Summer Studio 2014
2K House Project
Background
Our final assignment in studio for the 2013/2014 school year
was known as the 2K house project. It was a combination of a challenge home as
well as attempting to provide a template or prototype house for the Alabama
Rural Ministry or ARM. The project itself was to stretch over the course of the
summer and include a design phase and a construction phase. The design teams
were split into small groups and would spend a week at a time working before
transitioning the project to the next team via a weekly “handoff”. Following
the final design review and acquisition of materials we were able to begin
construction. Overall the project went pretty smoothly and while the house is
not 100% complete I am proud of the product we were able to leave for the
program to continue to build off of.
Problem Statement
The house itself came to us as a challenge known as the
$2000 House Project. The challenge stipulated that the house must be built for
less than $2000 and be under 400 square feet in area. Other than that there were
not many rules as far as the design of the house was concerned. We went through
multiple ideas, from a stationary, shed-like house, to building on top of an
old trailer frame. We eventually settled on making a home that could be
transported easily on the back of a truck but would also remain in one place
indefinitely as the occupying family worked through whatever hardships they
were facing. Most of our design decisions were directly influenced by the
budget as $2000 does not go as far as we would have liked when building a
house.
Primary Duties
Each member of the studio class was assigned to a design
team for the first phase of the project. Each of these teams was responsible
for a portion of the design itself lasting one week, before handing it off to
the next group. During my groups week I came up with a framing plan and rough
cost estimate for the lumber and other materials needed to frame and sheathe
the structure. I also did research on the potential uses of a trailer or mobile
home frame as well as what building codes and regulations would apply to a
project such as this. Once we hit the construction phase my duties shifted to
cover just about every aspect of the project. I participated in almost every
activity, from framing to roofing to hanging the siding.
Research
I did a decent amount of research on the potential uses of a
trailer frame as our “foundation” for the house. This involved studying the different
types of frames available as well as what would be required of the house itself
to make it suitable for mounting on a frame both for transportation and once it
was in its final destination. I also studied the building codes that apply to
mobile homes. The HUD code or Housing and Urban Development is what would have
applied had we gone with the mobile home route. This code is different from the
standard residential codes and addresses things like towing and how the home is
eventually anchored to the ground.
Reflection
Most Engaged
I felt most engaged with this
project during my time working on the design. It was then that I actually felt
like I had a say in what went into the final product. Following that I felt
incredibly engaged at all points during the construction process, however that
can most likely be attributed to me being from a construction background.
Least Engaged
I felt the least engagement when we
were in the design phase and my group was not in charge of designing anything
for that week. It definitely didn’t feel like we had much of a say in anything.
During those handoffs and reviews it felt more like we were just watching other
groups present than actually being a part of something, especially considering
how drastically the project itself changed from week to week.
Surprises
I don’t feel like there were any
huge surprises on this project. I think going over the budget, or rather
finding out that you pretty much cannot build a house for under $2000 was no
big shock to anyone. I guess I was a little surprised that it took as long as
it did to actually build the house, but we were working half days with a very
wide range of skill levels of labor.
Suggestions
I was very excited to finally be
doing a more hands-on type of project. I thoroughly enjoyed being out in the
field (and being out of the studio) and getting to actually see our work take
shape physically as opposed to just another pin-up. While I realize that due to
the nature of this program it isn’t feasible to do as much of this type of work
as I would have liked, I would suggest either doing more projects like this or
at least doing one earlier on to keep students like myself more involved, take
advantage of the cooler fall/spring weather and get the less experienced
students more opportunities to see how the construction side of a project takes
place, as well as learning how to use various tools and the processes involved in
building a house.
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