pavilion

Back to Our Roots

March 2, 2022

Spring has sprung, which means Spring Break is quickly approaching! But before we hang up our overalls for a much needed break, we’ll be cranking up production on the Moundville Pavilion project in preparation for the mid-March Executive Review.

Gettin’ Conceptual

A big part of our decision-making process has been based on the refinement of the project’s concept. We went back and looked over our initial reading and analysis of the site and the previous team’s design to better articulate why we were making our decisions.

diagram explaining concept of reflection and blending — This diagram explains the concept of reflection and blending.

Our concept starts with the desire to not be an object on the landscape, and instead be more a part of the landscape by taking cues from the surrounding forest and blending in. By doing so, we give reverence to the site and work to draw the eye away from the pavilion and instead focus it on the surroundings. The pavilion is also all about the gradient that is found in a forest of trees, going from a heavy, sturdy base, to a light canopy that reaches to the sky and lets light touch the ground below.

drawing looking at gradient created by surrounding landscape — This drawing depicts the gradient created by surrounding landscape.

Reviewers, Mock-ups, Drawings, Oh My!

The design has been gradual and ever changing in conjunction with the last revolving door of reviewers we’ve hosted for the month. We had a short visit from Larry Scarpa, from Brooks + Scarpa based in Los Angeles, CA, who gave a lecture and questioned the team on how the project can be more cohesive from top to bottom. Mike Newman of SHED Studio and Katrina Van Valkenburg of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CHS), both based in Chicago, IL, provided input on the column design dilemma and asked the team to build quick and easy mock-ups of all of our column ideas to better understand their implications.

presenting to mike and katrina — The team presents the latest work and mock-ups of the columns during Mike and Katrina’s visit.

mocking up columns — The team presents the latest work and mock-ups of the columns during Mike and Katrina’s visit.

Finally, we had Dan Wheeler from Wheeler Kearns Architects, based in Chicago, IL, come out and take a look at how the project’s details have been progressing. Dan encouraged the team with his knowledge of the various ways we can detail the pavilion and how to embody the points of our concept. Dan led a charrette asking the team to take a step back and draw the overall concept with relation to the park, while also zooming in to the various ways we can have the column details emphasize the heavy-to-light design.

The team studied various concepts of ground-to-ground and column-to-ceiling connections.

+ February views around Hale County

side of the road near Whitsitt — Whitsitt, AL

y Lakes Park birding tower — Whitsitt, AL

Tags: 5thyears, charrette, details, moundville, moundvillepavilion, pavilion, rs5thyears

Design, Critique, Repeat

December 2, 2021

Hello from the Moundville Pavilion team! We have been busy in design mode since our last blog post. After taking the feedback from Halloween Reviews, we took a step back to assess what we have learned thus far. Doing so helped us to develop our design goals for the site: utilizing the existing site elements; incorporating a sense of discovery; and creating a unique place for park users.

We have chosen several areas to focus our design including: an aperture through the pavilion roof; a raised platform; a ground surface; plantings; a fire pit; and a cooking space. Identifying certain activities allowed us to quickly charrette various design schemes for the function of the pavilion.

During these past few weeks, the team has also been meeting with a number of consultants to get some fresh eyes on our new iterations and help us practice presenting our narrative including Amanda Loper of David Baker Architects and our very own professors Emily McGlohn and Chelsea Elcott. In conjunction with the design work, we also met THE Joe Farruggia, (Rural Studio’s structural engineer) who gave us a structural design workshop and helped us develop a plan for the current conditions of the pavilion.

Next up: Soup Roast Reviews. Stay tuned!

Tags: charrette, critique, design, goals, park, pavilion, site

Beginning the Enclosure

July 8, 2021

Rendering of Reverend Walkers Home from the Street — Rev Walkers Home

My my, dear reader, it has been some time hasn’t it? Welcome to my latest journal recounting the design and progress of Reverend Walker’s Home. I can assure you the silence has not been due to any lack of activity, rather the opposite. Upon completion of the large pavilion structure, my crew has moved underneath to begin constructing the enclosed volumes that inhabit the space between slab and roof. You can be sure that they are grateful for the sheltered workspace that defends them from rain and sun. They have no excuse to not be working. Myself, I have found it a most suitable location for napping. There’s much to catch you up on, dear reader, so let’s begin with a recap of the design of the Reverend’s Home.

The Home

Reverend Walker’s Home is a response to the rural phenomena of home addition, which you can read about in an earlier journal. It aims to provide a forgiving space on a strong foundation to facilitate successful addition. The home is a kit of three parts: a slab, a roof, and two enclosed volumes. One volume is the main living block with all necessary program. The smaller volume is a partially unfinished space furnished with utility stub-outs.

The intentionally disparate items are intended to imply a process of addition… first the slab, second the roof, third the enclosure, and so on and so forth. Although the home encourages clients to design and extend the enclosure according to their lifestyle, it is completely livable as-built. Crew member Paul likens the Reverend’s Home to a “hook to hang one’s hat on”. Ultimately, it is built as a minimal enclosure with a luxury of porch space. The porch could exist as outdoor living, or be infilled.

As of now, the roof and slab are done. The only piece of the kit left is the enclosure.

Slab Seal

As a part of our vapor barrier system, we used a DOT approved slab seal to ensure that moisture can neither seep into the slab or move up through it into the home. Before sealing, the slab was pressure washed and left to dry for 48 hours. This stuff is very hydrophobic and water now squeegees right off.

Mock-up

Before diving into framing the units underneath the roof, we needed to ensure that our details were going to work. We do this by building 1:1 mockups. In ours, we tested framing and flashing details, as well as a full-scale mockup of our custom window design. You might recall that our team has designed a window system made of a fixed glass pane and an operable ventilation hatch. By doing the mock-up we were able to refine details and systems which will make a better final product.

Floor

Satisfied with our details, we’ve moved on. To make things easier in the future, we decided to go ahead and attach our treated sill-plates to the slab and build the sub-floor. We used powder-actuated and pneumatic tools for the plates. The sub-floor is r-7.5 rigid insulation between sleepers with plywood on top. Following the installation of the floor, we were ready to frame.

Framing

rafters

There you have it, dear reader, the current state of Reverend Walker’s Home. It’s certainly beginning to take shape. With my thoughtful leadership, I have brought us to this point and will continue to ask my crew to go above and beyond. I am confident they will not disappoint me. My next order will be for them to put up sheathing and wrap the house, after which I will banish them to the woodshop to build all the windows and doors. Alas, I could go on forever, dear reader, if only it wasn’t my nap hour. For now, I must retire to the captain’s table and rest my weary paws.

Fondly,

Taterhead

Tags: concrete, framing, pavilion, polebarn, ruralstudio

Get Jiggy with It

February 4, 2020

The Moundville ladies are preparing the roof and framing the extended edges and corners of the pavilion for roof sheathing!

In order to begin roof joists, blocking was attached using the bypass system off the trusses to give the hangers ample room to grab. This was necessary since the roof geometry is created using the planes of the joists and the connection to the ridge beam to create the inverted plane.

The blocking was installed to follow the string lines setting the roof heights. This allowed the team to mark 16 inches on center to install each joist that meets a truss on both ends. To place each hanger, an off-cut of a 2×8 with the correct, angled cut was used to temporarily place and screw in the hangers according to blocking height and spacing.

Then each joist was field measured and placed into the hanger, checking height obsessively to ensure a flat plane. Once a bay was placed, checked, and rechecked, the joists were nail gunned to the hanger and truss. Blocking was added to keep 16 inch spacing and fix any bowing in the wood.

Once the joists in the center of the bays were completed, there was a new challenge in determining the correct spacing where the joists hit the edge beams or ridge beam. Since the beams intersect the form at an angle, varying based on the tolerance in their placement, measuring along the beam produced too many inaccuracies in keeping the joist spacing and ensuring the boards aren’t skewed.

Jigs were created for each beam similar to the truss in which the slope and skew of the cuts were determined and a sample “joist nub” was used to place the hanger. A 14.5 inch piece of wood was then attached to the side to butt up against the previously placed joist to determine spacing 16 inches on center, perpendicularly from the joist. Another 2×4 was also attached running along the top of the “joist nub” and spacer to keep the correct height. This allowed the team to attach the hangers, place a joist and then adjust if needed based on spacing from the master joist and height along the existing plane and strings.

Installing the joists that hit the edge beam along the pavilion’s long side using the jig the team designed.

The edge beam along the short side and the ridge beam involved a similar jig and process with slight alterations to match the difference in angles and cuts.

Jigs for all three conditions with some ad-hoc alterations (maybe not the prettiest, but 100% useful and necessary!)

Now, all of the roof joists are installed except for the two low corners (due to tight space constraints with the scaffolding platform, the ceiling needs to be framed in these areas first). The ridge was the last section to be completed, giving a real sense of the roof shape and profile!

Looking down the ridge as it intersects the middle, diamond truss which shows the two flat planes and their relationship to the overall form.

Seeing the joists framing the ridge from below, inhabiting the structure.

Concurrently, the team worked on building the pieces that will form the soffit. Each soffit “wedge” will attach to the edge beam and continue the differing slopes of the roof and ceiling to meet at a 4 inch edge. These pieces will extend the perimeter of the pavilion while allowing the structure’s edge to get as thin as possible. Due to the 18 inch depth where the joists terminate, each wedge was too deep to be engineered out of 2-by material. Therefore, the arrival of new 3rd-year students and neck-downs brought a week of much needed extra help to laminate plywood with both glue and screws as well as set up an assembly line to cut the wedges out (three of these cuts being angled).

making the wedge template to meet the finished edge

Over 90 wedges were completed with four unique templates for each pavilion edge! The next few weeks will be spent installing them. Check back in for a fully framed soffit and roof (hopefully) soon! Meanwhile, enjoy these action and detail shots of this last month of progress!

Tags: joists, moundville, moundvillepavilion, pavilion, roof