#rs3rdyears

The Final Stretch

After Thanksgiving Break, there is only two weeks left for construction. Team Dogtrot is hitting the site full force to get each project completed! We have started the framing for the bench, countertop, and cabinets in the Kitchen Dogtrot and have started charring the wood for the cladding. Electrical for the lighting in each dogtrot is being installed very soon so we can move forward with building the structure for the ceiling. Details to keep the rope in tension for the screen are being tested. A combination of a turnbuckle or spring with steel cable and eye hooks is being considered. 

Construction Begins!

After the annual Rural Studio Halloween Reviews, the design for the dogtrots and screen have been decided! Following the concept of contrast, we are starting out with painting the rafters and existing ceiling in both dogtrots black to not distract from the charred cladding that will later be installed. The wood for the framing and furring strips are going to be painted black for the same reason. 

Extreme Makeover: Pod Edition / Pod 01

Halloween reviews were a critical moment for Team Solar. We unveiled our main project...renovating the pods! In the beginning, we were focused strictly on solar energy. Once we started to ask ourselves questions about ethics and large scale application, we decided to look into energy usage at Rural Studio as a whole. The pods seemed like the best place to start in terms of scale and testability. 

The pods were student designed and built between 1999-2001. They were used to experiment with different construction methods and materials. Many of these tests resulted in a variety of problems.

Greenhouse Team accomplishments since last week:

1. Halloween Reviews - Our team dressed up as Little Bo Peep & her Sheep and gave our presentation in costume on Friday. We got some good feedback and some new ways to think about our design from our reviewers.

2. Removal of the gravel in the large work space - Tuesday was spent shoveling tons of gravel out of our building space so we could begin to level the ground for our concrete foundation.

3. Digging the two ground drains - Even though it rained a lot last week, that didn’t stop our team from working hard in the swamp-like condition of our site. We learned how to use the Bobcat to drill holes in the ground for our two water drains and connected our pipes into those spaces.

4. Installing the spigot (!) - We are very excited (top photo) that we have installed our tool-wash spigot successfully. This involved using the bobcat to dig a trench in the spigot area, draining that trench, connecting the spigot to the water line we placed below, then filling that trench with the gravel from the work space to create a ground drain.

Drill Here