siteplan

Somewhere Under The Rainbow

After they pushed through “Neckdowns,” passed workshop season, and survived project selection, the new 5th-year teams are here and ready for their debut!

*Cue drumroll*

Hello from the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team!

team sitting together outside
Davis Benfer (Jacksonville, FL), Yi Xuan (Raymond) Teo (Singapore), AC Priest (Saltillo, MS), & Hailey Osborne (Ashburn, VA)

The team has been working hard these past few weeks to begin the design process of two emergency housing units in Uniontown, AL, alongside their community partner, C.H.O.I.C.E. Each unit is meant for thirty-day stays and will support C.H.O.I.C.E.’s rapid rehousing initiatives. To kick it off, the team met on site with the executive director of C.H.O.I.C.E. and the driving force behind the project, Emefa Butler.

team meets with client

She happily discussed her visions and goals of the project with the team to give them a better understanding of how to emergency housing can best serve the organization. With all the new information, the team immediately started to dive into design work with a goal of making sure the housing units remain dignified and comfortable, even though they are meant for short stays.

diagram of components of a dignified dwelling

This team loves a good charrette as much as the next architect, so there was no better way for them to start getting ideas on paper. They produced drawings, lots of drawings. The team explored ideas for the individual units and began to think about how these units replicate on the same site or how they could be implemented in different contexts in the future.

After having some time to work with the project as a team, the first set of visitors came to review the team’s progress. Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg, founders of Koning Eizenberg in Santa Monica, CA, helped the students work through a site design exercise to start thinking about how the units will connect to each other and the activities of the site.

team working on site plan for shelter units

Following the review from Hank and Julie, the team has been iterating on the site plans and continuing to push the design of the individual units.

That’s all for now!

Until next time, we’ll be somewhere under this rainbow!

double rainbow over red barn

Saturated Survey

The same week we passed stress test and received formal approval to build, we were able to complete our site survey. The good news is our site is relatively flat and surrounded by a seasonal creek on two sides; the bad news is the area most appropriate to build was also quite saturated.  Weeks prior, Newbern experienced unprecedented amounts of rain which was unfortunate for other projects but allowed us to experience our site in a worse case scenario for water permeability. 

Steve helped us negotiate the area to survey along with teaching us how to properly handle the transit and adjust stakes to find square.  We then plotted the data and began laying out our home on the site.  A key factor in our design is the “L” shape porch which allows for optimal sun exposure for passive heating/cooling and outdoor connection. 

Up until now we have been designing without a site, so our plan will need to be flipped, with the expansion porch facing south and the long front porch facing west, looking towards the neighbors pastoral property and sunset.