hoffman, and Roger Mainor (Newbern: self-published, 2010).

“Patchwork Project,” Krystal Chang, Metropolis (27 July 2007).