Welcome back!
The 3rd-Year students have been very busy! After a great, first week on-site, the 3rd-Years spent much of this week digging into several big design decisions remaining for 20K Ophelia’s Home. This includes the interior wall locations and exterior colors. To work through these decisions they held several different design “charettes,” or design sessions, in which they sketched through and discussed all of their ideas.
Keep reading to learn about the 3rd-Years very exciting week in both history and wood shop class as well!

Studio Charrettes
Plan Charette
The first design charrette of the week focused on the floor plan for 20K Ophelia’s Home. While most of the interior walls are already in place, the 3rd-Year team looked to see if there were any changes that could improve the spaces. With this project having a strong focus on accessibility, they also double-checked FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) clearances. Next, they began to propose an idealized floor plan that could possibly be used for future iterations of the home.
Students talk through the floor plan Review of our sketches

Exterior Design Charette
Also this week, the 3rd-Years focused on the design of 20K Ophelia’s Home exterior. While comparing the proportions and elevations of 20K Ophelia’s Home to 20K Joanne’s Home, the team began to notice some differences. This is due to the fact that Ophelia’s Home Plan was stretched in order to account for a larger bathroom with ADA/FHA clearances.

In an effort to try and regain order and proportion on the exterior of 20K Ophelia’s Home, the team began studying techniques such as “Dazzle Camouflage” to shift the eyes’ focus. This was used on war ships in World War I to change the perception of the ships. As a team, the 3rd-Years felt that “Dazzle Camouflage” could create the proportions they found more appealing, without changing the footprint of the home. It was an exploration in blurring lines and regaining proportions. They came up with visual categories and sketched through ideas in a design charette. These original sketches became the basis for several exterior design options.

History Class
For history class this week, the group ventured to the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation in Marion, Alabama. This site holds a wide variety of historical structures. A descendant of the original owner was actually able to give us a personal welcome and a great amount of information related to the history of the property. While touring fancy interiors is interesting, it is also very important to understand the realities of how these structures facilitated agriculture.
Learning about the seed house A view of several out-buildings The Mule Barn
Wood Shop Class
In Wood Shop Class, the 3rd-Years focused on our first design assignment—a cutting board. After learning about all of the tools in the shop, they designed both the cutting board and fabrication process. They had to think about every single step of the process and the tools most appropriate to accomplish their designs. Also,they had limitations on the types and amount of wood they could use for the cutting boards. Howevere, nothing held them back from creating beautiful cutting boards. Stay tuned to our blog for the finished products!
Kirby making a cut for his cutting board on the table saw
Austin sanding his cutting board Students using the shop Sadie sanding her cutting board
As you can tell, its been a very busy and exciting week. Thanks again for reading our blog! We appreciate ya’!
