LIFE House

Fall 2012

​Prof. John McRae

This seminar course allowed a collaboration between undergraduate and graduate architecture, interior design, and civil engineering students.  The focus of the seminar was developing a publication that would provide Haitians sustainable and seismically-safe house design and construction strategies.  Upon completion, the publication will be sent to Haitian communities and builders.

 

The research conducted during this course included passive ventilation and lighting strategies, rainwater harvesting, and earthbag construction techniques.  Class activities included lectures on cost-estimation, rainwater harvesting and construction tactics from engineering faculty, health considerations from nursing faculty, and universal graphic presentation/direction.  A 1:1 scale mock-up of the earthbag walls was constructed to fully understand the stability and viability of the construction technique. 

 

All two-dimensional drawings and diagrams created with AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator.  All three-dimensional images created with Google Sketchup.