Author: Lenny Haynes

What has the Dining House crew been up to this spring?

Following the pouring of the footings this winter, the team has since completed a raised slab foundation. Extensive rebar work, earthforming, and underground plumbing have all finished, with little in the way between now and framing. The foundation is now complete with 14 thin concrete piers, 3 feet away from the exterior walls, that will hold 4×6 columns. These uplift columns support the roof overhang and secure it firmly to the foundation, protecting against strong winds. Elsewhere, the Dining House team has explored the timber structure assembly through mockup trials. Rafters, a “sandwiched” assembly of 2x12s with a 2×10 in the middle, sit on a ridge beam, a sandwiched assembly of 2x16s and a 2×14 cut and milled from local lumber.

• The mockup process has also helped the team refine their craftsmanship. By studying the trial assembly, they’ve learned:
  • how to cut precise angles accurately,
  • where precision matters most,
  • how to improve the final construction process before full framing begins.

It has been invigorating to watch the site transform. What once was a muddy puddle is now definitely beginning to resemble the Dining House. The mock-up provides a sneak peek at what’s to come. As the spring makes way for summer, the master planning around the Dining House is nearing completion, with a new parking lot laid. Major power and water lines are now rerouted. The slab has been stubbed up for electric and plumbing, and the team is connection those lines to existing water and power

This spring, the Dining House crew has made major progress on both construction and site infrastructure:

• Foundation work is complete after winter footing pours. The team finished:
  • the raised slab foundation,
  • extensive rebar installation,
  • earthforming,
  • underground plumbing.

• They also added 14 thin concrete uplift piers positioned 3 feet outside the walls. These will support 4×6 columns that anchor the roof overhang and help protect the structure from strong winds.

Overall, the project has moved from a muddy construction site to something that is now clearly taking shape as the future Dining House.

And we’ve made a few new friends along the way.

Greetings from the Dining House team! When we last caught up in February, the team made big decisions about the foundation, structure, and floor plan layout. Since then, we concluded weeks jam-packed with designing landscaping, master planning, accessibility, and building code with the first round Executive Reviews. (Executive Review is when the 5th-year students present their work to the school faculty, admin, and leadership for evaluation. This review determines whether the project is in the appropriate place in development and the Studio has the resources to support the project.) Additionally, we milled more logs (50 out of 70 so far!) reveal our gradual progress.  

Our big design decisions include where to place the Dining House on the site, how much insulation to use for thermal comfort, and what materials to use for the structure and finishes. 

The landscape is integral to the master planning of the north side of Morrisette Campus, stitching the Dining House into a rich architectural landscape. Based on input from landscape architects David Hill and Mary Margaret Jones, we intend to reintroduce deciduous trees in the Loblolly pine grove while also creating an allée of trees (a tree-lined path) stretching from the forest, going past the front of the Dining House, and reaching all the way to the Great Hall lawn. This big move will provide a privacy screen and denote a transition when entering the campus residential zone. We are also shaping an outdoor room between the Dining House and Bathhouse, where activities inside the Dining House can spill out onto the lawn. This zone will see a “re-wilding” effort to increase a diverse range of trees and shrubs. Amongst this colorful regrowth, we will set a small outdoor patio right outside the Dining House for a place to hang out all months of the year.

Our team compiled a of these design decisions to show our Rural Studio client group and the head of Auburn University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. We got some excellent feedback that is pushing us to consider the thermal comfort of an unconditioned building. As a result, we’re running with a new driving idea of a “hunker-down” space within a pavilion-like structure, which is encouraging us to focus in on layout and massing, or arrangement, shape, and size of the structure. 

Marlon Blackwell arrived as we were rethinking our floor plan. We received much-needed clarity. First, we embraced the idea of an operable building, discussing what sliding/pivoting pieces that were within our wheelhouse could create a pavilion effect. The Dining House can use passive conditioning with sliding barn doors on the west and operable panels in an eastern dormer. With a refined elevation and cleaner diagram of the building, we were ready to tackle the ever-present question of, “How is this thing going to stand?” 

From large spans to an excess of cantilevers, we needed to answer some major structural questions. Engineer Joe Burns helped us target our most challenging structural moments and pointed to ways that some of our materials could be best used. Our most up-to-date floor plan layout has a structural grid logic; in the process of planning, we’re creating diagonal sheer walls with our white oak and finding the best use of our nano CLT, as well as supporting spans and overhangs.

This returns us to the specific questions of, “What does this look like for a 3rd-year using the space? How will students be engaging with the Dining House during mealtimes and their downtime?” Kim Clements and Joe Schnieder provided excellent insight on the intricacies of kitchen design and development. We considered kitchen layouts, storage placement, and sequence of use, coming up with design strategies around thickened walls, window placement, and arrangement of doors into the kitchen. 

With so much recent change and shaping, the Dining House is nearing an exciting level of resolution. We have just a few remaining schematic design questions around circulation, site placement, and site drainage. As we look forward to Pig Roast and the final Executive Review, the team will be working on answering these questions as well as on getting a clear schedule for a mockup and starting earth work.  One thing remains clear: we want to create a wonderful space for the 3rd-years. And we are closer to that goal than ever before.  

Greetings from the Dining House team! Let’s catch you up on our progress. Fall semester Soup Roast gave way to the holidays, so the team had time to reflect on progress and return refreshed for 2025. Since January, the design conversation has been on spatial proportions, timber roof structure, program intent, passive ventilation, and form + volume. From campus parking schemes to window details, the team continues striving to clarify the project’s structure, design ethos, and technical aesthetics.

Esteemed visiting consultants have invigorated our project, sharing their time and expertise. In January, Dan Wheeler and Joe Burns helped clarify project intent, the size and scale of the building, and its relationship to neighboring buildings. They also helped us devise the image of all elevations, both inside and out. Ultimately, the team came away with a simple, effective floor plan. In February, Andrew Burman visited. He helped the team explore the volume and the sequence of entry; we also expanded upon the social impacts of the spaces the project could create. Ted Flato arrived just in time for a discussion on roof lines, window collaging, and passive ventilation systems. Additionally, meetings with the Rural Studio client team have aided in finalizing site planning and suggestions for floor plan improvement.

Our project method attempts to reduce material consumption through an ethos of “raw, reuse, and reimagine.” Part of our process has been to rediscover leftover, discarded, and forgotten material in six of Rural Studio’s store barns, including the Thesis Barn and the Brick Barn. These materials are reimagined as an integrated whole. A strong timber frame supports the building, constructed of student-milled raw lumber from Rural Studio’s own backyard. The skin of the building “hangs” outboard of this sturdy skeleton, forming a creatively collaged assembly of roof tile and sheet metal, windows and doors, kitchen tile, and flooring.

All key materials are readily available in Rural Studio’s stock. Elements are stitched together through careful planning and material study. Above all, a hands-on approach is favored. By visiting the barns, laying out material, holding it, measuring it, and understanding it, we hope to take advantage of what Rural Studio already has, rather than order all-new from manufacturers.

Over the past few weeks, we have landed on a few design decisions: a footing and block wall foundation will wrap the building, preventing the intrusion of rodents and moisture underneath the kitchen. The interior wall-to-wall is 22′ wide, with spans supported by a concrete pier down the middle.

The north and south sides of the Dining House floor plan flank a square-like dining area and kitchen. The north side holds a breakfast nook and a utility closet. The south side has an entry vestibule and a pantry with refrigerators. A long bar of kitchen counter holds two ranges and two sinks. A kitchen island divides the dining and cooking/prep space. The island is a social hub, incorporating the cubbies.

The building will take the form of a lean-to, following a 2/3: 1/3 proportion along the long length of the building. 1/3 will house the kitchen on the east, which will act as a sturdy shear structure. The west 2/3 will house the kitchen island and dining space, with an 8′ deep porch extending out towards the Bathhouse. The highest point of the roof ridge is 19′. A clerestory will allow hot air to rise and expel while letting light in from the east. North to south, the square-ish proportion of the dining and kitchen will be flanked by slim 6′ wide rooms, housing a breakfast nook and utility closet on the north, with a vestibule and pantry on the south.

A few of our important systems include a Mondrian-like collage of windows, made up of found goods, in the dining area and faces west, towards a covered 8′ deep porch. Two roof systems divide the building, with rediscovered metal covering 2/3 of the dining and porch, and the front 1/3 covered in a vintage blue ceramic tile, which also wraps the front facade. The structure is made of milled 6×6 timbers, further milled down to 2x6s when needed for rafters, floor joists, or framing members. These systems are beginning to be large parts of the character of the building. We hope to provide a sturdy frame and allow for the constraint of reused materials to characterize many beautiful moments of the project.

To move the project forward, we will continue to lay out roofing material, doors, and windows to assess quality and usability. While remembering to capture a goofy photo every once in a while too. Stay tuned!