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August 26, 2005 -- A home University of Utah architecture graduate
students built for Rosie Joe and her family in Bluff, Utah, a
small town located in the San Juan River Valley, is receiving
yet another award. On Saturday, Hank Louis, University College
of Architecture + Planning (CA+P) adjunct professor, will accept
an award from The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Western
Mountain Region (WMR) at an awards banquet at the Arizona Biltmore
Resort.
The AIA Western Mountain Region Design Awards program recognizes
excellence in design, planning and construction of projects located
anywhere in the world that are designed by AIA/WMR architects
registered and licensed within the six-state region. The intent
of the design awards program is to honor the highest standard
of design in response to user requirements, site, context, climate
and environment. Each entry, regardless of size or classification,
is judged individually on the basis of overall design merit.
Eight U architecture students built the Rosie Joe house, spring
semester of 2004, according to their own design with assistance
from the Utah Development Corporation, Dennis Caulfield Construction,
a handful of experts and several former CA+P students. Louis led
the CA+P Design Build Studio course as well as obtained permits
and secured donated materials and funds.
The site, located in southwestern Utah, is 273 miles from Salt
Lake City and can be reached by traveling 16 miles south of Bluff,
on Highway 191, then five miles east on San Juan County Road 443.
The architecture work with the American Indians in San Juan County
is part of the CA+P’s Design Build Studio. Students receive
practical, hands-on experience implementing their design work,
assisting with planning and zoning, learning about construction
site safety and working with community agencies and private donors.
Students learn about affordability, energy-efficiency and sustainability
of materials. Louis hopes the program will eventually be more
akin to Auburn University’s intensive Rural Studio program,
established by the late Samuel Mockbee, with whom Louis worked.
Rosie Joe’s Bluff house is built of an old, but more recently
used, energy-efficient material known as rammed earth. The 18-inch
thick walls are made from compressed sand and clay dug and sifted
onsite. The south wall is comprised of windows of all sizes that
the students found, collected and installed. The roof is welded
re-bar that butterflies into the air to become a water catchment
system. Some interior walls are finished with clear acrylic, revealing
packed, loose straw insulation. Interior dividing walls are faced
with discarded road and highway signs, scavenged sheet metal and
patina flashing metal. “In such a remote area, nothing can
be thrown away—everything is overtaxed, with embodied energy,”
says Hank Louis. The ceiling is made of begged wood pallets, the
gaps covered by neutral-colored canvas.
The University students left behind family and friends and moved
to Bluff for all of spring semester to build the house they designed
fall semester. They lived in “dorms”—Louis’
1905 historic sandstone home.
Bluff’s rural location brought challenges to Louis’
students’ most recent project—extreme heat and cold
and no electrical power for tools. They faced the additional challenge
of maintaining their other course work.
The Bluff Design Build Studio Program continued this past spring
with the creation and construction of another house. For more
information on the AIA Western Mountain Region Awards Ceremony,
the Design Build Studio Bluff program and the Rosie Joe house,
contact Hank Louis 801-557-4987.
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