Hooke Park D+M 2022 by gebowman

A House From The Forest

A House from the Forest

Georgina Bowman, Jacopo N. Silvestri, Sirisha Munnangi, Weikun Xu

IMAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jack Cardno, for staying on, encouraging rigor and making it fun too. Edward Coe, for coordinating our technical mess and staying late nights. Chris Sadd, for the many coffee runs and field trips planned. Charlie CorryWright, for turning any obstacle into an exciting brainstorm. Zachary Mollica, for the ambitious challenge and mysterious confidence in us. Jean-nicola Dackiw, for never being too precious about it. Jack Draper, for instilling a fear of failure and fixing that with Gantt. Frederik Petersen, for outstanding photographic documentation. The CorrieWright Family, for making us feel at home in this community. Summayyah CorrieWright, for sharing her infinite energy when we needed it most (and sometimes least.) Our MScs, for a year of comedy and camaraderie through it all. Our phase 1s, for helping us finish under pressure and bringing positive spirits. Our phase 2s, for teaching us how to celebrate your teammates. AA Visiting School, for the major push in our build and being so joyful to host. Arup, for pointing out fundamental flaws and extending thermal expertise. Mark Mathews, for teaching us tricks of his trade and lending tools. Raise The Roof, for inviting us into the community and inspiring locality.

CONTENT Introduction

The Brief Systems Site Map A Commercial Context A Manifesto for A Good House

Part 1. A House

Overview Material Sourcing Industrial Processing Bridport Housing Fair

Part 2. The Forest

Hooke Park Commercial Forestry Management Lessons from Coppice

Part 3. Case Studies Part 4. Experimentation Material Explorations A-frame

Part 5. Systems Development Stud+ Core

18 20 26 28 32 36 38 40 42 48 52 54 58 72 90 96 120

Part 6. Construction

136

Reflection

162

“W

hat is necessary is to make buildings with the lowest amount of energy. I’m not interested in the movements of brutalism, post-modernism, deconstructivism. All these fashions are complete nonsense. It is nonsense to follow these fashions, just do what you have to... it is very clear what is unsolved” - Frei Otto

IMAGE 8

THE TEAM

"That's so lame."

"I don't regret the colour of my hard hat."

"Building always make me hungry."

"Born and raised in suburbia and I'll die there too."

INTRODUCTION

The Stud-A House otherwise known as "the study"

300,000

A temporary dwelling for student use and short-term accommodation. At (x) sqm, this one-and-a-half room house offers a flexible space with an intimate bed nook for one. Not being a house in the conventional sense, we invite guests to embrace a sense of Hooke's community while staying. Utilities are shared with the neighbors in South Lodge (toilet, shower and kitchen.) A generous porch is offered for occasional bonfires or gatherings. Lifting the membrane off the south wall can easily transform the house into a public venue. This project has been an exploration into how we build houses from the forest, and it is our hopes that now built, it may continue as an experiment of how we occupy houses from (and in) the forest.

The

brief of this project was to design a novel yet efficient housing system from timber that could appeal to a wider commercial context, considering aspects of labor, economy, environment and health. We grounded ourselves in the need to provide buildings with low embodied energy, from resource management, construction, maintenance and afterlife. We also consider the economy within which housing is nested. As a result of these increasingly centralized systems and industries over the last several decades, we have seen biodiversity decline and habitats degrade.

Considering the current state of things- the market and ecosystems, we recognize a need for more localized and accessible building resources and, essentially, to use less where possible. While considering carbon emissions and energy consumption of a building, our proposal is also careful to consider the relationships constructed through the designing and making of a building; interactions between stakeholders such as the architect, the builder, the dweller, the community, the forest and forester and so many more.

The Core

homes the UK requires annually, 145,000 must be "affordable" (NHF)

The Stud+

90%

of new offsite homes use timber. (STA.)

80% of UK's timber consumption is imported (Confor.)

59%

2/3

of waste comes from the construction and demolition industry (Defra)

of new homes are built by UK's top ten developers. (Lords Economic Affairs.)

of new homes in the UK are designed by architects. (RIBA)

20%

40%

of global emissions come from the construction industry, half of these from heating buildings (IPCC)

ecosystems architecture

of global emissions comes from heating buildings. (IPCC)

UK woodland cover has doubled in the last century (Forestry Commission)

41%

46%

of UK species are in decline. (State of Nature)

of UK woodlands are unmanaged. (Forestry Commission)

industry policy

The Core This system is a mass assembly system that consists of two parts, being the A-frame, and the L corner wall. These two assemblies are placed on opposite ends of the structure, resisting it in shear load. The core walls are an assembly of round timber procured from the forest. The A-frame was built using a cedar stack put aside, to be wood chip, and the L-corner wall was built with Douglas fir felled fresh from the forest. The first half of the core system, the A-frame is a bed nook. Taking advantage that timber is a good thermal insulator, we decided to have the bed in it. The space inside is small enough to be about the size of a single person tent, allowing it to capture body heat. The triangular structure also provides less surface area, resulting in less loss of heat. The L-corner wall, the second half of the core system, provides a balance with the A-frame, within the whole structure. Its major role is to enhance the shear load and also help carry the roof. the weight of the Core showing its ability to shear resist the building

The Stud+

1. The Skeleton

2. The Jacket

The Stud+ is a logic of assembly which departs from its more simple predecessor, the Light

Timber Frame, colloquially known as the “stud frame.” It’s both a celebration and critique as to how the Light Timber Frame became so prolific. Its origins begin with the radical simplicity of the 2x4 and attempt to deconstruct its reductivism through the envelope. The approach to stud+ is twofold.The first, to make a stud that has more depth to it, metaphorically and literally. The other is to express that depth, eliminating the need for plywood and celebrating the complexity of layers that arise at the edge of a building. 22

At the cross roads of components. 23

The cabin is an emergent system in which the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Though these two systems originated through separate beginnings, we quickly discovered that in conjunction they solved many of each others problems. The core provides a stable microclimate through scarcely processed roundwood, but using this assembly for the entire envelope would be an excessive use of timber and performance. The stud+ deploys a more conservative amount of timber, and in it’s lack of envelope, allows for dynamic exchanges and adaptability. The stud alone however lack a self-sufficient structural performance, but rather than relying on energy intensive sheet goods, the racking of this system is solved by the stiffness of the core. In combination, these two systems help each other to perform at their best.

Site Map

10.

12.

5. 6.

11.

1. House 2. Kitchen and toilets 3. Work yard 4. Play yard 5. Parking 6. Power outlet 7. Waste 8. Workshop 9. Refectory 10. Big Shed 11. Boiler 12. Garden 26

A Commercial Context

The dwelling shelter is the most ubiquitous form of architecture, but for many in the UK, access to shelter is verging on crisis. The National Housing Federation estimates a need for 145,000 affordable social homes to be built each year. That's nearly half of the 300,000 total homes that the Government recommends be built annually to solve the housing crisis. Central authorities are looking to off-site construction to address this need, as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is set to establish a "Modern Methods of Construction Taskforce." Timber has no small role in this, comprising up to 90% of all off-site systems (STA.) Disappointingly, it is the architect who seems to have a small role, where at present, only six percent of new homes in the UK are designed by architects (RIBA) while just the top ten developers are responsible for two thirds (Lords Economic Affairs.) Recognizing this need for affordable housing and the demand for its industrialization is a significant matter and part of where we ground our approach. If housing is the most universally required form of architecture, than what is the role of the architect if not to engage with this industry? To bring our architectural training to this housing crisis, we must also recognize and advocate for the materials that we are building with. Roughly a third of all new houses in the UK are constructed out of timber (STA) and this demand is rapidly increasing with mandates for carbon neutrality by 2050. The choice to build with timber is often made for its green footprint, attributed to its carbon sequestering ability within its fibers, hence the rise of timber-dense building systems like CLT and Glulam. Given that the construction industry is responsible for 40% of UK's emissions, the potentially efficient use of energy, both in construction and maintenance, is of course one reason why we should build with timber. But it is not enough to deem a building 'good' by the simple accounting of it's carbon locking. Half of the construction industries emissions are attributed to the heating of building alone. It's apparent that not only do we need affordable, scalable systems from timber to address the housing need, we also need these buildings to perform well in terms of energy. Acknowledging that much of our architectural energy accounting is remediated through the insulation of buildings, we seek to question the pervasive views that a

building's interior is ever truly insulated from it's environment. "Architects today need a sufficient sense of thermodynamic irony to recognize that buildings are not only massive accumulations of matter and energy, but that this is their greatest ecological and thermodynamic asset in the nonlinear, open systems of life." (Moe, Insulating Modernism) Addressing the needs for a house to provide comfort, we are confronted with the foundational systemic distortions of building thermodynamics and our tendency for externalizing complexity. In proposing a scalable housing system, then, we are presented with an opportunity to unlearn these values. Energy flows across the building envelope become a generator for design, partnered by a complexity of environmental conditions and building usage. Quite emergently, this process of design has lead us to question the normative ways in which we occupy our homes, from the spaces we sleep in to the utilities we share. But the most important story to be told when building a house from timber is neither of the house itself nor the timber within it. We subsribe to the assertion that there is "no such thing as a tree," just as there is no such thing as "wood." (Moe.) In as much that we cannot isolate the building envelope from its immediate environment, we may never fully engage with architecture unless we understand the material flows from where a building comes, and that is to undertake an understanding of the forest as a life-giving, mutually supportive and interdependent complex ecosystem. "In the case of wood construction, a homeorhetic relationship with living systems will only be understood when we understand that building and assembling 30

"In the case of wood construction, a homeorhetic relationship with living systems will only be understood when we understand that building and assembling forests is as important as building and assembling architecture." (Moe.) assembling architecture." (Moe.) When we propose a widely distributed housing system from timber, we are inherently proposing the kind of forest to produce that. This is starkly evidenced by the monoculture tree plantations throughout the UK, of which 70% are Sitka Spruce (woodlands.co.uk), a non-native species most often used for sawn timber in construction. Given that the UK imports roughly 80% of it's timber, there is still a clear disconnect between the way we manage, cultivate and make use of our forests and the needs of which we rely on them for. To practice a kind of reciprocity between the building and the forest, we choose our materials, the species and products of forests, with the intention to create diverse and resilient ecosystems. We look to practices like coppicing and Continuous Cover Forestry which selectively harvests trees rather than clear felling and employs a multitude of species, ages and story heights. It is notable that although woodland cover has doubled in the last 100 years, nearly half (41%) of species have declined since 1970 (State of Nature,) a product of the largely unmanaged woodland cover in the UK. (Confor.) Considering the biodiversity implicated by our interventions to build, we look to stimulate local woodland management as an embedded practice of architectural systems. Situating our resources to locally accessible woodlands, we are able to reconsider the mechanisms for timber procurement and avoid relying on remote supply chains. This has meant a certain flexibility within the system design to accommodate different ages and species that a distinct woodland might have to offer. In building systems from forests in this way, we are able to engage with a greater portion of the material's ecology. The forest, then, is regarded as a powerful agent in the design of a building, and in turn the process of building creates a healthier forest.

Framing Lakewood, CA. 1950. William Garnett

Trees by Man, Michael Amery 31

In order to design systems that would

compliment each other, we created two kits of goals. Above is a list of material incentives that we brain stormed together. On the left is a kind of manifesto that our team created in the early stages of research. These lists represent the sum of what we felt our house should do have been an important devices in the process of our collaboration, continually returning to them as a self-checking tool. The project you see here today is an evolution of these ideas. We present two timber systems, one light and one heavy, each with their own unique advantages, but that when placed together emerge as one interdependently performing house.

Part I.

A HOUSE

Overview of The Building Corrugated Roof Swan Timber Corrugated Sheet

East Stud Wall Swan Timber Glass

A-Frame Core+ Wall Round Wood

South-West Stud Wall Swan Timber Glass Rockwool

Corner Bay Round Wood

Higher Floor Sawn Timber RockWool

Stud+ Canvas Belly Coppicing Wood Canvas

Lower Floor Swan Timber

Stump Foundation Round Wood Stone

JOIST HANGERS Price: Shiping & VAT: Distance: 155mi Birmingham B9 4SJ

MEMBERANE

ROCKWOOL

CANVAS

Price: 70.7£ Shiping & VAT: 14£ Distance: 254mi Rochdale OL12 9DJ

Price: 56.5£ Shiping & VAT: 11.3£ Distance: 225mi Warrington WA4 6HJ

Price: 329.28£ Shiping & VAT: 54.88£ Distance: 254mi Rochdale OL12 9DJ

CURTAIN Price: 59.95£ Shiping & VAT: 8.95£ Distance: 165mi Northampton NN4 8JH

RED CEDAR NORWAY SPRUCE

TIMBER Price: N/A Shiping & VAT: N/A Distance: Less than 2mi Hooke Park DT8 3PH

NORWAY SPRUCE

GLASS CORRUGATE SHEET Price: 549.46£ Shiping & VAT: 251.58£ Distance: 69.2mi OKEHAMPTON EX20 1UA

NORWAY SPRUCE

Price: 55.05£ Shiping & VAT: 11.01£ Distance: 9.8mi Bridport DT6 3BD

STONE PAD Price: 61.32£ Shiping & VAT: 12.18£ Distance: 11mi Bridport DT6 3NP

HAZEL

SCREWS Price: 166.56£ Shiping & VAT: 33.28£ Distance: 18.4mi Waymouth DT3 4FL

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Bridport Housing Fair

In the Fall of 2021 our group was invited to present our project at the Bridport Housing Fair

open to the public alongside other local builders, land owners and housing agencies. It was a pleasure to represent Hooke Park in all of its characteristics of the forest and to have received such positive feedback. We spent the day talking to people about issues around local housing, mainly a lack of natural affordable materials for new buildings as well as a scarcity of affordable places to live from those that exist. We were encouraged to reach out to policy makers as well as big developer companies to influence their development.

This Local Supply Chain

local mizer

research and development

Prime Coppice

Bridport Cohousing

Community Development

town hall Vearse Farm

Crutchley's Forest

Woodhub

Emily's Yurts

Designing to build houses for a local community using local materials, we demonstrated the

potential networks of our systems in the Bridport Area. The forestry industry has suffered from disparate relationships which makes local supply chains economically inefficient and difficult. We mapped out key players, such as land owners, housing developments, governments and craftspeople that would be active in producing our house. These players are connected by redundancies which reinforce the network and while utilizing shared resources such as a local mizer and workshop.

Selected survey questions. 44

Part II.

THE FOREST

The Forest of Hooke Park

Hooke Park is a constructed, productive landscape that was planted into various one or two species compartments in 1950. At the time of this project, the most abundant species for harvest in Hooke was Beech and Norway Spruce, planned by a process of thinning or clearfell. In 2020, compartment 8 containing Western Red Cedar was thinned, producing a surplus log stack of small diameter poles destined for chip. The same year a Norway spruce compartment (7D) was clearfelled, some of which was squared off and later stacked by our cohort as a selfseasoning structure. Species that were not at maturity to fell included Oak and Sweet Chestnut In the winter of 2021, our class helped to plant a mix of Alder and Spruce in the recently cleared compartment (7) as well as compartment (5) with just Alder. Alongside planting, we pruned branches from Spruce and Douglas Fir trees in compartment (10). We also coppiced a mix of hazel, willow and alder trees in compartment (3), 10 years since its last harvest.

Annotated by Zachary Mollica and Christopher Sadd 48

2020 Spruce Clearfell

In 2020 a compartment of spruce was clearfelled to produce a surplus of sawn timber beams. As a warmup project to our program, we stacked these beams in a self-seasoning shelter. The shelter was protected with a corrugated roof, but still beared a great deal of weathering over the year. This was our primary source of sawn timber for our building and as such we embraced the use of "poor quality" timber. When used for interior cladding, the streaks of scarlet rot actually enrich the texture of the space, and because they are protected from the weather they are no less functional than premium timber. 50

2020 Hazel, Willow and Alder Coppice

We helped our forester Chris to a compartment of mixed broadleaves in its tenth year of after the last harvest. This informed many of our material prototypes as well as our understanding of forest management. Having cleared the compartment a year ago, it has been a pleasure to see the vigorous growth resprout.

Continuous Cover, Gradual Complexity

Single-age Plantation, Clearfelling Shock

A. E.

C. F.

G. E.

A. Mature Broadleaf B. Mature Conifer C. Juvenile Broadleaf D. Juvenile Conifer E. Understory F. Shrub layer G. Forest Floor E. Mycorrhizal Network

B. D. A. Mature Conifer B. Shrub Layer C. Forest Floor D. Mycorrhizal Network

Lessons from Coppice

Coppice is an ancient woodland management which prunes most broadleaf stools at ground floor to regenerate multiple new stems in the following spring. This practice keeps the root system alive, and as an effect, photosynthesizes much more vigorously than a tall tree, yielding greater biomass above ground and a higher carbon capture. This fact that coppicing provides a short cycle of renewal with vigorous above ground biomass makes it a potentially sustainable option for firewood heating, a promising and local alternative to the highly energy consumptive industry of residential heating needs.

It’s also a pivotal point in assessing the life cycle of our building, whereby the coppice scaffold may be easily replaced alongside natural regeneration and eventually burned for heating having added so much value in it’s building life. Coppicing is also an incredible practice for cultivating biodiversity; as the stools are pruned at alternating rotation cycles, the forest floor is exposed to everchanging light levels which stimulates all kinds of new plant growth and habitats for insects, fungi and declining species like dormice and nightingale.

Though coppice woodlands have declined greatly in the last century, by 87% in just the first half, we advocate the renewal of this local practice as a kind of common resource which can be owned, used and governed by many small communities. Coppiced woodlands have the advantage of being adverse to mechanized plantations, lending themselves best to intimate albeit more labor-intensive practice of manual management, a potential resource for creating jobs in the community. Such irregular forests as these woodlands create are also more diverse and resilient, making themselves recreationally more enjoyable and a valuable community asset.

A Coppice Manifesto 1. Coppice should be readily available within communities as a public resource. 2. Public coppice is a form of commons governance, and will teach principles of self organization. 3. Attuning to coppice's the natural cycles of regeneration teaches ecological reciprocity. 4. Coppicing as a low-impact woodland intervention can actually leave the forest healthier. 5. Coppicing is best done with company, and as such is an act which builds friendship. 6. Resprouting is a gift from the forest. Why kill a tree if you don't have to. 7. The act of coppicing is a bodily engagement which roots one in the forest. 8. Coppicing should be the dominant source of prototyping material.

Part III.

CASE STUDIES

Timber in Time

agriculture

solar

service labor

calories

developer

industrial labor

forester

harvester

trucker

harvest

site contractor

buyers

operator

sawing

forest

architect

round wood

pulp and board products

chip

resawing

sawmill

building design

boiler biomass

edging

new construction

retail

steam energy

transport

calories

trimming

organic residue

drying

planing

sorting

graded lumber CLT manufacturer

trimming community builders

local trades

traditional knowledge building

vernacular

trimming

chip

log cabin fingerjointing chip laminate planing

gluing

bonding

passive storage

entity capable of work

CLT panel

heat sink

photosynthetic production

energy transformed into work

KAMAYURA OCA

Tree species used

Construction process

The tribes of the Xingu basin have each a very unique and distinct architectural style. One common factor that emerged from all the tribes studied is a very precise use of each available species of timber in a way that is highly optimized for the specific properties of that species. The Imbira tree is used exclusively for rope making for example. We concentrated on the specific case of the Kamayura tribe, whose structures are some of the more rich and complex of the area. The centre of each longhouse is constituted by several poles, depending on need, to act as the main posts along the ridge beam of the Oca(longhouse). The beam becomes a bending jig that allows during a process of several months to cold bend thinnings

of smaller and more pliable species, gradually woven to form a barrel vault of some sort. The connections between the elements are done entirely through the use of lashings done with Imbira rope. The final step is the making of a thatched roof using the leaves of local plants. A study of the connection between elements of this structure and local flora showed that each building employs on average 56 species, with three acting as the dominant but leaving for details a specific more frequent plant, this relationship with the landscape and local ecology shows an impressive level of structural optimization and botanical knowledge, making these buildings effective part of their biomes.

The Heavy Timber Frame

Leigh Court Barn, Worcestershire

Detail of joinery

Carpenter's marks Leigh Court Barn is a Cruck frame structure which are historically used in the UK. The cruck frame structure is a progression of the typical A-frame structures. But the curve in them provides more special quality. Most cruck blades are made by cutting one curved Oak tree into half, providing opposite sides of the frame. What’s truly fascinating about these structures is the use of hand tools. Every intricate joinery is exposed, showing the craft of the carpenter.

Gin pole

Use of hand tools

Daisy Wheel

The Light Timber Frame Lakewood, California

15 Pines at 30 year harvest

1 Lakewood home

30% of the saw logs are not utilized but may become repurposed as boards or biofuel

There are 4,295 board feet in a standard 1 story stud frame home. 20m

An average 30 year Ponderosa Pine produces 283 board feet.

65 fbm

81 fbm

40 fbm

*There are 9 board feet in one 5m long 2x4 27% not used

26% not used

28% not used

40% not used

97 fbm

30-year Ponderosa Pine

30cm mid-diameter 20m stem with 5m saw logs

760 542 330

The 2x4 light timber frame is radical in its simplicity.

It's an efficient use of timber, needing only 15 trees for one house, whereas a CLT house of the same size would require 40. It's open-source, kind to low-skilled labor and self-build as well as easily modified. But it's entangled in the commodification of the forest, a reductive stronghold which trickles down into our homes and notions of self.

920 128 255

Lakewood home, 1951.

1360

4295 total board feet 67

Drawing Matters Archive

Interior Space Located within a working Somerset farmyard, the new building provides an architecture archive for a private collector. Inside the remaining walls of an old barn, two timber structures have been inserted with a single new oversailing roof.

Thanks to the wood's excellent thermal properties and moisture absorption, CLT provides a stable interior environment for Drawing Matter. Approximately 1503.3 m2 of CLT panels were used to create 115.94 m2 of interior space in this building.

Part IV.

EXPERIMENTATION

Material Exploration

For the second phase of the project, we each picked a material from

the forest and continued experimenting on them. The materials we focused on were coppiced wood, sawn timber, mass timber, larger diameter timber and bark.

We tested various aspects of the prototypes such as their structure and their thermal properties. A lot of the experimentations we did in this phase helped us understand the material better and helped us filter out materials we were most interested in taking forward. The following images are some of the prototypes we studied over this phase.

j. m.

i. r.

a. coppiced DLT, b. hazel coppice fluted column, c. fire log dome , d. light bark frame wall, e. hazel coppice insulation block, f. inner bark fibers, g. dowelled bark composite, h. half sawn wall with coppice insulation, i. fire log dome (mid construction) 74

j. production of bark laminate with cross fibers, k. hazel coppice insulation block with bark between, l. coppice cross bracing, m. bark ply, n. hazel cross layered insulation block, o. hazel flute column with floor cassette

Westminster Lodge We analyzed the different temperatures within and around Westminster Lodge. We used a thermal gun to get temperature readings and a thermal camera to capture the temperature differences in color gradients, being able to analyze the heat transfers better. We learnt about various material being able to absorb heat, and its influence around it. For instance, as you can see from the drawing below, the glass windows in the bedrooms were a lot colder compared to other surfaces. This resulted in a colder atmospheric temperature around it. Similarly with the kitchen where the space around it was much warmer. The temperature readings also showed that the higher spaces were warmer than the lower, proving that the hot air is lighter than the colder. This can be seen clearly in the point cloud of Westminster Lodge where the top half is yellow, while the bottom half is purple. The point cloud also shows that the glass windows in the common space are the coldest, being dark purple in color.

Point cloud of Westminster Lodge common area made from thermal images with colour gradient where yellow has the highest surface temperature and purple has the lowest

Sectional sketch of Westminster showing spacial temperature in common area and bedroom in February

Analysing Woodland Cabin To understand thermodynamics of a livable space and its materials, we studied the woodland cabin for a week. We experimented with adding new layers inside the existing structure, to see how the indoor atmosphere would change. Using surface and body thermometers, we took ongoing readings. We noticed different surface temperatures at different materials, and different special temperatures at different heights. A performative concern we identified was that it was draughty, allowing in moist air, causing a lot of condensation. We filled the floor with bags of wood chip, to add an extra layer and covered the space with the fork structure with fabric to see the change in temperature and draught. We also each spent a night in the cabin, learning that our body temperature played a major role in keeping us warm.

The woodland cabin as is in February

The woodland cabin after adding layers

Body Heat While sleeping in the cabin, we measured surface temperatures using a thermal camera. The colour gradient represents the difference in temperatures within the picture, where bright yellow represents the warmest surface, while the dark purple represents the coldest. Temperature differences between before and after adding the cover Foil Blanket cover

Before

After

Before

After Exterior surface: 0.5°C

Interior surface: 2.2°C Mattress: 6.6°C Feet area: 3.6°C

Bedsheet cover

Before

After

Before

After Exterior surface: 0.6°C

Interior surface: 0.9°C Mattress: 0.2°C Feet area: 0.6°C

Double Layer cover Interior surface: 3.1°C Mattress: 4.8°C Feet area: 3°C

Before

After

Before

After Exterior surface: 0.6°C

A-FRAME Brief

After testing various timber materials, we were given a brief to build a small scale

structure, an A-frame, using the materials we experimented with, to test and see how they would weather once constructed and left exposed. We were given 3 weeks to make a joint prototype to develop individually and as a group were each one of the three faces of the structure were to be full panels of the tested material we wanted to take forward. The structure was required to be big enough to accommodate one person, such that he/she would be able to lie down in. The three panels of the A-frame were to be able to be flat packed such that the truck would be able to carry it to a site we picked in its trunk.

Coppice block

Tightly packed bundle

Coppice block

PANEL 01

Coppice bundle panel drawing

We decided to continue developing the coppice blocks into one of the panels. To make them larger in scale and considering its connections to the other 2 panels, we decided to confine the coppice between two pieces of sawn spruce timber, to make the floor. For the coppice to have better thermal qualities, the branches needed to be tied together to make bundles. This was done using hemp rope. To secure them between the sawn timber, we introduced a secondary beam within the bundle. We used wooden dowels that pegged into the coppice on the outer face of the sawn timber. This allowed the shorter coppice spanning between the sawn timber to work under compression, while the secondary beam worked under tension. Hemp rope was used to weave between the bundles, capturing them in place. I think the panel was successful structurally and visually but failed thermally. Although the bundling helped maneuver the bends within the branches to pack them as tight as possible, there were still some gaps we failed to fill. The whole process also seemed to be time consuming and labor intensive. Therefore, we continued using coppice structurally within our cabin. 84

PANEL 02

Coppice Wall did not go smoothly. At first, we wanted to use waffles to connect the two sides of Coppice bricks. In order to connect the wooden tiles to the waffles, we made a complex cut of over 600 wooden tiles. First, we cut two planes to serve as the connecting surface between the wooden tiles, and we cut the grooves according to the waffle spacing. However, there were errors in the cutting process, which ultimately resulted in the wooden bricks not being fitted perfectly to the waffle. We designed a new I-beam to carry the load and then stacked wooden bricks between them to complete the wall.

Split Log Wall The third panel of the A-Frame was built using cedar logs split in half by the use of wedges. The ambition was to protect as much as possible the structural potential of timber while at the same time offering a relatively flat surface. The connection between each log was done by using a grid of ash routed across the logs. The space between each log was sealed by a tongue and groove joint. Initially, the fit was imagined tight but keeping the accuracy of routing on the side made that solution impossible. We decided on a loose fit with chamfer to allow a realistic chance of fitting. The cassette system holding stiff the interior also wanted to achieve a second layer of members to allow it to hold cladding on the interior of the A-Frame. This system proved to be sturdy and durable, but the amount of processing required to regularize the split logs seemed to defy the whole point of the split. The connection between the logs felt promising. _To the Right Page

Once the logs were split they were partially processed to reach a minimum amount of datums to guarantee the result and then assembled.

_To the Left Page

The splitting procedure revealed to have several problems in controlling the reliability of the final result. The presence of any knot could deviated the fracture path vastly.

Completed A-Frame

3 Individual Panels

Exploded Panels

Part V.

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

THE STUD+

aking after its predecessor, the stud+ is an additive critique of the reductive commercial light timber frame, colloquially known as the "stud" frame. The standard stud frame has been prolific for it's essential component, the 2x4, which we find virtuous in its democratic usability but take opposition when it comes to it's thoughtless commodification of the forest by large scale industries. A small sectional timber does not need to be mass manufactured, and so we employ this savy member in partnership with hazel coppice, which bent green onto the structure, lends itself well to local economies and irregular silviculture. Appreciating the open-source construction logic of the stud, we sought to unpack it's reductivism through the envelope, seeking diverse performances contrary to monolithic insulation and notions of impermeability. What emerged was a volumetric stud wall clad in multiple layers to adapt to climate as well as programmatic conditions.

Logic of Assembly A standard light frame of evenly spaced spruce 2x4s are fixed to top and bottom sill plates to provide the vertical load bearing structure. The exterior is comprised of hazel coppice components to form a radial structure that will give form to a membrane of waxed cotton canvas and recycled carpet underlay. The canvas provides a weather barrier while the underlay maintains internal heat gain, much like the envelope of a yurt. The interior of the stud wall is left unclad, omitting the use of energy-intensive plywood as the system racking is solved by the global stiffness that the core provides. Omitting sheet goods also allows the timber within the system to be exposed, an important experience of occupying the space. As an additional thermal layer the interior of the wall is lined with curtains, giving access to the wall cavity for storage and further modifying the experience. The corner panel of the membrane is rigged with a pulley system so that on the rare days of extreme heat or a want for fresh air, one can easily detach the membrane at its seams from the outside and pull down the rope attached to the stump cleat nearby. Sailing vernacular was a frequent source of inspiration in this process for it's similar rigging operations and fabric to timber connections. Screws are only required where the stud meets the plates whereas the coppice joinery is doweled, bent, half lapped or lashed. The timber system can be constructed relatively fast, only requiring a mill, common amongst forests, pruning saw, power drill, screws, rope and hands. The membrane requires basic comfort with a sewing machine and can easily be extended for longer or shorter walls. As a lightweight structure, it can be pre-assembled as panels and lifted into place by a small group of people, as in this case.

The Skeleton

The Jacket

1. 2. 4.

1. Coppice Scaffold 2. Light Frame Assembly 3. Tongue and Groove End Fins

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1. Waxed Cotton Canvas 2.Recycled Carpet Underlay 3.Rope Belt and Cleats 4.End Wings

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THE 2X4 FRAME

Evolution of Stud+ dynamize the envelope

smarten the structural logic eliminate dependance on plywood

STUD+, a 2-part stud with depth

protruding exterior

can the coppice be used to brace 2x4 portal frames?

flat interior

coppice bend

operable corner windows

coppice

2x4

stud

2x4

VOLUMETRIC STUD WALL

round exterior surface

air pocket

wall shelving membrane clad

transparent pvc for solar gain

mid strut builders band

storage cavity

thermally lined curtains

joist

stud+ 1

constant sun angle

angle joists for eaves

the wall will not keep in heat

coppice creeps and shrinks, (looses structural bearing)

maximize solar gain

Advised by thermodynamics engineer

prototype shows no significant anti-racking (brace limited by coppice bend)

cleats cladded belly profile

wings

armpits sailing vernacular

to wall

can the stud+ be less processed?

connection to timber luff track

half-lap rail

need for shear resistance

drip edge at mid point

Can the "belly" be an active heat collector?

webbing and eyelets for pulley rope stud+3 envelope prototypes

interior clad with vents in tongue and groove boards half-sawn

how to insulate while keeping accessible volume?

turning corners

can the stud+ use more coppice?

stud+2

temperature tests show no significant heat gain or retension

pulley rope

rope belt

thin round

coppice

2x4 stud

how do panels end? scribing templates

CORE SOLVES GLOBAL RACKING

strut

rail

horizontals

sewing course at BBA PANELIZED WALL ASSEMBLY

no interior clad

how are complex seams sewn?

canvas exterior yurt typology

felt lining rope as belt for belly

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how can an insulated envelope celebrate dynamic exchange?

undressing facade pulley system

do all panels need to lift?

designate panel B to undress

velcro flaps

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Initial Prototypes

It began with the foundational unit of the LTF, the 2x4. To create a stud that had more depth to it, metaphorically and literally, a 2-part light framing member was made. A stud which would have repeatability in its geometry- a pole bent over a datum strut and fixed at consistent places on a straight member.

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Roundwood Stud+

Working with uneven or irregular roundwood prompted local machining where in anticipation of a con-

nection. Notches in the “stud” and “joist” members were routed with a bull-nose to receive the coppice within a tolerance of its diameter. These prototypes speculated on a production of the Stud+ in times of lower or slower demands, exhibiting the systems ability to be a custom one-off if desired. Careful craft was taken with the half-sawn stud’s joint to strut and joist, using a dry-wedge mortise and tenon.

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The Belly as Heat Collector

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Testing the Envelope

The Undressing Facade

Failing to perform as a passive heat collector, we looked to the insulative envelope of a yurt. Our cook and neighbor Tia's yurt was inspirational in this, but she critiques the lack of good ventilation and regretted not having the kind with openable walls or windows. This prompted an exciting challenge to create a dynamic exchange in the envelope and address the LTF’s greatest experiential failure, that a wall might ever be statically isolated.

We intuitively thought of

this rotund membrane-clad envelope as a greenhouse, always receiving the sun’s angle of incidence and therefor maximizing passive solar heat gain. The tests did reveal a propensity for heat capture, but only significant with already hot days, causing extreme overheating. The membrane did nothing to capture heat on cool or overcast days and was actually cooler than the climate on one wet night. Furthermore, if we wanted to actually retain the heat we would have had to introduce another material at this point with a high thermal mass, such as clay or concrete.

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What emerged was an “Undressing Facade,” a system of two pulleys that would rig a panel of the membrane to lift and reveal the structure below. This would provide more than enough ventilation to the structure and so was valuable in energetic terms. But it also had an architectural intention to expose the structure and celebrate the forms of forest beneath. In doing so, the wall becomes experientially permeable, questioning the boundaries of interior versus exterior and inviting social interaction with it’s context. 111

A Softly Joined Coppice Panel To introduce greater use of coppice, the stud was notched

with a forstner bit to create a shallow relief to receive horizontal coppice rails. Replacing the sawn strut with a piece of coppice made it necessary to add a spanning bar to receive the bending width of the two belly poles. The coppice would be bent over the bar and captured at the ends by the horizontals. This eliminated all additional hardware beyond the stud and introduced lashing to prevent any slippage. It also meant that the assembly would become a panelized process.

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Sewing at the Boat Building Academy

For 3 days we all worked together to test

different cladding options on a scale model and 1:1 prototype. Special thanks to Mark our tutor for the many useful tips. This course was really helpful in that it allowed all of us to rapidly prototype on the same thing at once, a nice change from working on our individual focuses throughout the year. We learned the basics of sewing and how to scribe onto structures and decided on a sustainable source for canvas material with Mark’s guidance. By the end we developed a taxonomy of necessary accessories, consisting of rope, webbing, grommets and velcro.

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Thermal Bounds and Barriers sun

heat reflection

heat through direct light

internal heat reflection

curtain

thermal volume

rainwater runoff

felted insulation

The layered jacket of the membrane provides variation in its technical thermal performance. The exterior cotton canvas provides weather-proofing from rain and wind, lined by a felted insulation to retain internal heat. An additional layer is introduced with an interior curtain, allowing the buildup to reflect internal heat or transmit out when desired. 118

The envelope form has a radial relationship to energy

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The Core

This system is taking a small section of a house, and making it the core

structure such that the rest of the building need not be structural, since the core itself is able to resist the shear in the entire building. Considering that the strongest geometrical form of timber is in its original round form, we decided to keep it and build the core using logs. This brought us back to the basics of logs cabins

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This system developed into a vertical assembly of logs, allowing the form of the wall to take curvatures, or two inclining walls to create a triangle. To be able to be structurally strong, it required to be in two dimensions in plan. For the logs to be able to connect to each other, we introduced flat surfaces on opposite sides of the logs, And to secure them, the use of timber locks would be a quick assembly, which could also allow the dismantling of the structure to be quick. Seeing that a mass timber structure was coming together, we decided to introduce a space inside either to be an entrance to the cabin, a staircase to a mezzanine floor, or a bedroom. The production of the flat surfaces can also be done easily on the wood mizer. The use of round timber allows each log to be low graded, when combined, they still make a strong structure.

Concept of the core

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a. core logs creating a volume of space allowing a microclimate, b. core logs resisting shear by being a curved wall, c. timber-locks fastening logs together, d. inclined core logs creating a volume within and resisting shear

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Initial Concepts and Prototyping

nitially, we wanted to extend both sides of the A-frame wall into the east and west face of the cabin by curving it. But after prototyping, we realized the teeth joint steps as very time consuming and labor intensive. To be able to achieve the accuracy we wanted was also challenging.

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g. i.

e. step cut on log where it connects to another, f. prototyping A-frame without step cuts, g. wheel on router jig that helps provide precise angle for rotation of step-cut, h. dove-tail joint at connection of both log walls in the A-frame, i. prototyping the insertion of a square beam between the step-cut logs 128

j. prototyping core wall at 1:2 scale, k. experimenting with standardizing the construction of the core walls, l. using the router on a built jig that clamps a log on either ends and allows rotation while routing the step-cuts and slit 129

The 2 elements From our prototypes, we decided against the curve within the A-frame, and instead introduced the L- corner log on the far opposite end of the structure. These two assemblies worked really well with each other, strongly supporting the entire structure in shear. This design also allowed us to eliminate the use of 60 logs, which our previous design required. Instead, we used 38 logs Although 38 sounds reasonable in comparison to 60, it still required us to fell a minimum of 15 tree, which broke ours and Chris’s heart. But conveniently, we found a large stack of cedar, ready to turn to wood chip. We acquired all the timber for the aframe from this stack, but they weren’t long enough for the corner wall as they needed to support the higher end of the roof. So instead, we harvested 3 Douglas fir trees, acquiring 9 logs Because the cedar logs were left outside to dry for a long period of time, their outermost layer was rotten, requiring us to remove about a centimeter layer deep . But because we were using timber in the round, it was structurally stable.

2 parts of the Core, the A-frame and the L-corner wall

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prototypes in order of construction a. 1:2 scale of curved round wood wall, b. 1:1 scale of saw-teeth joint with beam in between, c. 1:1 scale of A-frame log connections and dovetail joint

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The A-frame- Thermodynamics Seeing the thermal properties of round wood from a log cabin, we decided to confine the bed inside the A-frame. Having it as an insulative element allowed to retain heat within the sleeping space. While the curtain at the A-frame is open, it allows the heat from the stove to transfer into the space, and by closing it, it retains the heat. Because the size of the A-frame is minimal, enough to be the size of a one-person tent, the enclosed volume will have a stable environment where the loss of heat is slower, resulting in less fluctuations from external temperature and quick to warm up. Learning from the Woodland cabin, our body heat also helps warm smaller spaces up fast. Testing to see if this worked, we took measurements from inside the sealed A-frame using a thermal gun to measure surface temperatures, and a hygrometer to test air temperature and humidity. At first the A-frame was quite cold, being almost the same temperature as the outside. However, because of the body present, the surfaces started increasing in temperature at about 0.3°C-0.5°C at every 10 minutes. Although, the atmospheric temperature took a bit longer to heat up. Spending a night inside the A-frame during the month of January, I didn’t require a heater. This proved that the body heat was enough.

view from inside the A-frame

thermal drawing of the A-frame showing different temperatures using colour gradient

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Part VI.

CONSTRUCTION

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Constructing The A-frame The logs that went into the core were of 3 different types. There’s type 1, where the entire log only has parallel faces on either sides, being the extended inclined wall and the L-corner wall. Type 2, which are the longer logs within the A-frame with the dovetail cut and type 3, the logs within the A-frame which connects to the dovetail log. While type 1 and 2 took only 3 days to produce, the dove tail logs, type 3 alone took over 3 full weeks. Working with round wood at that scale meant we couldn’t you the machinery in the workshop, but this helped us develop a skill set on working with this material. Therefore, the use of hand tools felt necessary in the construction of the Core. This permitted the use of less energy in the processing. It also provided the possibility of an easier future construction of the system not requiring machinery. This allowed the logs to have a unique contour and texture. Most of the tools used in the production of the logs, other than the wood mizer were, a skill saw, a hand saw, the widest chisels, and a mallet. The grooves within the logs required the use of a router. We also used a cross-hair laser to achieve accurate measurements. Although working with round timber was quite complicated, especially in the quantity that we did, the flats made by the mizer were a convenient datum for all our measurements.

Dove-tail joint

Type 1

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Type 2

Type 3

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The A-frame Construction The following are the steps we went through in manufacturing the type 3, dovetail logs.

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Step 1: Procure timber from the Cedar stack ranging within 150-200 mm in diameter, and take them to the sawmill

Step 2: Cut parallel flats off opposite ends of the log at 140mm apart on the mizer, leaving the ends with the dovetail

Step 3: Place one flat on 2 similar height sawhorses and use the flats as your datum. Mark center lines on either flats, which will become the new datums for further measurements.

Step 5: Place jig I on one flat of the log and project along the top and bottom angle of the jig onto the log using a crosshair laser line.

Step 6: Repeat step 4 on the opposite face of the log using jig II

Step 8: Mark a line at angle 17° from the perpendicular to the center line. Using a skill saw or hand saw, cut out the end at the line marked

Step 4: Cut end of dovetail with a skill-saw, using jig III

Step 9: Using a chisel and hand saw, cut the extra cheeks stopping at the line drawn by the laser 139

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Step 10: Cutting out the nook where this log connects to another for the opposite side of the A-frame. Mark distance measuring 50mm away from the center line on the dovetail line, project the crosshair laser such that one line aligns with the dovetail line, mark the perpendicular line. Repeat on opposite side and match the two drawings to make the cut.

Step 11: Draw out the elevation of the Aframe on the floor and place the logs in order within the structure. Ask Edward to cut the ends off using a chain saw because you’ve run out of time and Edward has the accuracy skills of a machine

Step 14: Place the logs on the beams connected to the complete floor structure and use timber locks to connect to the beam and each other. Don’t forget to put the tongues in the exterior wall

Step 15: Use the telehandler to carry the entire Core A-frame and floor structure to place on site

Step 12: Before moving them back to the stack, mark ends and connect to make a new centre line. Use a router following the new center line to make the grooves on either faces of the exterior logs to place tongues in

Step 13: Place to logs in the order of assembly for a smoother construction

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Floor

Sill Plate

Speices: Norway Spruce

Exterior Decking

Speices: Norway Spruce

Interior Decking Speices: Norway Spruce

Insulation

Material: Rockwool

Pri-Beam

Core Beam

Speices: Norway Spruce

Decking Holder

Joist Hanger

Speices: Norway Spruce

Material: Carbon Steel

Joist

Speices: Norway Spruce

Foundation

Speices: Red Cader

Floor Structure Our floor adopts the structure of primary and secondary beams, and sill plates are connected between the floor and the wall. Several wooden posts are used under the slab structure to transfer the load from the slab directly to the ground. In the whole

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Stud+ Structure

Hazel poles bent green onto supporting coppice scaffold to create “belly” cavity.

The assembly of the belly is one of soft connections and flexibility. Green hazel poles of similar

diameter are bent across the panel to create matching curvatures that act as an extruded cavity. The rudimentary act of bending the poles involves the sensitivity of the body to the springiness of the coppice. Because of this systems marriage to the structurally rigid Core, the stud+ is able to expose connections of timber by omitting what would normally be an energy-intensive and reductive sheet good. 144

The load bearing structure itself was admittedly not ambitious, cut, finished and assembled in two days by two people. but in seeking to address a need for commercial housing, we found the system a compellingly efficient use of time and material so long as we promised to respect the forest in our design.

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Motions of seam-making.

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Binding layers in stitches.

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Stud+ Membrane

Sewing the membrane was in theory a straightforward task, but working with

the bulky insulation layer proved a challenge to handle, often requiring a team of two to support it through the sewing machine. Sail vernacular was utilized in the points where fabric met timber as a nod to the similarities of rigging function.

The assembly of the membrane is easily rigged by two people. Each panel is individually attached by screwing in the batten where it meets a stud. The rope "belt" is then passed through loops and pulled taught at the cleats. As a typology similar to yurts and tents, it was designed for ease of disassembly although does not require impermanence. 148

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Roof

Corrugated Sheet Material: Carbin Steel

Batons

Speices: Norway Spruce

Mamberane

Material: plastic

Timber Screws

Materials: Cabin Steel

Boarding

Speices: Norway Spruce

Rafters

Blocks

Speices: Norway Spruce

Sill Plate

Timber Lockers

Speices: Norway Spruce

Materials: Carbon Steel

Roof Structure

As with the walls, the entire roof structure is mounted on a sill plate and then connected to the walls. Our roof has an Angle of 17 degrees from south to north and is made up of a multi-layered wooden structure, with the ultimate outer wall covered with a corrugated sheet.

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Lifting and Assembling

Floor

Stud wall

The floor structure was split into two sections, and all were preassembled in the Big Shed and transported to the site by a telehandler.

The light frame allowed the transportation of the pre-fabricated stud wall to be carried and tilted up by hand. Coppice poles were then bent onto site and lashed.

Core

Roof

The A-frame part was assembled with the floor structure and transported to the site simultaneously, while the corner bay on the other side could not keep balance on the floor, so the L shape log wall assembled it separately after the floor was installed on the site.

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The roof was also pre-assembled in the Big Shed and transported to the site by telehandler for assembly. And to protect the structure from rain, the ceiling and all the walls were transported to the area on the

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Finishing

Exterior Wall The cladding is completed in the Big Shed, where the wood is cut into planks with angles to prevent corrosion caused by rain resting on the planks.

Curtain Making We made double curtains for Stud+ and the bedroom, which create insulation for the walls and act as bedroom doors.

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Door and Windows We installed six glass Windows and one door throughout the building, all made in the workshop and then installed on-site. The triangular glass used on the A-frame was specially customized.

Interior Cladding We installed the inner wall panels after the whole building was completed. Tongue and groove were used to connect the floor, and we hid all the air nails inside. 155

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Reflection

Looking back on this project, we are both surprised and pleased by

the building which emerged, a process which we could not have anticipated from the start. The forest is expressed in this house as a great range. Every texture tells a different story about the trees life and the processes chosen for its best use. While learning so much about the ways that architecture could partner with the forest, we also acknowledged that timber isn’t always the best material for certain jobs. It was an exciting challenge to build in a such a visible site within Hooke Park’s campus. We considered the relationships to both the public interface as well as the less public residential area, hoping to create a space which give back to both.

In thinking of how to design houses for the commercial market, we focused strongly on the technical outcomes and pragmatics around our systems. But something which emerged in this process, perhaps unconsciously, was the significance the body in engaging with the house. Much of our systems are only activated when someone is occupying the space. For example, the radiant warmth of a human is required for gradual comfort in the A-frame. The undressing facade implicates the occupant with architectural agency when they change their space. The drawing back of a curtain creates different thermodynamic and expressive performances at the whim of the occupant. In this sense, we've discovered a more qualitative argument for how commercial houses should be. Beyond performing well in energetic terms, a house should also provide a sense of reciprocity between body and space, giving pause to reconsider the often complacent ideas of space, material and self that have been lulled by dominant reductive housing systems.

For our final thoughts, we'd like to return one last time to our manifesto. We don’t think we’ve quite achieved each item, and we still aren't sure what some would actually look like. But as a prototype of systems, we’ve learned a great deal from their building and of how they could be improved. It is our hope that now finished with the build, this house will continue to be a site of testing ideas, for only when it's occupied do these ideas truly come alive. 162

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