Ladies and Gents,

Just a quick one to say what a great day we had yesterday! Once again, the posters designed by the Comms team to tell the story of the H.O.U.S.E. were dusted off and hung in mad new ways, bringing a bit of (informative) colour to the site down at King’s Meadow Campus, Nottingham. Projectors and podiums were wheeled in, and seats soon filled with esteemed alumni, professors and other kind donators, who had kindly taken the time out to see exactly the cause they were supporting.

Director of the project Dr Mark Gillot gave a speech on the history and aims of the Solar Decathlon competition itself, and described the University of Nottingham’s role to play in that story. Ben Hopkins and Rachel Lee gave an insight into their original design for the H.O.U.S.E., and how it had adapted since then, and Guillermo Guzman highlighted the student involvement aspect of the project – as our tutor in the Solar Decathlon unit, he knows best!

Hearing these talks and being reminded how highly revered the competition is, how vitally important the cause is, how much kind support we are receiving to do it, and ultimately how unique an opportunity it is to be part of this as a lowly second-year student was a heart-warming experience even for me – a few weeks off the project will do that!

So too was tour we gave our benefactors straight after the presentation, a small walk and talk around the dormant modules of the H.O.U.S.E. This was another chance to practise our own presentation skills for Madrid, answering any and all questions our visitors had on the construction, our involvement, and the environmental credentials of the design, all whilst wearing our spivvy H.O.U.S.E. shirts!

But soon enough the groups were whisked away on tour buses, leaving us to debrief and begin preparation for Friday’s event… and maybe even some construction work too.

Tom

…another shaky-start-but-fantastically-productive day! Module 5 roof on and Rigidur plan fully discussed and decided upon – two very big steps. The mini-Mikes are really stepping up their game on site to keep the troops in order.

The big media news is that we are front page on the Saint Gobain website!! You can read all about our huge collaboration on there.

Tom

At the beginning of today, I was already envisaging writing this blog entry from an extremely sour point of view, likely entitling it something ridiculous like 1 step forward, 20 steps back.

Issues sprang up today involving poor team turnout, Health & Safety supervisors cracking down on some of our untidy habits, and the Rigidur experts from Saint Gobain advising us on some of our mistakes installing their product. As much as we appreciate their experience and their input to the project, it was hard to take the criticism with a smile so early on a Monday. But we can rest safe in the knowledge that all panels will be installed correctly from now on!

As the day continued, however, things got much better. Plenty of faces turned up – Monday morning reluctance, it seemed, was all that had them a little late. Soon Module 5 was upright, closely followed by Module 6 – two first floor modules standing! The cladding was completed on the large walls of Modules 1 and 4, and both had their internal surfaces duly finished and cared for. The whole team showed that even without Mike, commitment to the dream was full.

Despite the long day, it’s been a busy evening for all teams. Communications met to edit and organise the information provided for the posters that will hang inside the house at Ecobuild, and Interior are hard at work on the furniture to be showcased at the event too. So we find ourselves now with only a few stumbling steps backwards, we can in fact make huge leaps in the right direction.

And thus I head to bed, keen for another productive day tomorrow – hopefully even more modules will be up by the next time I post!

Tom

Finally I’ve done a day of actual building on this project.  So long have I felt like “that guy that comes in every Wednesday and sits at a table in the middle of the site, points at drawings for a bit and then leaves again.”  So feeling a bit less of a fraud  I feel like this is a decent time to start blogging.

One of these days I’ll try and describe what it is I actually do on the project on a day to do basis, but that won’t be very interesting, so for now I’ll just say a few words to get the ball rolling.

For me this build has been a long time in the making.  As one of the three original designers of the house I’ve been drawing the thing in one form or another, week in week out, for about a year.  To see it being built now is an amazing feeling.

Despite the many hitches along the way, progress is being made and best of all its actually looking like a house now.  We went through that standard initial concern that we may have accidentally scaled the drawings wrong and it was going to be tiny, but seeing the staircase go in today it actually looked identical to a sketch I drew about half a year ago, which I guess is a good thing…

A hell of a lot of credit has to go to the second year build team, who are doing a fantastic job of making the house with as much care as it needs (0.6 air changes per hour needs A LOT of care), and seem to be having fun at the same time.   So thanks for making the many drawings me and the other two keep putting on Mike’s desk a reality, and hopefully I’ll try and sneak in and make myself useful now the SDE deskwork is finally reducing.

More blogging to follow (probably)

Ben Hopkins

For me, involvement in the Solar Decathlon Project has caused a massive change to my University lifestyle. My previous experience of construction was minimal – I had visited building sites a few times, but never worked on one. But working on the Nottingham H.O.U.S.E. I now spend the vast majority of my week on-site, kitted out in my steel toe-cap boots, high-vis waistcoat, gloves and hardhat.

I remember how my dad would always complain about how builders seemed to spend half their time standing around doing nothing. I now empathise with them on this point. On a few frustrating occasions you are forced to stand and wait for someone to finish a task, wait for materials, or wait for equipment.

Still, regardless of this, we’re making progress. Three of the smaller modules are up, with Module 2 even complete with a roof – very exciting! It’s amazing how within a matter of weeks what started off as nothing more than a seemingly random pile of various materials is becoming an actual, tangible house. It’s a great experience. Not to mention from a learning viewpoint. The amount of things that we’re made to think of that would never have occurred to us when sat behind a drawing board is unreal!

A couple of us managed to fit in a bit of filming of the project today, so there should be a video entry to add to the Nottingham HOUSE blog soon.

http://blog.nottinghamhouse.co.uk/

Were even able to get some interviews with a few people, when they weren’t too busy working on the construction. Look out for it… (I’m the one wearing the tie!)

Stevey Lovejoy

We all realise now that working on a real live project such as this is so monumentally different from the design projects we are used to – corners can’t be cut, details must be paid attention to at every juncture and most importantly, things don’t always go precisely to plan. But with not long to go now until our Ecobuild deadline, efforts are doubled and this is rewarded with things on site taking a clearer shape every day.

What’s also been great is working closely with our lecturers – John Ramsay, Big G, Robin Wilson, Michael Stacey et al. This wouldn’t be something we’d normally get to do, and we’re learning a huge amount from them – probably even more than in their lectures!

Full steam ahead from here.

Unjulee

Avid followers,

Last week was something of a frustrating one. As mentioned before, the learning curve on this project is steep. Even with all the training in the world, and however healthy the wealth of previous construction experience, there are tasks on the HOUSE project that none of us on the team have ever undertaken. Plus, due to the modular design of the structure, the construction is more complicated than your average brick and mortar dwelling. This is not to detract from the brilliant ideas behind the design, since the manoeuvrability and dexterity of the modules are key to the project’s ideals, but it does mean we have to have our heads screwed on that much tighter!

Sequencing is the key, and we find ourselves back-tracking at points when certain processes have occurred in the wrong order, and must be put right. This is encouraging, however, as we are all displaying our attention to detail and can be assured that when (finally) finished, each element will be spot on. Plus, we learn quickly from our mistakes, so that we know when we come to construct the final modules they will be erected effortlessly and millimetre-perfect!

As such, the past week has seen – in some form – the battens and treated wood cladding applied to the external walls of Module 2, the Vario damp-proof membrane fixed to all standing internal walls, the roofs of certain modules fully insulated and finished with Rigidur board, and the external decking frames constructed. The workshop is full of activity, with new elements appearing each day all at different stages, and all of the team now with jobs!

Elsewhere, design has begun on the furniture to display in the house for the Ecobuild exhibition, with the Interior Design team all offering ideas and working together to develop the best into a reality. Other exciting news includes the current talks with a major phone company to provide us with Twitter-enabled phones for the duration of the project, to keep the internet abreast of every occurrence on-site! Exciting stuff.

Check out the latest pictures from the site both here – courtesy of our wonderful resident photographer Louise Vitty – and on the facebook page, and stay tuned for more!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Nottingham-HOUSE/202710912702

Tom

Catch up on all the news from our bloggers at the Nottingham HOUSE. They’ll be using this space to share all their news and views in the run up to the Solar Decathlon.

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