process

Here are some pictures of our design process and the beginning of the building process.

Coordinating the design among eleven people has been extremely challenging, but in group charrettes like the one shown above, we have managed to converge.  This has been an invaluable experience for all involved as we learned to fight for ideas, abandon ideas, and simply be flexible.

 At one point a "talking banana" was introduced to the debate as a means to keep people from talking over on another.  Only the person with the banana can talk.  The rule didn't last very long, but it was great comic relief while it did.

 Construction begins...just checking to see if we can stand our walls inside the shop...We can't.

We somehow manage to keep everyone busy, laying out walls, planing boards, nailing, screwing, etc.  Framing is relatively foreign to many of us, but we're learning quickly.

moving along

Our group of eleven has been hard at work, ensuring that we have a built project at the end of the semester.  Here are some examples of the loose ends we've been addressing:


- Roles have been established, and a schedule has been developed.

- We developed and presented detailed graphics to the client to help him visualize the nature of what we were proposing and to know what his concerns would be.  we have since been addressing each of those concerns, massaging the project to a final solution.

- We debated as a class and consulted a structural engineer to determine how the project would be resolved structurally, settling today on a combination of wood framing and steel.

- We have been discussing and evaluating various material options, settling in the past week on what they will be.  With the project mostly resolved, we have made material take-offs and begun to make orders for the materials we need to purchase.  We also decided on the "skin", which will be a combination of two salvaged materials.  One will be the wood of trees that were removed on campus several years ago to make way for new construction.  The other will be polycarbonate material that is being replaced on the greenhouses, next to the architecture building.  We have collected both materials, and the wood is in the milling process as of this afternoon.

Construction will begin tomorrow as we frame the main wall.  Renderings and photographs are on the way.

the project

Our graduate studio of eleven students has been given the opportunity to program, design, and build a structure at Montana State University's horticulture farm, called Towne Farm.  Led by visiting professor, Coleman Coker, with MSU's own Christopher Livingston, our studio has determined the program and completed the general design of a field station that will be installed to serve the workers at the farm as well as visiting classes and the public. 

More to follow shortly...