New students and progress

6/20

The summer studio has started, and the fall studio has graduated. Some of us have stayed and are still working on Barnsworth while we look for jobs. The summer studio has been busy at work designing the lantern and the gutter. The design is changing a bit, due to funds. The summer studio is creating a new kickstarter campaign, looking or $5000 so that we can finish the building. They also added the door and the tyvek to the building, and have started on the roof structure. With the extra help for the new studio, hopefully we can finish the project faster, and get some new perspective into the project.

LVL roof beams

6/1-6/2

We built scaffolding in the morning so that we could walk around and work on the roof section without using ladders. This saved us time moving ladders around, and was much safer with a large platform to work on.We added the rim joists, and the LVL beams that span the 24 foot area of our building. Each large beam, is made up of four lvl beams that we hoisted up there with just the five of us. On Saturday we got a special visit from our shop professor, and some of the graduate design and build students came out to help us.

Raising the structure

5/30

We put the walls up today. Thank you to the people who helped us and made it possible to put all 20 walls up in one day. We are finally seeing our building go up, and look like how we have been designing it. Our walls look similar to our renderings and make it alot easier to see the space we are creating to house the wardrobe.

Into summer time

5/14 - 5/22

We are now staying in Plano. We have a small cottage that we are staying at, and having camp fires on site. We have gotten a lot of progress each week. We finished the floor using the TGI and LVL beams. We have a ledge to hold the  We also buried the drainage pipe with dirt. We will put the top soil back on when we finish landscaping. We are putting the walls up next week.

So much progress

5/7-5/11
We poured the concrete for the walls. We then released the formwork and put our waterproofing material around the concrete.We made the slope to seal the concrete seam, and added the pipes and drainage. All concrete work is done, just in time for graduation.

Concrete pours

4/23 poured the slab
5/3 poured the walls
In the past two weeks, we've poured both the slab and walls. We passed both inspections and learned alot both putting up the supports to the formwork and the pour itself. The concrete was faster than we all expected, and the limited time frame to finish the pour was difficult a we were learning as we did it.

We also moved all of our walls to the site. We had one company move all of our wood, plus the stuff we bought in one big shipment, rather than separate.

rocks, rocks, and more rocks

4/18
We put in the gravel today for all the gravel going under our slab. We dumped all the gravel into the hole using the skid-loader, and then used shovels to move the gravel to the right areas. We then used the rake to get it the same depth in all the areas. We are a bit short on the gravel, and so are going to order more for our drainage and the rest of the gravel under the slab. We also built the form-work for the slab, and put it into place. we have a gap around our building due to the slope of the ground, that we can put our drainpipe in as soon as the concrete is poured. To make the form-work level we pickaxed the area where it sat till each piece could be  level with the ground. Our soil is very rocky, as it is close to the fox river. This causes us to hit a rock every 2 inches or so, each time we need to dig. By the end of it, we are so tired of hitting the rocks we throw them out of the hole, with hopes they are the last one.

HVAC meeting

4/17

We met with Prof. Aanand today to get some alternative possibilities for how our HVAC system is going to work. We are still looking for a geothermal option, but we might be moving to a residential heating and cooling system. We are looking for donations to help with this expense as the units themselves cost alot.

Rained out

4/16

The rain over the weekend made our site too muddy to work today. Instead we took down our walls that are in the shop, and prepared them for transport. We won't be moving the walls till after all the concrete is poured.

A busy week - releasing

4/14

We took off the formwork and finished making the formwork for the next pour. Just in time for the rain that is scheduled for the weekend.

A busy week - rocks and concrete

4/13

We brought our formwork on site today. We won't need it for a bit, but it will be helpful to move it now. We got our gravel delivered today, we will be using it early next week. We used bags of concrete mix to mix and pour our own concrete for the footing. We used roughly 70 bags or concrete just for our 4x8 footing. We set up the rebar pre-pour, and had lots of fun pouring our own concrete. We learned how much concrete is really needed for and area, and why it makes more sense to get a concrete mixing truck.

A busy week - formwork

4/12

We built the formwork for the footing that is underneath the posts. We also leveled the ground underneath the formwork so it would be secure in the ground for when we pours the concrete.

Just the boys

4/11

Only the boys went out today. They set up the lines to mark the center of the building and put up stakes. They also dug up the ground to make our pit all the same height. It is interesting to hang strings with rocks to keep the line tight.

A busy week- excavation

4/10

We started the excavation again,. This time it took us only one day to dig the entire pit for our building. We even got our drainage hole dug as well. We had lots of fun driving the machines to move dirt around.

Thank You is Coming You're Way...

Thank you to everyone who has helped us

Everybody on site

4/6/2012

We all woke up early and went to the site to stake out the new site as well as visit the Farnsworth House during the construction. The window is getting replaced, so we took our semester group photo on the back side of the house.

Breaking Ground

4/4/2012

We broke ground today. We removed the topsoil and started digging today. We all had fun learning to drive and use a skid-loader to remove dirt. We dug up the last pipe from the lumenhaus. We also learned where the septic system is on site, and moved our building to avoid it. We dug up the area in order to find it, and learned that though there are drawings sometimes just digging till you find it is easier than attempting to map a sketch.

Party

4/4/2012

We had a party for all the big donors of the project. We had a great turn out and amazing food that was made by Matt's dad. This also marked the start of breaking ground. We had fun eating inside our barn and showing off the formwork and model to people.

Doorway to Construction

3/26/12:
Today, we added a steel brace to the door frame and connected it to the existing walls. Only one more panel to go! While installing the bolts that connect the wall panels, we routed out the sides so that the door can fit flush against the frame. For our current donors, we sent out all of our cards today so expect a little "Thank You" in the mail soon.
See you next time!

Just the girls

3-24

The three girls of the studio came in Saturday to close the door gap to make it closer to the right dimension. Using the crane and winches, the gap for the door moved from the almost twelve feet gap, to the 8 foot gap that it is suppose to be. The door pieces will be put together and then put into place on Monday. This is the last work day of the spring break. We also got quotes for our ilevel beams, giving us a better idea of how much construction costs in just materials.