TOTAL NO. OF 12-FOOT 2x4s: APPROX. 80

SCALE: 1” = 1’ 0”

This project is a part of an ongoing, multi-studio pursuit wherein students create scale models of open-ended pavilion-like structures constructed only using 2x4s. Instructor Bill Massie will be running studios in this way for several years— beginning with this one. Each student is tasked to create a 2x4 structure that can hold 1-5 people. The structure must not touch the ground except for in 3 designated zones, wherein concrete piles are driven into the ground. At the end of the studio, one project is chosen to be built on-site in Paris, Kentucky. The next studio will then construct the chosen project. After it has been constructed, this studio will then create their own models... and the cycle will continue. Each time a new project is to be built, the previous one will be burned. Since we were the inaugural studio, we constructed our scale models after a separate first-half studio project (Underground Exhibition Center).

The connection points between the concrete piles and wood structure were resolved by modeling and 3D printing cap-like connectors. The rest of the project used solely 2x4s (represented at scale) that were cut using a small saw, and angled with a sander. No sketches were generated, nor was the form preconceived. The process was based on a cycle of action/reaction until it generated its own methodology and formal language that would determine the course of the project.