KUN Build Week_01
Build Week 1: Construction Begins!
After a quick six week summer break, we're back and ready to begin building the Kunga ADU we designed over the summer semester! We couldn't be more excited to see our design for the Kunga family brought to life and to learn how buildings really go together in the process. As the final year of the graduate program for the 10 of us students, this experience will be unparalleled in preparing us for a successful career as architects.
The Past Six Weeks
Although we had time off for our summer break, the work over those six weeks continued. In order to make this project ready for building on day one of the fall semester required great amounts of work throughout the group and especially from our Professor, Jörg. New discoveries in the permitting process put us pack a good five weeks despite our efforts to have the permit set ready by the end of the summer design semester. Other work went in to producing framing plans so that on day one we could start swinging the hammer. Material acquisition also took place with a very generous donation from Burton Lumber as well as a great price on windows from Sierra Pacific Windows. They are just two of the multiple companies that have stepped up to help make this project possible (you can see the rest on our Program Donors page).
Burton Lumber
Boise Cascade
Simpson Strong Tie
Week of August 20 - Days 1 & 2
Without a building permit, we can't start building on site yet. Since we have a limited amount of time in the semester and a lot to accomplish, we are starting construction on campus next to the architecture building with the resources of the shop. We are building it in panels that will be transported to the site, hopefully right after Fall Break if not sooner. To make sure all of our panels fit together perfectly we are assembling them here on campus first. This requires a perfectly level base, which the concrete slab outside the shop is not. It was quite a process to construct a perfectly level base the size of our building, but the precision that went into it is paramount to a successful build.
We split into teams to tackle this big project with one team working on our base, another on exterior wall panels, another on interior panels, and the last team already starting work on our furniture. With that many things going on at once, the amount of planning that we put into the summer was just what we needed to make sure that this goes smoothly and that everything fits together nicely. That with a little "measure thrice, cut once" and things have been going pretty smoothly. Thankfully on our first day we realized we had the wrong size of nails, so by day two we had the right ones and now everything is nice and strong. The days get pretty hot and the sun is making itself known, but come winter we will be missing the warm days.
By the end of our second build day, we had made some pretty great progress. In just two days we made a level base and constructed eight wall panels, six of which we actually raised into place! It's awesome to actually see the building come together. We can now really feel the scale of the project and start to better envision the spaces we have designed. In the picture below you can see that the bathroom is mostly framed and next week the rest will follow! We were all smiles when we went home at the end of the week. We made better progress than we had planned on and we have a home starting to take shape!