School of Architecture and Urban Design

KU Studio 804 Modular 1 house wins international wood design award

A Kansas City, Kan., modular house designed and built by 20 KU graduate architecture students has won an international Wood Design Award. The project by students in Professor Dan Rockhill's Studio 804 class was among 12 recognized, out of 189 entries from the United States and Canada.

The awards recognize excellence in architectural design projects in which wood plays a central role in the design's success. Design sponsors were especially interested in environmentally friendly, renewable or "green" building attributes in residential, nonresidential and landscape projects.

Winning entries will be published in the fall 2004 issues of Wood Design & Building magazine and, in Canada, Wood Le Bois magazine. Other than the publications, sponsors include wood trade associations and manufacturers of wood-related products.

Jurors commented that the Studio 804 project "demonstrates the clever use of factory-built, mass production technology to lower costs while creating living space of exceptional value. Students learned the process of integrating factory manufacturing with on-site construction, and the selection of materials for aesthetics, durability, renewability and economy."

The 1,200-square-foot wood-frame dwelling was prebuilt in five 12-by-20-foot sections in a Lawrence warehouse, then trucked to its site for final assembly in the Rosedale area of Kansas City, Kan.

For exterior wood siding, students chose massaranduba, a Brazilian hardwood that is certified by the Sierra Club and Forest Stewardship Council as an environmentally approved material. The wood is both rot- and impact-resistant and has a Class A fire rating similar to steel or concrete. In its natural state, the hardwood appears almost red-brown but will eventually weather to a grayish hue. Students liked the original color so much they applied a clear finish to the wood, hoping to sustain that reddish color about 10 or 15 years.

The 1-by-2 siding boards appear to float over the 12-by-60-foot house exterior. They were cut to size with mitered corners and attached with stainless-steel wood screws to a 2-by-4 framework that camouflages gutters. The siding also conceals the waterproofing and rainscreen system that involved wrapping the roof and exterior walls with a continuous rubber membrane.

Inside the house, the use of prefabricated wood trusses to support the roof and floors creates a more spacious interior appearance and eliminates the need for load-bearing walls on the main level or house jacks for extra support in the basement. Another sustainable material, vertical-grain bamboo with a clear finish and hardness similar to maple, was the students' choice for floors throughout the main level of the house.

The project was a cooperative venture of the Studio 804 class in the KU School of Architecture and Urban Design and two Kansas City, Kan., nonprofit community development organizations: City Vision Ministries (CVM) and Rosedale Development Association (RDA). In the partnership, the students handled the design and house construction processes. CVM and RDA paid for materials, provided site work and foundation construction and coordinated neighborhood and municipal compliance issues with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. The house has been sold to a person who meets CVM-RDA qualification guidelines.

Rockhill set up the Studio 804 program in 1995 as a nonprofit corporation to give hands-on training to architecture students. Through the years, the class projects consistently have earned national recognition and numerous awards. Prize monies awarded go into the nonprofit corporation funds.

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