a roof is a roof is a roof is the final Graduate School semester project by Janis Rucins as part of the UIC research studio Roadside Attractions led by professor Alex Lehnerer. The work won the Best in Show Award at the University of Illinois School of Architecture 2009/2010 Year End Show.

From the studio description: 

Roadside Attractions appear as a bonus to our primary interest of getting down the road. They even make us forget the road for a little while. We do not look for them – we just find them. We are cheered, because their size, directness, and form surprise us. On the journey to unconscious urban gadgetry, our job is to construct and find consistency with these attractive features. We extract local regions of interest from the mess we live in. The discovered attributes will be translated into something else or to someplace else. Ultimately, it is an exploration of urban types and elements to which we apply certain treatments to get behind their secrets. – Alex Lehnerer, UIC