Tiny Home Design In Progress - Fall '22 Semester Project

Concept Drawing by classmate, Runzhou Zhu.

I am having the time of my life in Construction Doc's and Planning, a course for my minor in Construction Engineering at ETSU. This project-based class has one major assignment: creating semi-complete construction documents to build two tiny homes on campus. We've commenced the schematic design process and chosen our site.

From the get-go, I knew we wouldn't approach this in a traditional sense; I wanted my team to design from an aspect our professor hadn't seen from students before; there would be SOMETHING to make our project unique, and the issue was figuring that out. With that in mind, my group started the search for our site.

After a few days of exploration and deliberation among my partners, we discovered Buccaneer Creek. To our surprise, and probably for the rest of campus, this creek runs adjacent to the Culp, and Library also runs beneath the most crucial street on campus J L Seehorn. This tiny little creek has untapped potential and tarnished charm from the trash accumulating in the basin. The site of the stream is not large, but it is sandwiched between parking lots 12+12a on a gently sloping grass hill with a few trees and exposed limestone.

While it felt like a risky choice, we knew it was the right decision. Buccaneer Creek brought me intense inspiration and reminded me of "Fallingwater" by FLW. With this iconic structure in mind, this vision board begins our schematic understanding of the building we are to create.

Following the vision board, I realized what I wanted to recreate most was the cantilevered aspect of 'Fallingwater'; the abnormal formation perfectly challenges the organic environment surrounding it while harmoniously blending into grade. Our structures will be an order of magnitude smaller, but the themes and forms will remain consistent. I began to play with positioning the buildings on the site and deducing size requirements with the grade/assignment.

Original drafts, sketches, and brainstorms

After deciding the optimal angle, or so we thought, I began our first version's schematic design: floor plans, concept images, drawings, etc.

I love this design, but it doesn't accomplish the nature-structure connection I want to incorporate intensely. It is simple, and it doesn't challenge me; we've got to go back to the drawing board.

This is where my team is currently working as of October 18th, 2022. We are deciding our final placement of the structure, position of the cantilevered level, and the relationship to our site with minimal demolition/grade change.

Our current brainstorm for version two:

I look forward to bringing updates with the development of our project and the creation of our documents! Stay tuned.

-A. Battle