Students continued to work diligently on their cutting boards in Shop and completed another Design Prompt from Dr. Hudgens’ history class. In this Design Prompt, students were tasked with designing a farmhouse as well as necessary outbuildings and seed buildings. The project focused on designing these structures as they would be built in the latter half of the 19th century. In Studio, the 3rd-year students started working on their presentation of Ophelia’s Home.
Horseshoe Courtyard
With the 3rd-year work at Perry Lakes Park complete, all hands were on deck at Horseshoe Courtyard this week. 3rd-years and 5th-years worked to continue to plant trees and surrounded them with slate. Students continued to clean bricks in preparation for the brick pad.
This week students have started to look into pole barns! Over the past two years, Rural Studio has started to explore the use of pole barns as a way to address modular homes and planning to expand as family dynamics shift. Students heard from last year’s pole barn team as well as structural engineers about pole barn design and structure.
Horseshoe Courtyard
This week at the Horseshoe Courtyard project: concrete and trees! After cleaning many bricks and witnessing the concrete pour, students were also eager to see the arrival of the Crepe Myrtle trees to the courtyard. With help from Mason and the augur, students finished digging the holes for and planting the first three trees in the courtyard.
Perry Lakes Park
A few 3rd-years took a trip out to Perry Lakes Park to continue sprucing it up. They discovered the “secret lake bridge,” and were given the chance to repair it. Now anyone can go looking for the secret lake! Students also helped power wash some of the wood in order to keep the path less slippery.
This week, the 3rd-years worked on creating detail drawings of Ophelia’s Home’s foundation. Being able to see the foundations in person while drawing them is an amazing, unique opportunity. It has quickly given the students an understanding of how crawl-space foundations work. Each student selected a unique piece of the foundation to draw. These drawings will eventually be added onto to create 7 complete section cuts. The drawings show details through the foundation piers, vents, below significant areas, and the front porch. All the drawings were organized onto one construction document sheet, which is a new and very important skill for the 3rd-years to have learned.
Horseshoe Courtyard
This week, the 3rd-years’ continued work at Horseshoe Courtyard consisted of cleaning more bricks. They also began building and setting up wooden formwork for the incoming concrete! Students worked to hammer in stakes, cut wood boards, and drill formwork into place. They are extremely excited (some may say overly excited) about the concrete pour.
Perry Lakes Park
After a few weeks of working in Hale County, half of the 3rd year students ventured out to Perry Lakes Park to help with maintenance and repair. This included working with 5th-year students and graduate students to clear large debris from pathways and replace aging timber boards on the elevated walkways and the Birding Tower. Perry Lakes Park is currently closed to the public until it is rejuvenated. However, once the Rural Studio Students are finished, the park will be open for bird enthusiasts, outdoor lovers, and adventurers alike.
Students replace timber boards overview of the oxbow
This week a small group of 3rd-year students helped Caleb and Claudia at the Horseshoe Courtyard. The work began with a trip to Selma to restack approx. 3,000 bricks (in storage) from pallets that had deteriorated in preparation for moving them to site in the near future. Upon returning to the site, the team helped remove formwork from a recent concrete pour and continued painting the exterior of the building along the alley on the north edge of the site. The 3rd-years also helped clean off and sort some of the bricks that were already on site, which will be used for the brick pad portion of the courtyard. The Horseshoe Courtyard space is quickly transforming since the walkway and metal work have gone up, the site has been graded, and gravel spread.
20K Ophelia’s Home
Starting week two, a new group of 3rd-years were given the opportunity to work on 20K Ophelia’s Home. Students created a new French drain, which took quite a lot of digging. Many of Ophelia’s cute “babies” (aka her cats) came to greet the new 3rd-years.
As the week continued, several students helped work at Morrisette House, where a small shed was being demolished, while others installed sun shades blinds around the front porch of Spencer House to provide a shady area for future project critiques.
Week two has left the new students sore and tired, but more excited than ever for the semester. Hard work and game nights are drawing the seven students closer than they expected after only two weeks together. Between working on an actual job site and exploring detailed construction documents, the students are learning that hands-on experience provides a new perspective compared to a typical studio.
