The Green Garage

Friday lunch recap 10/18/13: Designing a treehouse

Let's say you're designing a treehouse. What would you like to see in it? Are there any features you remember from a favorite childhood treehouse you'd like to see included (or updated)? How would you design it so that it could fill multiple purposes for multiple kinds of people (kids and grown-ups alike)?

We were considering questions like this during our Friday lunch community design session on 10/18 lead by designer-in-residence Kevin Gardner. Kevin's working on the design of a treehouse that we're thinking about building on the site of the El Moore, our residential project down the street from the Green Garage. (For more info on the El Moore, visit our wiki and check in the bottom left corner of the homepage.)

 

Kevin's early in the design phase and wanted to turn to the community for input, as we have on many occasions at the GG. He gave a bit of background on the project, then asked for suggestions and sketched as we talked. Given the opportunity to think like kids again, the community's ideas flowed freely. They included:

• Make it bi-level: create at least two distinct spaces inside the treehouse.
• Expand the space with fabric and light -- create a tent formation in the trees above the house accessible by a ladder.
• Add skylights for more natural light.
• Since the site is very close to the sidewalk/street, connect the house to the street somehow. Create a swing out of reused materials, for instance, that reaches down almost to ground level.
• Create some lookout spots for kids to be "sneaky" and spy on the neighborhood goings-on. Install a periscope? 
• Build in bookshelves and invite kids in the neighborhood to contribute to the book collection.
• Keep simple toys inside that inspire creativity: wooden blocks, for instance. Encourage them to use the blocks to design and build their own mini-buildings.
• Build some of the walls in such a way that they can be drawn or painted on.
• Plant more trees on the site so that eventually, it'll be more of a hideaway, nestled in greenery.
• Encourage kids to bring blankets and sticks so that they can make temporary treehouses in the trees above and around the built structure, making it a temporary treehouse village.

Who's ready to move in?

 

Friday lunch: introduction to permaculture

Last Friday, Matt Sitek of Pill Pouch, a family business-in-residence at the Green Garage, presented an introduction to permaculture.

Matt's been interested in the subject of permaculture for some time. Recently, he attended a nine-day permaculture workshop in Wisconsin, and he's started facilitating an open, informal weekly lunchtime discussion group at the Green Garage about permaculture's 12 principles and their application in the GG's rooftop farm. (Tuesdays at noon.)

Matt started his presentation with definitions and a history. Permaculture ("permanent" + "agriculture," later "permanent" + "culture," too) is a way of designing systems based on natural processes and relationships. It's "ecosystem mimicry," in Matt's words. He briefly outlined its origins, after Australian naturalist Bill Mollison's years of ecosystem observation and seminal observation that "nature needs no external inputs."

Permaculture's roots are in agriculture, in designing agricultural systems based on observation of ecosystems in which all of the elements achieve a mutually supportive balance. Over time, it's evolved to include designing systems of all kinds, Matt noted, including buildings and landscapes.

Permaculture is a pair of glasses, Matt said, "lenses through which you see the world."

A copy of Matt's presentation is below. For more information on permaculture, he recommends checking out Permacultureprinciples.com or joining the lunchtime conversation group.

A celebration and a visit

This past Wednesday the Zero Energy group met once again, but this time to celebrate the conclusion of their work. This group has been meeting longer than any other - they began in September - and I'd like to suggest that they feel more passionately about their work than any other group. This group represents, in many ways, the heart and soul of the building construction work. It was up to them to figure out ways to heat and cool the building by using as little energy as possible, and because of their efforts, it now looks like we'll be able to heat and cool this 11,000 sq ft building as if it were only 1,000 sq ft. We are eternally grateful to them and their dedication to this incredibly complex task. They are, from left, Tom Brennan, Kirsten Lyons, Ken Byczynski, Laura Long and Laurie Catey.

The materials group has also been on a journey, first examining ways to reuse materials that already exist in the building, then finding reused materials from other sources, then looking at natural materials, and finally purchasing new materials (such as windows). In the natural materials department, no one is better than Deanne Bednar of the Strawbale Studio, and she (and her 2 interns Amity and Sam) paid a visit on Friday.

We asked Deanne to help us consider ways to incorporate natural materials into things like our backyard fence (perhaps cob?) or interior walls (earthen plaster?). She gave the group a lot to think about - we're grateful for her time.

Interior Design

Here is our preliminary sketch of the interior design of the building done by Woody Melcher of Woodbury Associates.  To orient you, the top is Second Ave, the alley is to the left, the back of the building is bottom, and the newer section of the building and the parking lot are to the right.

So if you walk in the front door, top, you come across a waiting/reception area next to an information center (with long rectangular table). Just beyond the new stairway, you'll see, from top, an indoor/outdoor room, the kitchen, and booths and tables for eating. The blank space to the left is reserved for businesses. Beyond the group of chairs (design center) are small 'huddle rooms' for private work and meetings, and 3 bathrooms, one with showers.  Also, to the left, you'll see our alley entrance.

Not shown are the designs for the 2 loft areas. The east loft will house rent-a-desk spaces and our 'imagination' room (more details on this later). The loft facing west will serve as a library/information center.

We have not done the design or the newer section of the building (back right), but we do know it will serve as a spot for creative, hands-on work.

These are preliminary sketches, and will lead to more formal designs, but we are very excited about what we see and how we envision the future for this space.

Dumpster diving

Have you ever encountered the word 'freegan'?  I have read about this group, people who are seriously into reusing to the point where some of them dumpster dive to find the necessities of life. I always thought it was an interesting idea, but never would have imagined that one day Tom and I would join this elite group.

Yes, the picture above is of Tom at a dumpster at Marygrove College in Detroit. Tom had been there recently and happened to see a few old chairs in this dumpster. He asked if anyone would object to his taking some of them for use at the Green Garage, and he was welcomed with open arms. Marygrove has a mission to be as green a campus as possible, and if anyone was willing to unload things from their dumpster, they were more than happy to help.

So we arrived there yesterday - Tom, myself and Don Carter - and met with Don from Marygrove (in charge of maintenance of the campus). When Don saw how excited we were with the chairs, he pulled us aside and took us to 2 more buildings - the power center and another warehouse - and we couldn't believe what we saw. Rooms full of discarded chairs, tables, lights...all waiting for a home.

Here are some of the chairs:

We gathered what we needed and now have a nice learning center for the group who will be meeting monthly, beginning April 28th, to discuss the future of our project.

   

Meeting with Ike Shepherd

On Friday, January 18, we met with Ike Shepherd, a structural engineer, and Don Barry and Mike Kamlay from NORR, seeking advice about the roof. In particular, we wanted to know if we needed to replace all of the purlins, or just the few that showed damage. Ike has a background in timber structures, an expertise that is increasingly hard to find, so we were fortunate to find him.

We told Ike that we wanted to preserve the historical elements of the building, yet make the building as structurally sound as possible, and practice green practices, such as minimal removal of materials that would have to find another use. So he had his work cut out for him.

After inspection, Ike and Tom together developed a new idea: how about building a new roof on top of the old roof? This way we could preserve the historic roof, keep waste to a minimum, and provide a strong, secure new roof. Brilliant! Here's the idea, layer by layer:

1. First, put new purlins on the outside of the old roof.
2. Place solid bridges between the purlins.
3. Place insulation in the cavities.
4. Put plywood over the top.
5. Last step - new roof.
6. Last, last step - clean the existing wood on the inside of the old roof.

Here's a video of Tom and Ike plotting this out. I think they're having too much fun for any discussion involving the word 'purlins.'

After meeting with Ike, we were joined by Chris Dow and Tom & Helen Bradley. We met over lunch and picked Chris' brain about this design. Then we went over to a place called the Architectural Salvage Warehouse and looked over their goods - what a great place!