Archinect - UC Denver (Patrick)

Building, sharing, making.

2013-08-02T12:03:00-04:00

We're almost done with the CNC work. In the past week we've been simultaneously building the house on site and cutting the pieces on the CNC. We have been super fortunate to have the help of some friends lending tools and helping out with assembly.

This week we've also had the chance to meet Tristan Copley Smith, a London-based filmmaker and open culture cultivator. He's been in Denver asking about our project and documenting some of our work. Him and Aaron from Open Tech Forever have joined us during assembly and we look forward to working with them and contributing to the open source community in Colorado.

In addition to working on the house we've been preparing the rewards to send out to our faithful backers. Here's a sneak peak at the rewards in progress. We'll be shipping everything before we leave for Bluff, UT in the middle of August.

FOUNDhouse update #5: Some assembly required

2013-07-19T12:57:00-04:00

We’ve cut and assembled one module of the FOUNDhouse (which is 1/3 of the total structure), and it is currently on display at Sustainability Park as part of the Biennial of the Americas event. Last night’s event, Canada Night, brought a lot of people through, many of whom got to see what we built. It was great to have the opportunity to talk to people about our project and hear what they thought of it.

So now it’s time for more fabrication. We’ve learned a ton about the intricacies of CNC, so our cut times are getting quicker every day. Better go tackle those 52 other sheets.

foundhouse.cc

FOUNDhouse update

2013-07-01T12:37:00-04:00

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the comments and the support! We're approaching the end of our initial fundraising phase. This means we're finalizing the design and making adjustments based on our projected budget. We are excited to show some of the new concepts and update you all on our progress. Since our backers are kind of like our client (more like patrons), we want to communicate with you all as much as we can.

So we secured a great spot at SPark, looked through the boneyard and found some great stuff there. We'll be talking with a few fabricators and fab spaces this week. We'll let you know when we know where our fabrication will happen. Exciting stuff!

FOUNDhouse - A mobile microhouse

2013-06-21T11:14:00-04:00

As I begin the summer (yeah, I'm in studio) I'm excited to present a project that myself and a fellow student are working on. We are designing and building a microhouse called FOUNDhouse. It's 150 sf, made with the structural system from wikihouse then added components to make it fully inhabitable.

We're building it here in Denver, and then moving it to Bluff, UT in the fall, where we will live for the semester while we're building a house for a family on the Navajo reservation with DesignBuildBLUFF (who as recently featured in the NYT)

We are excited to design and build something with our own hands and the have the chance to live in it! We'd love to for you to check out our Kickstarter project that we are using to raise the funds for the structure.

You can also check out the details at foundhouse.cc. Leave comments here or on the Kickstarter.

Happy client. Happy students.

2013-04-16T14:46:00-04:00

This weekend, 10 students from UC Denver presented their ideas for the design of the Billjohn Residence near Montezuma Creek, UT as a part of their design-build education in partnership with Design Build Bluff, a non-profit organization designing and building sustainable housing on the Navajo Nation near Bluff, UT.

We had met the Billjohn's back in February and spent the day with them at their home site as well as touring and viewing the previous DBB projects. We got to know them a little bit through our conversations that day but were out of contact with them during a large part of our design process. They are a very quiet couple and were not very vocal in their needs. We were very unsure about some of the design options we were presenting to them. Of course we were rushing to complete the model and printed the drawings in the late hours the night before the meeting.

On Saturday morning we brought them to the DBB campus in Bluff and presented our design ideas. We walked th...

Sequence 1.2 Concept

2012-02-05T19:13:00-05:00

This is my client:

Yeah...sort of...

It was a quirky way to bring some of the quirks of a real client to the research regarding our residential unit. We were each given a unique postcard with a combination of an image and a word and made to push the conventional understanding of each and the way they relate to each other.

As I explored expression and tupperware, I landed in an area where the container is what is expressive instead of what's inside. Currently, our containers don't say anything. For example, one of the two pieces of tupperware in my fridge, is clear, and contains pizza. What is expressed however, is not the clear plastic, but the cold pizza. When someone asks, "Whats in your fridge?" I respond, "Cold pizza." When asked about the other piece of tupperware, I say, "I don't know." It's opaque. I haven't looked in there in weeks. Turns out it was guacamole. Not anymore.

The same is true of many of our homes. Sure we decorate the inside; it says plenty about ...

Sequence 1.1 Context Documentation

2012-01-28T20:50:00-05:00

Studio II is in full swing. We've been given a site in the lower Highland Park neighborhood of Denver. It's a 50 foot by 125 foot lot on the NE corner of 33rd and Osage.

The studio is conducting site context research (meeting the bartenders in the surrounding bars and restaurants) and diagramming the major forces and factors. We've presented on our research and continue to develop opinions about the opportunities at the site.

This Thursday we were given a postcard with an image and a word on one side. Our task is to develop interpretations and agendas based on the postcards and how the image and word can be applied to the "domestic agenda." This seems to mean that we'll be intervening on the site with some sort of domestic purpose (single family, multi family, some other kind of family...). More diagrams and findings coming soon.

UCD Lectures and Exhibits Spring 2012

2012-01-21T16:29:01-05:00

The SP2012 poster...