The College of Art and Architecture (CAA), Moscow Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) and COLAB Architecture + Urban Design have come together to create an opportunity for architecture graduate students to build a house from conception to construction.
The aim of the project is to give architecture students applicable experience while offering the Moscow community unique homes designed by students.
Madalyn Asker, Brenna Church, Amanda Eller and Sterling Jones are the master’s-level architecture students who were chosen to build the first house.
These students collaborated on every step of the construction process. In their spring design studio, the four drafted their initial designs. They created construction drawings, supply budgets and purchase orders to prepare for summer construction.
“It’s really unique for students to build a real building that’s going to be used by someone and have so much influence in the entire process,” said Eller.
She believes the holistic approach – tackling everything from initial designs to ordering nails – will benefit her when she graduates with her Master’s in Architecture in May.
One major benefit for students is the use of construction skills usually learned on the job. Having the opportunity to start with design and build a house hands-on gives the students involved a unique and marketable perspective as they enter the job market.
Eller also appreciated the freedom she and her fellow students had through this process that allowed them to create a final product to be proud of.
For Eller, the project is “about more than just getting your degree and moving on. It’s really about making an impact with the resources we have through the university.”
Mark Engberg, a University of Idaho alum who graduated in 1984 and founder of COLAB, is providing the financing for the six Lupine Flats houses.
In Engberg’s experience, one area where architecture programs are lacking is “educating students about the actual part of how buildings go together. Most of that is learned in the field once you get out.”
After graduating from UI, Engberg studied architecture around the world on a Rotch scholarship and earned his MS in Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University.
He founded COLAB in 1994 in Portland, Oregon. He taught a handful of design courses before coming up with a way to give students a head start on applying architecture skills.
He views a Lupine Flats house not only as a piece of a design portfolio, but also as a means to teach students how architecture functions as development before entering the job market.
Engberg hopes that the architecture department will be able to raise money and save profits from the house sales to continue the program in perpetuity.
While building one small home per year may not keep up with Idaho’s housing shortage, the program may open more opportunities for building affordable student-designed homes.
MAHT’s executive director Nils Peterson has partnered with the department to provide land for the houses. With savings on the cost of land and materials, the houses can be sold at a discounted market rate.
Dr. Randy Teal is Head of the Architecture Program at UI and acts as both project manager and teacher to the Lupine Flats students.
The architecture program is here “trying to think about better ways to build our environment,” according to Teal. The house can be something that goes beyond architecture by “building an awareness and a sensibility… for what quality design can do for your well-being,” Teal said..
The Lupine Flats project is a specialized subset of the Design-Build Program that satisfies a design studio requirement. Asker, Church, Eller and Jones were selected through an application process that included submitting their portfolios and interviewing with CAA faculty.
Sustainability has been and will continue to be a focus for Lupine Flats builds. All the siding for the first house was sourced from Moscow Mountain.
The idea of a circular economy is central to the students’ house design. For future homes, energy efficiency is an area targeted for improvement.
Both Teal and Eller assert that Engberg has played a key role in kickstarting the Lupine Flats development and ensuring affordability remains a factor.
Engberg encourages students to come back to serve their college community in the future. While it’s been rewarding for him and his wife to support UI financially, Engberg says, “What’s most rewarding is the time I spend with students.”
Construction on the second Lupine Flats house is set to begin this spring.
Katie Hettinga can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @katie_hettinga