Things have really gotten rolling with our 3rd-year class! Scroll down to see what we’ve been working on in woodshop, history, and Rosie’s Home.
Mocking It Up
Our main project in woodshop is to create a chair. However, before we could begin recreating our chair precedents, each team was tasked with crafting a mock-up that tested all of the most difficult aspects of their chair’s construction. We learned so much about joints, jigs, lamination, and even steam-bending!
Steam-bent legs for the Alto StoolFinished section of the Zig Zag ChairTest of joints for the folding Frei Egidio Chair
Our testing phase is coming to a close, but we have learned from both our mistakes and successes and can apply that knowledge to our final chair.
Historical Visits and Tomfoolery
This month, we visited Gaineswood in Demopolis, AL, along with Magnolia Grove and The Oaks (Happel-Stickney Home) in Greensboro, AL. These houses were beautifully constructed and provided opportunities for fun photo ops between sketches.
Ballroom DancingView off the Gaineswood Rooftop
1st-Year Frenzy
The 2021-2022 Foundation Unit students came to visit Rural Studio! We had a great time showing them around Newbern. On Saturday, we helped them build a variety of model stands for their latest project. The stands turned out wonderfully!
That’s the Plan!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve created many iterations of floor plans for Rosie’s Home, gradually improving the design. We also went on site to examine the post-frame construction and discuss the building’s corner details.
This week, we finalized our floor plan and slab details and decided on a new elevation scheme. We taped out our floorplan at full scale on the floor of our studio. Next, we staked out the footprint of the building and began setting up our batter boards!
Plan Mock Up to test living space and accessibility sizesTesting Kitchen Layout PossibilitiesPutting Up the Batter BoardsUsing the Site Level
After marking out the floor plan under the roof structure, we brought our clients Rosie and Frank out to show them our progress and present our projections for what the home will look like in the future. It was a great meeting, and we can’t wait to see what they think of the house when it is complete!
Check back in soon to see our progress on the foundation and framing plans!
Greetings, dear reader! A lot has happened since my last journal. Springtime in Hale County is always busy with excitement as the weather improves. Short and cold days gradually turn sunny and quietly cheerful. The cows are particularly pleased as their fields begin to turn green again with fresh and tasty grass. Cats like myself take to basking. The students welcome the shift. Jeans are replaced with jean shorts, toboggans with sun hats. Moral appears to be high. What follows is a synopsis of recent events.
Ground Breaking News
My crew has been hard at work pushing the design of Reverend Walker’s Home to a new level of detail. Progress is swift and we look forward to breaking ground within the coming days. But before the shovel meets the dirt, there is a lot of rigorous preparation that needs to happen to ensure a smooth process. The team has been putting together a series of construction sets ranging from batter board drawings to plumbing documentation.
batter-boards documentationpier bracket jig
Last week, our friend and mentor, Steve Long, joined us on site to put up our batter boards! Batter boards give us the ability to make exact measurements during the building process. In the next couple weeks, the boards will help us with marking for earthwork, slab formwork, setting columns, and positioning plumbing stub-outs.
distant students set a batter boarda site-level’s view of Addiea site-level’s view of Paul
Milling
In addition to studio and site work, Adam Maggard, an Auburn University Forestry and Wildlife professor and Extension Specialist in Forest Systems Management, brought the Forestry Department’s portable wood mill to give a demonstration to students and faculty, mill two trees that were felled on Reverend Walker’s site, and to inspect the studio’s own portable mill. With Adam’s help, as well as Rural Studio Alum Will McGarity, and Professor David Kennedy, we milled cedar for a closet, and pecan slabs for exterior benches.
Becca operating the millpecan slabscedar boards
Windows and Hatches
An important component of Reverend Walker’s Home is a light & ventilation unit we are designing and building. The system takes the components of a single-hung window: light and ventilation, and separates them within an overarching frame. The goal is to produce a system that is more durable than the windows that are typically within budget.
typical single hung window
The system features a fixed frame glass panel next to an operable ventilation hatch, which is covered by bug screen. By separating these systems we can potentially create a product that is comparably priced, and more airtight than conventional windows.
Reverend Walker’s Home unitcurrent iteration: sections through window and hatchcurrent iteration: plan of unit
After many iterations and with the help of Keith Cochran from Wood Studio, this is the current state of the system. It is a shop-built painted cypress frame containing a fixed glass window and an operable cypress hatch. We will be testing this design with a full scale mock-up in the coming weeks!
Taterhead
That is all for now, dear reader. I implore you to return for more information as I continue to document our endeavors. My evening tuna is being served in the officer’s hall, so I must leave my crew to continue their work. They are a self-sufficient and hard-working bunch, and I trust them to meet and exceed my very high expectations.
This just in: there’s is a big hole in the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project site!
Thanks to C & T Excavation Inc. the TMBV Test Buildings have broken ground. Local and Rural Studio excavation efficiando, Tyler, completed the initial site grading and the foundation dig. Let’s take a look at how the TMBV team prepped the site for this momentous day.
Newbern’s Newest Crater
Plan of Batter Board layout, this drawing guided students in find the foundation limits
Before you can dig a hole, you’ve got to know where to dig! This is where the superheroes of construction, batter boards, come into play. Batter boards are quintessential for starting construction so they must be precise. To clarify, batter boards are temporary frames, set beyond the corners of planned groundwork at common elevations.
Check the level
mark the intersections
check the diagonals
Typically, batter boards consist of two stakes driven into the ground with a horizontal member held between them. Next, once you’ve assembled and leveled the batter boards, you use construction string to “pull” layout lines. The layout lines are then secured to the batter boards. Layout lines cross the site either east to west or north to south, between batter boards, to indicate the foundation limits at their intersections. It’s important to note the elevation of the top of each batter board must match so when strings are pulled across the strings intersect.
Livia helped move the parking curbs out of the way
Cory surveyed his string kingdom
Jeff spray painted a traffic cone for emphasis
The TMBV team pulled their first layout line west to east from the Supershed columns. From this line, all other layout lines are set. When all lines’ distances and intersections’ squareness are triple-checked, the team marked the initial grading limits on the ground with spray paint. The end result, with string crisscrossing about like laser beams, feels a bit like a scene from an action movie. Especially if you practice jumping over and rolling under the strings. But, of course, none of these very professional research graduate students took part in such conduct.
pre-hole
post-hole
At the end of a long day pulling strings, the team marked their initial grading and detached all the layout lines from one side. The layout lines positions are marked on the batter boards so they can be put up and down as needed. Obviously, you can’t build with a bunch of strings in your way. After the initial site grading, the students re-pulled the strings which indicated the foundation limits, marked the corners, and Tyler began digging again. In about 6 hours time, Morrisette Campus had a brand new swimming pool and the TMBV team had a real project site.
Mock-up Progression
Rowe conquers mitering math
Livia is moving into the mock-up
In parallel with site groundwork, the TMBV team worked across campus on their mock-up. To mimic the SIPs walls of the test buildings, the mock-up uses 2″ x 12″ stud walls. Due to the angle of the roof and the chimneys, there was much mitering to complete and even more mitering math to figure out. The team built all the stud walls and are ready to assemble. All the especially funky parallelograms you see below are the chimney pieces. With the kit of parts complete, the team awaits columns to build upon.
Cooling Porch Design
True to the design-build spirit, the team is still designing as they’ve started building. The ground plane of the cooling porch was the subject of this week’s design charrette. The team has used, concrete side-walk pieces they intend on using as pavers. However, it is not decided yet how those pavers are arranged.
Cooling Porch Sketches show what’s on the collective TMBV mind
The team wants to eliminate any excessive cutting of the pavers, especially exact cutting, so they ruled out a linear pattern. They are pursuing a mosaic-like pattern that minimizes concrete cuts. However, without a full inventory of all the concrete pieces, it’s difficult to produce a realistic design. Therefore, in the coming weeks, the team will be taking stock of their recyclable materials. After this, they can start laying out patterns using a steer skid loader to move concrete pieces around.
Welcome to Winter
As mentioned in the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team’s last blog post, the chill has rolled into Hale County. There is never a shortage of beautiful scenery in these parts as proven by these frosty silos. By next post the TMBV team hopes to have another gorgeous view for you; a freshly poured foundation! Here’s hoping and thanks for tuning in!
