With fall arriving, it’s time to check in with the 18×18 House team and see what they’ve been up to!
In the final weeks of summer, the team began to split their indoor and outdoor time as they made plans to get the building started on site.


While consolidating all their construction drawings into one primary set, the team built two final mock-ups. Working on each mock-up taught the team a lot about which details worked and which didn’t. The “doghouse” mock-up helped the team try out siding details they were interested in. The “dormer” mock-up helped them understand how best to put the roof together before building the real thing.










Sadly, the tree on their Greensboro site had to be removed—a tragic loss for every designer involved. But with its absence came new possibilities, so the team met with landscape architect (and Auburn APLA Associate Professor and Graduate Landscape Architecture Chair) David Hill to discuss their ideas for new site planning strategies and opportunities.





All of their hard work led the team to Dirt Day! Twelve trucks of engineered soil were brought to the site to even out some of the slope and create the pad that the house will be built on.





The team got to work immediately afterward prepping the site, and then they set up batter boards and string. They officially broke ground this week: they got shovels in the ground for the first time to start digging the turndowns where the foundation will be poured soon. Stay tuned to see what happens next!




