by Lily Stevens

Welcome to our first week of the summer build! Cohort one, made up of eight out of sixteen of this year’s DesignBuild students, will be on site for the first six weeks of the project. We began on day one getting acquainted with the tools, materials, and environment of the build site by splitting into two teams to practice. Both teams built mock-ups of key elements that will be helpful to know later on: one of a window installation and the other of the connection detail between the main module of the house and the roof. Each project required different tools and techniques that we practiced and then shared with each other at the end of the day.

The second day we began to work as one team to square and level the cribbing on which the structure will be built here on the Amherst campus. We ended the day having completed the same squaring and leveling process with the sill plate and the rim joist. During this process, we became familiar with the process of using a laser level, and mason’s line (taught string), tools that we will be using along many steps of the construction process.

On Wednesday, we cut and installed the joists spanning the width of the floor. Measuring and trimming boards to the correct length was an important part of this step to ensure that the rim joist to which they were being attached would not bow out or in as the joists were secured to it (mason’s line again).

Thursday brought with it rain and a trip to Cowls Building Supply. We took a field trip to the local store, Cowls, and received a tour from owner Evan Jones. Through this experience, students were able to get a peek behind the curtain of what it takes to run the store and learn about where some of their materials are coming from.

Friday closed out our first week of the summer build session. We finalized the joist placement and blocking along the joists in preparation to attach sheathing. Additionally, we created a special detail for the stair supports by building a removable set of joists to create a temporary platform on which to walk. The end of the day included more rain and students looking forward to beginning sheathing next week!

by David Perevala

On Monday, May 12th, we are glad to finally present to the public our finished plans for our project that we worked tirelessly throughout the Spring of 2025: Casita de Vida! (“Little House of Life”).

We appreciate the guests who came to witness the lengths and challenges our team pushed themselves through to execute an ambitious housing project within our local community! We want to thank our instructors, Mrs. Darling, Mr. Leinfelder, and Mr. Fiocchi for their close support in making sure of this project runs smoothly. And a special thanks to our guest speakers who provided us with further guidance: Mr. Fortier (Structural Engineer), Ms. Picciotto (BEAM expert), and Ms. Douillet (HERS rater).

Special thanks to the Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity and all our generous sponsors for making a difference in the Holyoke community and providing this opportunity to the students studying in at UMass Amherst and Mount Holyoke College. Last but not least, thank you to the fifteen other members of the DesignBuild 2025 team who sacrificed sleep and comfort, shed sweat and…hopefully not too many tears for this awesome development.

To anyone who missed it, we presented our building plans for Casita de Vida to a diverse audience who were given an opportunity to comment and ask questions. I’ll quickly recap what was presented that day.

The home will be located at the close left corner of the site as you view it from Chestnut St. in Holyoke, with a welcoming front porch and deck on its right side. This home will feature a walk-out basement for extra storage space and possible future living space if converted by the homeowners. Thus, we had to prepare extra plans for its foundation and a stairway down to the basement; reducing the building’s useable square footage even more. Of course, thanks to Jacob, Bianca, and Brody finalizing the floor plans and making the living spaces as comfortable and efficient as possible in 600 square feet.

The team tasked with drawing our section views provided a thoughtful process on how the house’s structure would work despite the design challenges of the home needing to be able to withstand different loads and forces when disassembled and transported to its final foundation in Holyoke (the roof is wholly detachable for transport).

Omer gave a wonderful narration on what the interiors of the home would look and feel like to make our future homeowners feel welcomed in their new home. They proposed a custom-built shelf/entertainment to best utilize the interior wall space, ensuring there will still be comfortable space in the living room. The main living room is spacious enough to accommodate an eating area, a medium-sized couch and coffee table with its entertainment center, and an open kitchen where it will receive plenty of daylight throughout New England’s seasons! 

Our elevation team guided us through the exterior appearance of the home, deciding on a look where it could both blend in with the surrounding homes of Chestnut Street while still asserting its own identity and style: a 45-degree gable roof and a light, neutral-colored siding. 

As the presentation concluded, Lily gave the rundown of Casita de Vida’s carbon impact as calculated using BEAM software. Not much of an improvement from last year’s basement-less 8th Sister, but everything comes with trade-offs! Finally, a shoutout to Eren’s mesmerizing video walkthrough of the home for Pedro and Damaris to experience before it is even built!

For What Is to Come…

Now is the fun part…for the entire design team to get out of our studio and get some fresh air whilst touching grass! Half of the team will be working as soon as finals conclude, framing and sheathing the house. While the rest of us will show up later in the summer to finish off what was started. Hopefully nobody gets any splinters. Stay safe everybody!

by Bianca Saliba De Assis

As we near the end of the design phase, we have maintained a consistent workflow and continued to refine our permit set, despite having only one class meeting this week. To establish a consensus and ensure alignment among the drawings produced by each group, we found it necessary for each group to present their most recent updates to the class. 

Straw Panel Wall

At the start of class, we were joined by Professor Kent Hicks, who spoke to us about sustainable insulation materials–specifically straw panel walls. Our predecessor, the 8th Sister DesignBuild project, incorporated straw bale insulation into its construction.

Some students raised questions regarding the fire resistance of straw panel walls. Professor Hicks addressed these concerns by explaining that the straw is densely compressed, leaving a minimal amount of oxygen within the panels, thereby limiting the fuel available for combustion. Furthermore, the multiple layers that comprise a typical wall assembly offer significant protection from both fire and moisture. As illustrated in a draft wall section that includes the straw panel, there are several layers designed to protect against exterior conditions. On the interior side, a vapor membrane and drywall will provide additional protection from interior conditions. 

We are considering the integration of a donated straw panel wall into our project. Although its inclusion has not yet been confirmed, we continue to account for the possibility in our floor plan drawings. Initially, we proposed extending the building envelope to 40 feet  6 inches to accommodate the straw panel wall at the rear of the house. However, we subsequently revised this decision and returned the building envelope to its original 40-foot length. As a result, the straw panel wall was repositioned behind the proposed bed arrangement, allowing it to function both as a headboard and as a shelf for displaying photographs. 

Design considerations

As illustrated in the most recent floor plan (see image above), we have begun exploring design adjustments to better accommodate Pedro and Damaris’ storage needs while also maintaining a sense of spaciousness within the home. One proposal involves utilizing the area above the staircase to expand the bedroom closet and potentially incorporating a half wall in the portion above the stairs that is not enclosed by the closet. This modification is contingent upon meeting the minimum required headroom of 6 feet 8 inches throughout the entire staircase. 

Focusing on the end goal

Rushing the decisions made during the design phase of our project can lead to costly mistakes and confusion during the build phase. As long as we maintain a steady pace moving forward and continue refining our permit set into construction documents, we will set ourselves up for a smoother construction process during the summer months. 

by Yukiho Yoshida

This week marked an exciting tenth week of our Design Build semester, where we worked towards our first pass at completing a set of design development drawings (DD drawings). During the beginning of the week, we met as a studio to discuss each team’s progress and final decisions about design preferences.

Kitchen Layout

We went back and forth as a group to discuss the pros and cons of a bar kitchen versus a corner kitchen. Some things we took into consideration were the homeowners’ preferences on the cooking and storage area. If the occupants were to cook less often, the bar kitchen may be a better choice because it maximizes the living space. However, it might be inconvenient for people to enter the home if someone is cooking in the kitchen because they would be blocking the entrance. Ultimately, we unanimously voted on the corner kitchen based on Pedro’s frequent use of the kitchen, and decided that the U-shaped kitchen would be more favorable to have a more spacious cooking area.

Elevation Options

Along with the main design scheme for the interior, we also came into agreement about the exterior aesthetics of the house. We landed on two main camps, the craftsman and the standout vertical windows.The craftsman stayed true to the rest of the neighborhood being more traditional in style, whereas the latter was a more modern take that focused on creating the illusion of a taller building. On a (mostly) unanimous vote, the class decided to move forward with the longer vertical windows.

This was an important step to take so the elevations team could begin to finalize window type and placement, as we needed to place the orders for the windows quickly so they arrive in time for the build. We made other small adjustments like moving the foundation footing and making sure that drawings were all being coordinated.

Planning Board Meeting

On April Tuesday the 8th we had the great opportunity to sit in on the Holyoke Board Meeting that would review our site plan and proposal for a special permit regarding our lot. It was a pleasure to be able to witness civic action take place!

BEAM

On Wednesday, we started our class by welcoming Diana Brito to speak on carbon and BEAM to our class. We gained valuable information on carbon emissions throughout a building’s lifetime, and how to model carbon through the BEAM program. The BEAM and HERS team further got to work closely with Diana to know the details about how to model our own project.

We further used class time to discuss a first look at the DD drawings and fine tuning configuration and drawing conventions for the complete drawing set. Desk crits and lots of discussion between groups rounded out the studio day as we moved towards the 5pm deadline for Friday. 

By Friday, all of our drawings came together, and we completed our first set of drawings for review. This first set was met with lots of learning curves and valuable lessons learned about teamwork, organization, and time management. It was an exciting step towards our end goal, and we are looking forward to the next steps.