10/21/2026
Repost from architecture models + Ethan Smith
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Post-Shakerism (South Dwelling)
Student: Ethan Smith Ethan Smith
University of Kentucky UKCoD School of Architecture
Spring 2026 | Senior Lecturer Jordan Hines [ Jordan Hines ]
Programme: Shared housing for seasonal employees at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill Kentucky
Scale 1/16″ = 1′-0″
Materials: Chipboard, plaster, balsa wood, 3D-printed components, printed acrylic, sea sponge, wooden dowel, metal mesh
Shakerism was once the largest communal living society in 19th century America. Its theology championed radical social, political, and cultural attitudes through equality of gender and race (translated from belief in God as an equally gendered duality), communal sharing of space and resource, relationship with the Earth, and pursuit of individual perfection through detailed craftsmanship often inventing or embracing new technologies in their endeavor. The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky now stands as a historic landmark preserving their work.
The south dwelling addition for seasonal Shaker Village employees dissects Shaker philosophy, recontextualizing its tenets for a contemporary context as a post-Shaker methodology.
A topological map sketch model informs an organic formal language for the dwelling’s site relationship. Shakers Calvin Green and Seth Y. Wells’ quotation that “a circle may be called a perfect circle when it is perfectly round” invited the employment of simulation software to process complex geometric [form]ulas to precisely achieve the models language through contemporary tools.
The result is superimposed with the site and non-historic buildings. An existing barn is preserved and grafted onto, creating a duality of private and public sectors as opposed to the traditional Shaker gender duology. Light wells, rainwater collection, a social greenhouse, and terraformed programs augment environmental effects for a post-Shaker audience.
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