Back To The Hardwood Mill!

I recently took a trip to pick up a batch of freshly cut oak cants for our next building mock-up.  Because cants aren't available in a typical home improvement store, I had to go right to the source: the sawmill.  I took our big UT  Motor pool truck down to Seymour, TN and paid the East Tennessee Wood Products Company, Inc. a visit. 

The visit had been delayed for about two weeks because of the ice and snow, and by the looks of the lumber yard I’m glad we waited.  (I’ll make send my apologies to the UT Motopool employees who had to clean up all the mud in the truck, I’m Sorry!)

Ronald, Mark, and Randy Dixon, the sawmill’s owners and operators, were a great help in humoring us with such a small order.  Randy, who was driving that ridiculously huge machine, helped to flawlessly maneuver the 16’ cants on our 10’ bed.  The wood weighed the truck bed down so much that I didn’t think I’d be able to make it out of the yard!

This research can have a profound impact on these small, owner operated sawmills, who make up the majority of sawmills in the US hardwood industry.  Creating value added solutions for these low grade byproducts means that these ‘mom and pop’ sawmills could draw in more revenue with no change to their typical operations.   

Hopefully these 25 cants should hold us over for a while, now we have some building to do!

-Paul Attea

Green Oak Seminar Class

In order too supplement the research taking place in the Green Oak Studio and fully explore the possibilities of this project a separate team of students meet twice a week to help investigate the Green Oak Project. This team broke itself down into four sub groups in order to concentrate mental capabilities and production. The groups work to solve any challenges which arise in studio as well as provide other areas of expertise to influence studio design.

The four groups are categorized into:

Technical Challenges
Investigates any potential problems in the construction of a green oak assembly such as openings and shrinkage or types of joints and connections 

Pre-Fab
Focuses on off-site construction and moving strategies to optimize a bent system for interstate transportation, and on site assembly. 

Sustainability
Explores the requirements of the Living Building Challenge and how these requirements will affect the design and technicalities of the project.

'DIY' Mechanical Systems
Collaborates with the sustainability group to find systems such as solar hot water heating systems or storm water systems that are compatible with the Living Building Challenge requirements.

-Oliver White

Gathering it all together

With D.C. looming closer and closer, we are taking steps to gather everything together. Graphics, teeshirt sizes, proposal revisions, and document sorting are happening all around. We have decided to take a diorama that will exhibit our intent and research as well as demonstrate our application to design. This should be an interactive experience for all.