Blog

Big Bathhouse News

March 21, 2023

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Rural Studio Bathhouse Blog! February has been a super busy month for our team. We’ve had several incredible visitors and we are very excited to share where our project is now!

Students gather around pinned up drawings — The team reviewing with Andrew Berman

After winter break, the team took some time to consider the best path forward for the project and began to consider the possibility of reusing existing structures on campus. As a mass timber project, we were especially intrigued by the idea of reusing and directly connecting to the Breathing Wall Mass Timber Research Project pods. The pods were designed as the final scale experiment of a testing track on breathing wall technology and then were to be used as living pods.

The Breathing Wall team put in an exceptional amount of hard work and attention of detail into the structure, and we admire the level of craft that they exhibited. We see the reuse of these pods as a testament and celebration of the amazing work that they did before.

Reusing the Breathing Wall pods will allow the very well-constructed buildings to become a part of permanent infrastructure that all 3rd-year students will be able to inhabit and interact with. The texture and the warmth of the wood walls will be celebrated as natural light will be introduced. The orientation of the pods allows for them to have a different condition to the super shed than the other sleeping pods, creating layers of privacy in the bathhouse.

site plan of the supershed — Possible future development of the supershed

The reuse also sets the Studio up with a strategic plan for development in the future. With the Bathhouse now in the middle of the “Supershed street,” a kitchen/dining space can also be added to the middle of the street, helping strengthen the social aspect of this space. This leaves several other accessible bays of the Supershed open, that could be used for new sleeping pods if needed. This could help reconnect the Thermal mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project pods into the streetscape. Re-grading the first four bays of the Supershed will allow for accessible entry into the Bathhouse and any further developments and will set the precedent for accessibility on campus for the future.

The visitors for this month challenged us to consider the best organization of spaces for the Bathhouse based on the reuse of the Breathing Wall pods. Cheryl Noel and Ravi Ricker of Wrap Architecture in Chicago, IL, came back to work in Hale County to help us think of the overall concepts and form of the spaces we are creating.

Joe Burns and Dan Wheeler, also from Chicago, IL, re-entered the mix and provided excellent help thinking through several different structural techniques and organizational layouts of the spaces.

Students present to reviewers — Team presenting to Joe Burns and Dan Wheeler

Andrew Berman from New York, challenged us to think about the experience of using a Bathhouse facility within a community of people. This opened our eyes to layers of privacy and reimagining the Rural Studio ritual of using the bathhouse as a 3rd-year.

Floor plan of proposed building — Proposed Bathhouse with context

The existing Breathing Wall pods are reimagined as more public spaces and two new structures are added to provide toilet and bathing spaces, creating a privacy gradient as users move farther from the Supershed and closer to the forest, which begins to envelope the building. The team is still considering the exact mass timber construction method for the two new structures. A new shed roof will stretch over all of the structures and a series of clerestories will bring natural light into each of the spaces.

Bathroom section of proposed building — Bathroom Section

sketch of proposed building — Proposed bathhouse with shed roof and screen system

We are very excited to continue moving this scheme forward and working towards construction.

Thanks for following along and we look forward to updating our progress soon!

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Tags: designbuild, rs5thyears, ruralstudio, ruralstudiobathhouse

Sun and Steel

March 21, 2023

Raise the roof! The C.H.O.I.C.E. House is finally dried in. After several days of dodging rain, pollen, and morning dew, the team wrapped up our roof assembly with 64 panels of charcoal gray metal. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without 5th-years Meagan and Ashley, John Marusich, and our resident roof cognoscente, Andrew Freear.

With the installation of the ridge vent and bathroom vent done, our heavy hat is officially complete, meaning we can turn our attention inward and onward to preparing for drywall installation.

The biggest pre-drywall tasks are plumbing and wiring, both of which are well underway. Plumbing involves running hot and cold lines to the showers and food prep sink, as well as installing vent pipes in those same spaces. We’ve also run lines to the washer and an outdoor spigot. The plumbing process is like a puzzle. When solved correctly, you get a hot shower and clean dishes! Wiring rough-in, on the other hand, is something akin to weaving al dente spaghetti through a popsicle stick loom. One bright yellow cable at a time, we’re connecting circuits of switches and receptacles and fixtures, around 40 in total. The results are shocking!

Once these larger tasks are complete, we’ll be able to finish pre-rocking, framing our interior soffits, installing our ducts, and tiling the showers. One might say we’re really “springing” forward. Until next time, when we’ll be sheet-rocking and rolling.

In the Walls & On the Roof!

March 15, 2023

A perspective view of the back of the house shows a row of scaffolding at the base of the roof and rectangles of insulation stacked halfway up the roof deck.

A new year and a reinvigorated energy for the Patriece’s Home team! In 2023, the home will all come together! The team was so eager to get back to work, they settled back into Hale County weeks before the semester started.

Two students pose with their tools while on scaffolding.

two students are ollking into a truck bed with pipe and sheet metal in the trucks bed. one student smiles at the camera.

Plus, their insulation arrived. Thanks to a generous donation from Rockwool, Patriece’s Home, Rosie’s Home, and the C.H.O.I.C.E House will be filled with Rockwool fire and sound-proof insulation. These products are made from basalt rocks that have been melted down and whipped like cotton candy, and provide a more healthful insulation alternative.

A student balances on two stacks of packages insulation

A panorama view from above of stacks of packaged insulation

Because the trusses on Patreice’s Home are designed for 5 1/2” of spray foam insulation, the team developed a strategy to use 4 inches of Rockwool Comfortboard 110 on the exterior of the roof deck and Comfortbatt on the interior of the roof deck to achieve the necessary insulation R value. They also drilled holes in the roof purlins of the six-foot gap between the trusses so that vapor can diffuse across the underside of the roof deck through the port in the ridge. Thank you, Rural Studio 5th-,years for helping install interior insulation! The team edited the eave and rake details for this change and once the comfort board was stacked on the roof, they covered it in a waterproof plastic, purlins to screw the roof metal into and sandwiched all the layers together with 7” screw into the attic trusses!

a student holds up a long screw while another student in a harness is on the roof driving a similar screw into wood along the edge of the building

two students work on scaffolding to put a plastic sheet over insulation on the outside of the roof

a student leans of of a window and rests their elbows on the scaffolding and is looking around.

a student in a harness stands on the plastic and wood along the outside of the roof

After the insulation was secure, the team finished placing the corrugated ash grey roof metal on the house in one afternoon! The first finish layer of the home is complete!

a student in a harness sits on the roof and nails in flashing along the roof rake

Before they finish the other side of the roof, the team is going to duct three rooms upstairs to whirly bird vents on the roof to help ventilate the home in the hot Alabama summers. The students will have to drill though all layers of the roof sandwich and built hatches to the ducts, which can be closed in the winter and opened when it heats up. Team member Daniel built a mockup of the hatches and the team had another detail design meeting with their consultant Dan Wheeler!

two stutents look up at something in the idstnace

the exterior of the house with scaffolding along the side. four people ore working on the right side of the roof.

Adam and Laurel also ran around the house installing an exterior hose bib, the hot water heater, and the shower controls to finally finish the plumbing. They installed two ERVs—one for each unit in the dividable home—to circulate fresh air and installed ducts the bathroom fans and kitchen range hood They cut the ZIP below the tall windows to secure the home’s through-wall unit sleeves.

a student measures the a white metal box sticking out from the house

a hole cut through the side of the house a student working inside.

Meanwhile, Lauren and Daniel have been tangled in the wires! Boxes were placed, holes drilled, and wire pulled to electrify the whole home. The electrical system is designed on two breaker boxes; when the home is devised into two units, the second unit can be hooked up to a second preinstalled meter box. These little details are part of the team’s adaptable design to allow the home to flex with as little effort as possible. Rural Studio’s own Mason Hinton helped them design and test the circuits and hook them up to the breakers and meter box outside. The team is also installing conduit to a low voltage box inside, so if the homeowner decides to change their internet or cable television service provider, the new cables can easily be routed into the home.

a student works hard to pull a yellow wire through a hole in the stud wall

With the last of the roof metal coming soon and final checks on the guts of house’s walls being done, we’re all ready to see this space filled with insulation and transformed by drywall! Read Patriece’s Home’s blog next time to see their spring progress in Greensboro!

two students and a dog sit around a fire.

horizontal pieces of wood line the in therior of the porches

Tags: designbuild, patrieceshome, ruralhousing

Moving on Up

March 13, 2023

It’s been a busy month for the 18×18 House! Design of the house is moving into a technical mix of details, framing, material choices, and structural design.

The team finally got to meet the FPI building partners from Nashville, TN, whose idea created the 18×18 project. Eddie Latimer, CEO of Affordable Housing Resources, and Barbara Harper from Honeybee Builders spent Valentine’s Day in Hale County with the Front Porch Initiative and students. The 18×18 House team presented their work to Eddie and Barbara and received feedback on expectations for the project. It was an exciting day for all of us!

The same week, engineer Joe Burns and architect Dan Wheeler came back to Newbern to help the teams move forward with structural and detail strategies. A first round of full-size details made it onto the wall for discussion, and the team explored structural possibilities for the house’s storage system.

New York architect Andrew Berman also came to work in Hale County this month. He pushed the 18×18 House team further into designing a loft for the house, and his visit left them ready to make that space bigger, better, and more usable. Now the team is exploring how to design a dormer to make an upper level for the house, which could be an extra bedroom, workspace, living area, playroom… the list of possibilities is growing!

And this month brought tool trailers into the mix! Keys were made, inventory was taken, and spirits are high as Executive Reviews (and construction!) get closer. Check in next month to see where the team is after their biggest review of the year!

Tags: 18x18house, rs5thyears, ruralhousing

Andrew Freear and Rural Studio Receive Esteemed Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture

March 1, 2023

The University of Virginia (UVA) and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation jointly bestow the esteemed Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal annually in three fields in which Jefferson “excelled and held in high regard”—one medal each in architecture, law, and citizen leadership—and in some years, in global innovation. This year, Wiatt Professor and Director of Auburn University Rural Studio Andrew Freear and the Studio itself have been selected for the honor in architecture. Other 2023 Medal recipients include Jason Rezaian for the Medal in Citizen Leadership and Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju for the Medal in Law.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal is the highest external honor granted by the University of Virginia, which does not grant honorary degrees, and celebrates the recipients as exemplars in their endeavors. Architecture is the original Medal category and Mies Van der Rohe was the first recipient in 1966. Other past recipients in architecture include Alvar Aalto (1967), Robert Venturi (1983), and more recently Sir David Adjaye OBE (2018) and Kenneth Frampton (2022).

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is an “independent, nonprofit organization that owns and operates his home, Monticello.” As a museum and historic site, Monticello keeps alive the accomplishments of Jefferson, the complex man who penned the Declaration of Independence, served as the third President of the United States, and founded the University of Virginia in 1819–but who was also a slave owner. Today, the Foundation works to recognize the valuable lessons of history: that we must wrestle with them, rather than ignore them, and that we must continue to work for a just future. Past Medal recipient Wendy Kopp (Teach for America, Teach for All) used the honor to publicly address the difficult “paradox” Jefferson presents as both an enslaver and an architect of our government and its ideals, and Senator John Lewis, 2015 recipient of the Citizen Leadership Medal, went on to point out that we have not yet arrived at that future when he encouraged award ceremony attendees to “keep your eyes on the prize.” Following Senator Lewis’ instruction to us all, we are compelled to use this recognition to highlight the persistent housing inequities still found in rural America, inequities that have arisen from the ongoing legacy of human enslavement.

Andrew Freear and Rural Studio will receive the 2023 Medal in Architecture at the annual Founder’s Day celebration, a joint UVA and Foundation event held on April 13, Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. Professor Freear captured the sentiment of all of Rural Studio when he learned of the honor: “It’s quite extraordinary that a modest undergraduate program in West Alabama can be mentioned alongside giants in our field such as Jane Jacobs, Glenn Murcutt, Billie Tsien, Tod Williams, and Frances Kéré. We are deeply humbled to have been selected for this distinction not just for the honor, but for the light that it shines on rural America and society’s role in ensuring equitable, dignified communities.” We couldn’t have said it better.

Look for a post on the ceremony in April.

For more information:

University of Virginia Press Release

UVA School of Architecture Press Release

Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal