rsgraduates

Pig Roast 2021

May 25, 2021

Rural Studio recently capped off the academic year with a “family style” Pig Roast. The celebration focused on the amazing work accomplished, live and in-person, during a successful, yet challenging, year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since March 2020, the entire studio was gathered together. With only students, faculty, current project community partners, and a few invited guests in attendance, we missed our other families: parents, alumni, collaborators, and neighbors who continue to support us in West Alabama. Invited guests included our friends Roy Decker of Duvall Decker and John Forney, architect and former Auburn and Rural Studio professor. The day included a tour of on-going projects, a lot of good food, a presentation from Roy Decker, and a bonfire.

a group of about 20 students gather together on wooden steps — The 3rd-year, 5th-year, graduate, and “left-over” students

Celebratory Breakfast at Horseshoe Courtyard

The day began with a celebratory breakfast at the Horseshoe Courtyard. Everyone admired the blooming screens and impeccably crafted steel while enjoying baked goods from the new local Egyptian bakery Abadir’s. The beautiful brick pad was the perfect place to toast students, Caleb R. Munson and Claudia Paz Melendez, alongside our community partner Dr. John Dorsey and the Project Horseshoe Farm fellows. The clients and the Studio both couldn’t be prouder of these two and their determination.

a man in green and a woman in blue smile while holding refreshments — Cheers to the Horseshoe Courtyard Team

men hand out glass flutes of drink to smiling people — Cheers to the Horseshoe Courtyard Team

Ribbon cutting at Ophelia’s Home

Next up, the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 20K Ophelia’s Home! Four semesters of 3rd-year students, along with professor Emily McGlohn and instructor Chelsea Elcott, designed and built this lovely iteration of Joanne’s Home. Ophelia, her family, and the 2021 Spring Semester 3rd-Years cut the ribbon and let everyone inside to admire the new home. The students also gave a brief presentation on the cabinetry they designed and fabricated with Chelsea and professor Steve Long in the Rural Studio Wood Shop class.

a group of 15 people stand together in masks on the porch of a small home — A finished home for Ophelia

a male professor in a red shirt introduces student work — A finished home for Ophelia

Back to Morrisette for Lunch and TMBV

Back at Morrisette House, Chef Catherine and Doris served up a wonderful BBQ lunch. It was the first meal the Studio shared all-together since March 2020. Next on the schedule was a presentation from the Thermal Mass & Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project team.

a man and three woman sit at a table together

a woman and a man serve bbq to a man in plaid

The graduate students gave a brief description of their experiments, results, and how these informed the Test Building design at their site behind Morrisette House. They also showed off their newly installed structural steel columns and bracing. After a conversation on the possibilities of implementing internal thermal mass as passive ventilation and temperature control, everyone strolled over to the Fabrication Pavilion. Here, the team presented two of their mock-ups: one detailing the ventilated roofing and cladding system and one showing the shiplap joinery of the concrete panels. Congrats master’s students!

cory presenting boards to crowd at pig roast — Graduate student beaming with pride

a small boy in blue sitting in the middle of a crowd discussing science — Graduate student beaming with pride

Off to Rev. Walker’s and Myers’ Homes

Next, the 5th-year teams had a turn to shine! First up, seen below, the Studio stopped at Rev. Walker’s Home. The expansive, newly completed slab the team presented upon will soon be the location of the pole barn home. This design focuses on the luxury of covered outdoor space. Two efficient living volumes rest under the large roof, which goes up in just a couple of weeks, allowing for dry, shaded construction! Client Rev. Walker joined in on the post-presentation debate, which was was a treat.

a man with a dog speaks while four teammates look on — Fun times at Rev. Walker’s Home

a model of a pole barn is shown in the foreground while a team presents drawings in the background — Fun times at Rev. Walker’s Home

Last up on this long, fun, and hot day was the Myers’ Home presentation. The two-story, three-team member project focuses on interior expansion by creating a well-sealed envelope. The students will complete their portion of the build with two bedrooms and a large living kitchen space. There are opportunities for the client to expand the home in the attic and living areas. The attic can be converted into two additional rooms and another room can be added by enclosing part of the living space. During the presentation, the team changed out corrugated metals on their mock-up in real-time and took a vote from the crowd to decide which cladding color to choose. Both 5th-year teams have made tremendous progress on their innovative home designs and we can’t wait to see even more this summer.

The Pig Roast crowd at Myers' Home site — My, oh, my to we love the Myers’ Home

Myers' Home team discussing detailing and construction process — My, oh, my to we love the Myers’ Home

Some fried catfish, books, a lecture, and S’mores

We returned to Morrisette House for a delicious catfish dinner prepared on site by our neighbors from the Newbern Mercantile. Afterwards, Director Andrew Freear presented the graduates with books picked out for each student from a list of favorites from the late Samuel Mockbee, one of Rural Studio’s co-founders. It was wonderful to see this tradition live on this year! Afterward, architect Roy Duvall of Duvall Decker from Jackson, Mississippi, gave a wonderful lecture presenting the work of his and partner Anne Marie Decker’s inspiring firm. The day finally capped off with a roaring fire and plenty of marshmallows. Not too bad for a Tuesday night!

a group claps while a student is given an award by her professor

It was amazing to see all the work completed at the Studio during this unusual and trying year. It was even better to get to be together and pat each other on the back. War Eagle!

a group of people stand in front of a large bonfire

Tags: 2021PigRoast, auburnuniversity, congradulations!, pigroast, rsgraduates, ruralstudio

At long last; a mock-up, a Pig Roast & 4 master’s degrees!

May 12, 2021

Live from inside the mock-up that spanned seasons, it’s the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project team! You may remember the mention and drawings of a mock-up back in January. Many things interrupted steady work on this mock-up including breaking ground, pouring foundations, steel design, steel fabrication, writing papers, installing drainage, designing the cooling porch, and testing concrete panel joinery types. However, after all this time, the mock-up is complete! In the two weeks before Pig Roast and graduation from the master’s program, the TMBV student team not only hoisted the test building columns and submitted a paper detailing their experiments, they also completed two mock-ups. That’s right, two–we’ve got a bonus!

Faux SIPs and Small Columns

Axon and Axon section drawings of the pod mock ups

This mock-up set out to test the ventilated roofing and cladding system while also allowing practice for some of the atypical waterproofing details caused by the chimneys. All elements of the mock-up are at full scale, however, these elements are taken from different sections of the Test Buildings and condensed. Therefore the real Test Buildings are not proportionally larger than the mock-up. Another disclaimer; the team only built one mock-up because the two Test Buildings are exactly mirrored.

livia attaching mock-up columns to floor — Attaching the floor to the column top plates

Attaching the floor to the column top plates

The team first assembled wall, roof, floor, and chimney stud formed panels with exterior OSB sheathing on both sides. These acted as stand-in Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) which make up the enclosure, structure, and insulation of the Test Buildings. Next, they assembled these faux SIPs atop three shortened columns which have the same thickness and base plates as the Test Building columns.

mock-up baseplate of fab pav slab — From base, to columns to floor, to walls, to chimneys, to… dogs?

3 mock-up columns on top of base plate — From base, to columns to floor, to walls, to chimneys, to… dogs?

Groovin’ and Waterproofin’

Next up–keep it dry with tar paper and roofing. Tar paper is a heavy-duty construction paper made with asphalt which repels water. The TMBV team wrapped the entire structure in tar paper in a shingling pattern to create a protective layer. After this, the team started roofing.

To minimize heat gain the roofing material is a light-colored, reflective 3/4″ corrugated metal. The metal is attached atop batons which run in parallel with the slope of the roof. This allows the roof to vent heat at the highest point of the structure. If there is one thing this team has learned in two years–hot air rises.

Students attaching batons to Mock-up roof

The team installed the flashing along with the roofing. Flashing is a thin piece of impervious material installed to prevent the passage of water into a structure from a joint or as part of a weather-resistant barrier system. The TMBV test buildings use galvanized aluminum as flashing. A large tray prevents water from slipping under the metal roofing while T-shape pieces seal the edges and create the corners.

student on scaffloding working on mock-up top chimney

Finishing Touches

cory painting steel mock-up door frame with galvanizing paint

Students looking through mock-up door frame

A mini-door frame was fabricated by Brad Schmidt of Superior Metal Works LLC in Newbern, AL. He will also be fabricating the full-size door frames. This was the bit of steel the TMBV team left to a professional–boy does he do nice work! The team painted the door frame with galvanizing paint, as they did the mock-up columns, to see how all the colors of the steel, roofing, flashing, and cladding work together. The door frame installation couldn’t have gone smoother!

Last, but certainly not least, the cypress cladding. 3/4″ 1″x 6″ and 1″ x 8″ cypress boards were sanded and sealed with Kabotz wood bleach. Spaced at 1/4″ the boards created an open joint cladding system, which like the roof, allows for air circulation behind the cladding. Cladding the chimneys and the underside, which will be the cooling porch ceiling, was the trickiest part. Doing the mock-up, however, teaches the students tips and tricks for doing the real thing.

Fin!

Not much more to say, just look at that mock-up!

Enscape rendering of Test buildings — How’s it look compared to the real thing?

Suprise: Mini-Wall!

The team also completed ANOTHER concrete wall mock-up testing a shiplap joint in between the thermal mass panels. This wall is a proportionally smaller version allowing the team to visualize the pattern on the wall as well as the screw spacing. The shiplap joint, from both a constructability and scientific validity standpoint, is a crowd favorite. Not to mention that craft and beauty…

Roasting in the Sun

On a bright, early, shiny Tuesday all the Rural Studio 2021 Spring Semester student, faculty, and staff enjoyed an in-house Pig Roast. This included an opening ceremony at the beautiful Horseshoe Courtyard, presentations from each team, a ribbon cutting ceremony at Ophelia’s Home, and lots of good food.

TMBV team presenting boards at TMBV site

After a BBQ lunch, the TMBV team sprang something else heavy on the audience… their project! They had a wonderful discussion with the only outsiders at the celebration; Architects Roy Duvall, of Duvall-Decker in Jackson, MS, and John Forney. It was wonderful to show off all the hard work the students have accomplished since October 2019. From experimentation and coding data to SIPs detailing and steel fabrication these students have continually jumped into waters unknown.

faculty looking at TMV construction documents next to mock-up

Overall, Pig Roast was wonderful, but the work was not over. Pre-Roast the team installed their columns and finished their mock-ups. Post-Roast they had to complete a paper detailing their TMBV experiments and results for an international building science conference. They worked tightly with Salmaan Craig for the rest of the week. Because, of course, the paper was due that Friday and graduation was also that Friday.

Congrats Grads!

This team just couldn’t function without the variation of personalities and skillsets. No two are alike, and sometimes it’s hard, but they couldn’t be more thankful for ending up on this wild ride together. 4 hours before the paper was due, Cory and Livia scooted to Auburn for graduation. Jeff and Rowe continued working with Salmaan, up until the deadline, for which the other two are eternally grateful. Jeff and Rowe were at graduation in Livia and Cory’s hearts illustrated below. Don’t worry. the whole gang will celebrate together with a classic Cory cook-out. Stay Tuned for the impending construction of the TMBV Test Buildings!

Tags: 2021PigRoast, cladding, graduateprogram, mockup, mockups, research project, roofing, rsgraduates, Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation

The Final Forge

April 16, 2021

Live from Turnipseed International, it’s the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project! The students with the help of Flo, Luis, and Javier, and the guidance of Jim Turnipseed finished the steel fabrication for the TMBV Test Buildings. In just two weeks, the whole crew built the structural columns and bracing, the stair stringers, the elevated walkway, and all the handrails.

The student team cannot thank Jim Turnipseed enough for his generosity in donating all the material, space, and time to complete the steelwork. Also, lest we forget, the student team would have been lost without the world’s greatest metalworking guides: Flo, Luis, and Javier. The TMBV team will never forget their time at the shop or the remarkable people who made it all happen!

Column Completion

With the bracing attachment tabs welded onto the columns, the next step was attaching the top and bottom plates. Most importantly, these plates serve as the connection points from the column to the building and to the ground. After drilling the holes for the anchor bolt and threaded rod connections in the plates, the team built a jig that helped place the columns in the center of the plates.

The team tack welded 8 points on the column to plate connection after centering and clamping them. This secures the plates to column enough so that they can be rotated for the permanent welds. Because the columns hold up the entire buildings, the team triple welded the plates to the columns. They ain’t goin’ nowhere! All 8 columns, 4 per Test Building, were moved out of the shop when complete.

Stairway to Heaven

Overall stair axon with tread support detail

Next up were the stair stringers. Unexpectedly, these babies turned out to be the most complex structure of the bunch. The stringers are composed of 6″ x 3.5″ steel angles. The graduate students had to cut this angle precisely so that the bottom sits flush on the ground and the top meets flat against the 5″ x 5″ steel angle of the elevated walkway. Cap plates, with drilled connection holes, attach to angled cuts so that the stair can be bolted in place.

Each stringer has seven 1.5″ steel angles welded on the inside face, acting as support for the stair treads. The placement of the tread supports needed to be perfectly mirrored between both stringers to avoid a catawampus stair experience. Therefore, the stair tread placement for both stringers was laid out and checked before any welding began. Then welding began!

Tread and handrail placement specification

After welding the treads, it was time for the students to begin the stair handrail. The height of this handrail from the stair stringer is very important as it aligns with the center bar of the walkway handrail. The students rigged yet another jig to ensure the handrails were built as drawn.

The handrails are composed of 1″ tube steel. Therefore, on the open bottoms of the handrails, a cap plate was welded. All welds on the handrails were ground to perfection, enjoy the details below!

And, somehow, the stair handrails did not match up perfectly with the drawings. No big deal though, the graduate students took to their drawings and adjusted the height of the walkway handrail mid bar. Next, the stair handrails needed to be attached to the stringers. This was the most straightforward weld of the stringer, once the placement of the handrails was mirrored on each stringer. The team finished the stringers after a lot of mental math and problem-solving!

Voila! A completed stair stringer ready to take you up into the the Test building and beyond!

Wicked Walkway

Now on to the walkway! The elevated walkway frame which hangs in between the Test Buildings is created out of 5″ x 5″ steel angle. The cut metal grate pieces sit on top of the frame to create the walking surface. The side of the frame will be attached to the buildings with lag screws and therefore needed many holes drilled into it. First, the graduate students cut the angles into four pieces which were to be welded into the walkway frame. Before assembling the frame they drilled the holes for the lag screw connections.

Frame cut pieces and assembly specification

After hole drilling, the team temporarily assembled the frame using lots of clamps. This allowed them to make sure the frame was square before welding. To weld the four pieces together the frame had to be rotated using a crane, all the students, and their teachers. Like the columns, the frame was tacked and then triple welded to fill all gaps and guarantee a strong connection. Below are snapshots of the frame being welded while being held vertically by the crane.

Howdy Handrails

Each of the four handrails, which guard the elevated walkway, is slightly different from one another. Of course, they are,… it’s Rural Studio! However, the team created a jig that moved to accommodate the different lengths of handrails but kept the top and center bar locations in place. This way all four handrails were made to the same heights. Having practiced with the stair handrails, the team flew through these welds. The handrails also have end caps to seal the bottom of the square tube.

Before welding, the square tube was cut with 45-degree angles so that the handrails have nice, mitered connections. After welding, the team ground all the welds. Javier and Flo doubled checked all their welds were full and if they weren’t, it was back to welding. With the handrails completed, it was time for a very different task. Moving all the steel onto the trailer.

Load it up!

On the team’s last day at the Turnipseed International, Rowe drove the student truck and 18′ trailer up from Newbern. With lots of help from Flo on the forklift, the steel was loaded into the trailer so it could be driven to the galvanizer. Galvanizing the steel is a process in which a protective zinc coating is applied to prevent rusting. The team and the crew at Turnipseed International parted ways with plans to have a barbeque in celebration of their work sometime soon!

Load it down!

Finally, the steel parts were retrieved from the galvanizer in Birmingham and brought back to rest under the Fabrication Pavilion. The Bobcat was used to remove each column from the trailer as well as the stair stringers and walkway frame.

With all the steel bits and bobbles waiting patiently under the roof of the Pavillion, the team is preparing the raising of the columns. The columns, with bracings, must go up before the SIP panels arrive so they can be attached on top. after the steel walkway and stringer will be nestled between the SIP shells of the Test Buildings. Stay tuned to see how the crazy kids get it all done!

Tags: graduateprogram, metalshop, metalworking, research project, rsgraduates, steel fabrication, steel structure, Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation, turnipseedinternational, welding

Be Groovy or Leave, Concrete!

February 1, 2021

“Either be groovy or leave, man!” – Bob Dylan

The TMBV team attempts a vertical concrete panel pour

Live from Neck Down week, it’s the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project team! From 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM last week, the 3rd-years, 5th-years, and graduates students have bonded over manual labor and project maintenance. This is the age-old tradition of Neck Down week, the start of each semester in which all year levels put their projects aside to spruce up Rural Studio’s campus and help out at ongoing and completed projects. The TMBVRP team snuck in some more concrete panel test pours in the after hours. Let’s see how they did it!

Panel Proposals

Unfolded wall elevations showing vertical running bond (top) versus horizontal running bond (bottom).

unfolded wall elevations showing vertical and horizontal panel strategies — Unfolded wall elevations showing vertical running bond (top) versus horizontal running bond (bottom).

Before we dive into construction, it’s important to highlight what is different about these concrete panels. In contrast to the team’s last test pours these panels are smaller with tongue and groove edges. We will dive deeper into the tongues and grooves later. As seen above in the unfolded wall elevations above, the team experimented with different sizes and arrangements of panels. The main difference in the schemes where whether the running bond pattern stacked vertically or horizontally. The teams chose to test pour the more rectangular panels from both the vertical and horizontal running bond options.

Panel Preparations

panel formwork layout drawing — How the construction drawing started (Left) versus how she ended (Right).

panel drawing marked up with in an inch of its life — How the construction drawing started (Left) versus how she ended (Right).

For both chosen designs, the team planned to test making the most commonly recurring panel and the trickiest panel. Therefore, for each option the forwork for a typical rectangular panel and the more triangular panel, created by the sloping roof, was designed. However, a certain, not-Livia team member created the “construction” drawings seen above months before actual construction. The team has made significant leaps and bounds in construction drawing etiquette since. There was also much to the tongue and groove formwork that had not been fully fleshed out. So, as seen in the marked-up construction drawing above, much was decided on the fly. It was a very design-build experience.

students routes groove into wood using router table — Testing out the new router bit!

routed groove in pine board — Testing out the new router bit!

Next, the team used their new tongue and groove router bits. Tongue and groove is a system of joining adjacent panels by means of interlocking ridges and grooves down their sides. Seen above are the first tests of the router bits to create the tongue edges for the panel formwork. For the formwork, the tongues and grooves were routed out of PVC board. PVC board will not chemically bond with the poured concrete, therefore, creating a successful cast. Connecting the concrete panels to one another using the joining system will improve their strength. The panels will act more as one structurally, but also thermally making a more effective thermal mass.

tongue of the tongue and groove routed out of PVC board — Groove Edge

Horizontal Panel Pour

Along with testing the tongue and grooved edges, the team attempted two different pouring strategies; horizontal and vertical. Seen below is the typical, horizontal panel pour method. The team is pretty well-versed in this recipe. After pouring the panels, the team will let them cure for about a week. Onwards to the vertical pour!

student adds water to concrete mix in wheel barrow — 1. collect ingredients

students mixing concrete in wheel barrow with shovels — 1. collect ingredients

Vertical Panel Pour

The vertical concrete formwork meant to create two perfect panel faces and ease panel transportation. However, you guessed it, the vertical pour was quite difficult. First, vertical formwork requires more pieces that need to fit together more precisely. You are in a sense making a very precise sandwich that leaks Mayonaise everywhere if you don’t get it right. Second, getting the masonry anchors to stay in place and attach through both large faces required a special bolting jig. Another new piece to make. Third, to keep the formwork upright required leveling and sawhorse structure. Fourth and finally, the team built a funnel to transfer the concrete through the 1-1/8″ formwork opening. And repeat for 60 plus panels!

student shovels concrete into triangular, vertical concrete formwork — Can you spot the masonry anchor leakage?

While the smaller, triangular vertical pour went fine enough, the large rectangular panel busted open. As you can see above the triangular panel had little leakage out of the masonry anchor attachment areas. The rectangular panel however suffered catastrophic failures in this area. For now, the team awaits the curing process to see the results. However, based on these vertical tests they aren’t sure the reward will be worth the hassle. But, hey, where else in the world do you get to test pouring concrete panels vertically than in the Rural Studio graduate program? It’s always worth the hassle.

The Wood Rack

Last, but far from least, the team can’t wait to show off their new wood racks. Because the Fabrication Pavilion is their construction headquarters, the team was in charge of cleaning it up as a Neck Down week task. They are stupidly proud of these wood racks they built to take all their lumber vertical and clear space for more activities! Please admire them!

Copper has joined to say thanks for tuning in! Stop by next week to see how the panel pours and tongue and grooving worked out for the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team!

Tags: concrete, concrete panels, graduateprogram, rsgraduates, thermal mass, Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation

Rural Studio is Inside Out

September 30, 2020

The Studio has been making the best of COVID-19 obstacles by prioritizing outdoor work for the past six weeks! Working outside has given students and staff the ability to learn about construction processes while also maintaining healthy and safe work protocols. Luckily, Rural Studio has quite a few tasks to accomplish around Hale and Perry County to keep them busy.

Perry Lakes Park student team at the end of a long work day

In the first couple of weeks of the semester, everyone came together (socially-distanced, of course) to clean up Morrisette campus. This work included laying and tamping gravel in the driveways, demolishing some old mock ups and a couple unused storage sheds, power washing the Great Hall and Fabrication Pavilion, and helping Eric on the farm.

Students have also been helping out at Perry Lakes Park, which has been closed for maintenance for the past few months. The Studio hopes that, after a little bit of work, they can help reopen the beautiful park to the public. Jobs to be completed were: replacing rotting boards on the bridge, walkways, and tower; replacing structural members underneath the walkways; rebuilding walkways that had been hit by fallen trees; and replacing rotting deck boards on the tower. This work is still in progress, but they expect to have the majority of the tasks complete in the coming week.

As the semester progresses, students have been working toward creating a balance between studio work and site work. On designated “studio days,” 3rd-year, 5th-year, and graduate students have been meeting with their faculty at new open-air pin up spots on Spencer House’s porch and under the Fabrication Pavilion. Next week, 5th- and 3rd-year will transition away from studio-wide work toward focusing on their own class projects. The 5th-years will soon choose their project teams and 3rd-years will start making more progress on 20K Ophelia’s Home!

Tags: auburnuniversity, community, morrisette, outdoors, perrylakespark, rs3rdyears, rs5thyears, rsfarm, rsfifthyear, rsgraduates, rsThirdYear, ruralstudio, safety