Designing and Building: Rockhill and Associates

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Dan Rockhill, a designer, builder, and educator working in Kansas, has
three sides to his architectural work, all united by common themes.
First, as for most architects, there are from-scratch projects, houses
he designed and built as commissioned by individual clients. Secondly,
there are restoration projects, work to preserve modest historic
structures from 19th-century Kansas. The third aspect of his work is an
outgrowth of his teaching in a university school of architecture. As
part of this, he guides students in the design and building of small,
inexpensive houses for needy families.

The common threads are inspiration drawn from the Kansas agricultural
landscape, with accommodations for the extreme weather conditions in
that state. He uses materials familiar in rural towns on the open
plains—steel, glass, concrete. Colour, light, and texture are all
considerations in his work.

When he is involved in a historic restoration, the goal is to retain
the appearance of the original. This puts such projects as the
preservation of the only remaining Pony Express station in sharp
contrast to his original work, although both rely on the same
principles. Rockhill’s houses are modest in scale, suited to their
environment, and often with maintenance-free exteriors, yet are built at
low cost, using ultra-modern designs. He draws inspiration not only from
the western plains landscape, but also from agricultural machines,
machine sheds, and outbuildings, and applies is to modest homes. He is
credited with inventing machinery and applying it to architecture, so
that parts of his buildings become machines. An example is stairs that
fold and rotate.

His approach involves using recycled materials and other eco-friendly
features such as sod roofs, and aligning the structure to work with the
site’s sun and wind characteristics. Tornado shelters are a part of
several homes.

The book’s intent is to offer insights into Rockhill’s process of
design, and document the products of that process. This is achieved
through essays on his work, an extensive album of both colour and
black-and-white photos, plus numerous drawings. Architectural students,
municipal planners, and anyone with an interest in modern housing design
will enjoy Rockhill’s innovative concepts.