Yestermorrow Design/Build School

Courses:

Students will experience the semester’s multi-disciplinary curriculum as an integrated whole: lectures, job site work, seminars, discussions and studio work are designed to reinforce and complement each other, while informing the group design/build project. The course descriptions below are intended to help students, faculty, and registrars translate the program into discrete course credits at their home institutions. (download syllabi here)

 

Design and Visual Communications Studio (6 credits):

Students will work individually, in small teams, and as a group to design a sustainable small-scale building project to be built during the semester. Students will be introduced to various methodologies of translating design ideas into forms of visual representation, including drawings and models. They will hone their research, critical thinking, and presentation skills as they grapple with the various environmental and cultural influences that must be addressed when creating a design. Students will come to understand how climate, site characteristics, and monetary constraints impact design choices. They will explore design strategies as they synthesize spatial, functional, aesthetic, and contextual considerations. Particular emphasis will be placed on the process of collaborating as a group, including a variety of perspectives and conceptual approaches, and incorporating the ongoing building process. Students will present their designs for interim and final reviews and will incorporate feedback in an ongoing iterative learning process. Students will explore how this collaborative approach to design can build a sense of community while developing a successful architectural project.

Sustainable Building Systems, Materials and Methods (3 credits):

This project-focused course is closely linked to the Design and Visual Communications Studio. Students will engage in a process of research and analysis of sustainable, energy efficient, and cost-effective building systems, and ultimately construct the building they have designed. Students will explore a variety of different building systems and methods, and will learn the anatomy of a structure.  Students will work with a program and a budget, secure materials, coordinate with sub-contractors and professionals in the building trades, devise a work schedule, delegate, divide, and direct project tasks. Students will learn how structural systems, mechanical systems, and utilities interact in a construction setting, and require on-site problem solving. The course will also combine lectures, discussion, and guided research. Students will explore the practical implications of their design choices, with respect to siting, form, comfort, convenience, cost, energy performance, air quality, embodied energy and life-cycle analysis – all while investigating the ways in which a well-designed, integrated construction process can minimize negative environmental impacts.

 

Sustainable Design (3 credits):

This course provides an introduction to the principles of sustainable design, exploring emerging definitions, methods, debates and challenges of how designers address the built environment. Students will learn how designers grapple with site, community, energy, resources, and climate. Using a case-study approach, readings, discussions, and lectures will address the impacts of development on human health, community, and the natural environment. With both theory and practical application, students will learn how buildings can positively impact natural environments and how emerging disciplines inform better building design.

 

History of Vermont Architecture: Vernacular Forms and the Design/Build Movement (3 credits):

Students will be introduced to the vernacular architecture of northern New England and the history of the design/build movement of the latter half of the 20th century. Guest lectures, field trips, readings and discussions will provide a survey of shelter types and strategies in Vermont’s difficult climate as well as the evolution of design/build. This course will also examine the historical, social, and economic issues surrounding housing and architecture in the region. Issues such as bioregionalism, historic preservation and land use will also be explored. Students will analyze the climatic responses of vernacular building features to inform their work, as they consider the social, cultural, and economic factors driving the evolution of certain forms, building types, and aesthetic choices.

 

Calendar:

The 16-week program starts August 19 and ends on December 7 2012, with a fall break September TBD and a Thanksgiving break November 21-25.

 

Faculty & Staff:

Carey Clouse, Design/Build Faculty

Carey Clouse is an educator and practitioner with a body of work that addresses the intersection between sustainability, social justice, and design/build. After graduating from MIT with a graduate degree in architecture and urbanism, Carey joined the faculty at Tulane University, where she has taught architecture as an adjunct assistant professor for the past four years. In her time in New Orleans she also spent three years as a Rose Architectural Fellow, working closely with the city to establish green building guidelines, with local grassroots rebuilding groups to share resources and ideas, and with a nonprofit housing developer to oversee the sustainable design and development of more than 1,500 units of affordable housing. She is partner and co-founder of CrookedWorks Architecture, a small design/build firm in New Orleans which addresses the tough issues of urban identity, food security, and environmental stewardship. In addition to her architectural background, Carey also taught as an outdoor instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) from 2001 until 2007.

Josh Jackson, Design/Build Faculty

Josh received his BSME from Yale University in 1989 and promptly bicycled across the country to San Francisco where he pursued an interest in alternative energy and worked for Pacific Gas & Electric on energy conservation programs. A desire to bring head, hands and heart together led Josh to the Heartwood Owner/Builder School in Massachusetts where he fell in love with timberframing and ecological building during two summers as an apprentice, and has pursued these paths through a wide variety of natural materials, handmade paper, stained glass, and of course timbers of all shapes, sizes, and species. He delights in the creation of homes that nourish community during the building process and that provide healthy, soulful, beautiful shelter. Josh continues to teach timber framing workshops at Heartwood School, Yestermorrow, and Rocky Mountain Workshops. Before co-founding TimberHomes LLC, Josh was partnered with Ben Yeomans in Humble Abode - see that site for additional projects. A new found passion for skate skiing is offering ample opportunities for exercise and public amusement this winter as Josh and his wife Geraldine Vatan have been menacing the trails at Morse Farm in Montpelier, near their home in Middlesex, Vermont.

Ben Cheney, Design/Build Faculty

Ben is the owner and principal of CONSTRUCT, a design/build firm based in Montpelier, VT specializing in wood and metal fabrication.  Ben is the Program Director for Yestermorrow’s Woodworking Certificate Program, and has taught design/build courses at Yestermorrow since 2004.  Previously, Ben spent two years in Austin, Texas developing and running a youth design/build program for the Rawson Saunders School, and coordinated Montpelier High School’s Community Connections programs.

José Galarza, Director of Semester Programs

José is an architectural designer, builder, and educator whose main interest is to produce work that seeks to reveal the primordial, enduring, and essential character of human shelter. He enjoys using advanced computer modeling coupled with a rigor towards craft; and, when at all possible, tries to apply systems based thinking at the intersections of regenerative design, fine art, and equal opportunity. He brings to Yestermorrow experience that spans design, planning, project management, information technology, and construction. Before starting his own practice he helped to design an assortment of iconic buildings for two well known and highly acclaimed firms in Europe and the United States. Before that he apprenticed as a fine wood worker producing high end custom pieces, while at the same time receiving a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Texas in Austin. Through his undergraduate education, he received a Bachelor in English Literature with minor studies in Art and Philosophy. Currently he runs an architectural design studio based out of central Vermont called José Galarza Building Workshop.