construction season

Soon I will begin to build a 12 x 16 foot shed using dimensional lumber.  The shed to our house will be like an expansion tank is to a water pump.  How's that for an analogy?  It will also help me clean up the landscape around the house.  It has been a long and complex vetting process to identify the best design based on a wide variety of factors.  Like natural selection, the process yielded conservative results.  Getting the shed up brings me one step closer to a few other things I've been looking forward to... a sauna and greenhouse.  And I think I found the perfect sauna for me.

With more freezing days than warm, a sauna is more valuable than a greenhouse.  I can have an 8 x 12 sauna transported wherever I may move.  A collapsible greenhouse can also be delivered wherever I want.  In my area where falling trees are an everyday reality, using sheet plastic to cover the greenhouse is a justifiably cautious approach.  Off the top of my head, the best greenhouse I ever stepped inside was my wife's grandmother's greenhouse in Japan - a plastic sheet covered metal pipe box barely five feet high.  It had some of those delicious Japanese grapes inside.  The second best was Rosie Creek Farm's big wood truss greenhouse.  A shed is really too big to move, it stays in place just as the house does.  The greenhouse and the sauna form the backbone of recreation during the summer and winter.  Each is a staycation in itself.  I can play in the snow and cold, and in the summer watch plants grow and mold.  And these are both very social activities, to be shared and enjoyed in the company of others. What a nice thought!  They are also outdoor oriented activities; I love spending my time outside. 

Another thought, the thought of moving somewhere else, somewhere near the ocean, comes up occasionally.  To me, a beach is a magic place, a spiritually expansive place, the edge of a vast empire.  Aside from the rhythm of the waves, the rocky shoreline, and the alien like life I can find there, I can also see for miles and miles, sometimes without limit.  I don't have that experience where I am at right now, but the good news is I think I can, if I build the sauna at the top of my hill and resting on an observation platform to get me an extra five to ten feet from the ground (not mobile) that is situated at the point where the slope changes the most.  The added height may minimize the risk from falling trees, and I'll have a view of the Alaska range and probably Denali if I am lucky.  Not to mention the aurora straight overhead.  The wind and the landscape from there will help me connect with that same feeling again.

Out-buildings around town

Back on the subject of building things... I have been taking a close look at the vernacular buildings around town to get ideas for the construction of a shed and sauna at my home.  The first building I took a photo of was the ramshackle sauna at Calypso Farm and Ecology Center (image 1, at left).  These guys will try just about anything, and they keep it all low budget, which shows.  But I gotta give them props for being true to their mission.  The sauna you see at left has a simple shed type roof.  It has a small changing room in the front and the enclosed sauna is in the rear.  The lower half of the roof is a large overhang, and a gutter directs all runoff to a standing water tank with a simple garden hose siphon.  The owner said he'd like to talk sometime about the changes he'd make if he were to do it over again.  I'll have to get back to him.

(image group 2) Also at Calypso Farm is this very eclectic looking shed.  I like this building, it has clear similarities to a Norwegian trestle frame shed.  Round tree posts, beams, and trusses; it doesn't get much simpler.  The close up picture below shows that it all rests on simple concrete blocks in the ground.  The soil on hillsides around town is very dry and well drained.  It looks like this building has stood here for more than a handful of years.

(3) This next building is a shed built at Rosie Creek Farm.  It is very similar to the one above at Calypso Farm, but it has a full concrete foundation and uses all dimensional lumber.  The room at the back is insulated and used as refrigerated storage for the produce they grow and harvest before it is distributed to customers.

(4) This is a cabin built just this year at Rosie Creek Farm.  Last year only a plywood platform stood at this location.  This cabin has a wide overhang along the roof on one side.  The exposed beam ends are probably not a good idea.  They have another small shed that is of the common rafter-roof form, to use Ted Benson's timber frame terminology.  Last year this may have had a canvas roof and not the tarp roof it does now.

(5) With the exception of the sauna, all the above buildings have gable roofs. But a simple shed roof is the simplest form. Back in February I took this picture of a woodshed at Calypso Farm while I was there for a workshop. The picture below it is of a woodshed at my workplace at about the same time of year.

(6) Another local storage shed.  This one belongs to an acquaintance of mine and is built on a hillside similar in slope to my lot.  It was designed as lockable secure and weather proof storage for the owner's tools while he was out of town on extended leave.  You can see the simple post and beam construction and overall modest size of this building.  I think he built it single handed.  It rests on treated posts sunk into the ground; the natural grade of the site was not disturbed.  The covered deck surrounding it on two sides makes convenient shelter for frequently used items.  Two identical buildings like this (shed and sauna each) separated by at least 20 feet and oriented parallel to each other and at right angles to my house (though at least 60+ feet distant from it) would look very sharp.

(7) This little neglected shed used to be home for a few hogs. Most recently it became a chicken coop. It has a dirt floor. Barely visible in the photo on the right side of the building is a small chicken wire fenced area is attached on the opposite side. Bottom section constructed with logs, upper part is framed. The exterior dimensions, including siding, are about 15x15, and the roof slope is about 2/12. The roof overhangs by at least two feet all around. I'm not sure what the ramp on the side was intended for. Very compact and sturdy looking. The roof slopes down toward the north. You can see that the door was left open. 

(8) You may remember these two pictures from my earlier entry in January. A simple pole framed woodshed and a diagram of how to build a deck floor.

A cruck building technique

A ridge-beam can be supported by two tripods to make a pioneered "tripod-cruck" building.  with the ends of tie-beams extended outward, the side walls can be framed just as in a conventional cruck building.  This would work well.  But while contemplating this idea I came across a picture I saved about six months ago that provided me with inspiration for how to raise a cruck building on uneven ground single handedly. 

Build two tripods and support a tie-beam across them.  Adjust the beam for level by pulling in or extending outward the tripod legs to raise or lower the tie-beam's ends.  Then attach the cruck blades to the tie-beam (as in above picture) and place concrete piers under them.  Repeat this procedure for the other gable end of the building.  Place a ridge-beam across the two pairs of crucks.  Place the wall plates across the ends of the tie-beams.  Brace the structure, then remove the four tripods and it should remain standing firm and solid.  Sheath the building as desired.  When finished it should be a single-bay cruck building with a clear and unobstructed interior.

prism

The first time I looked at this particular plan of Johan van Lengen for a bamboo house, I thought it was boring, the second time I saw that it was very strong, and the third made me realize that it was based on a simple polyhedra - a hexagonal prism, and the gable truss was simply a portion of a hexagon and hexagram combined.  I then realized that all longhouses are essentially geometrical prisms.  So here is one way of generating them.  While the pentagonal prism is the simplest, the vertical posts on the hexagonal prism engenders a more intuitive design, and the steeper slope of the roof on Lengen's drawing is more aesthetically pleasing while allowing for the physical construction of the building using poles.

longhouse variation

For a long time I had considered using trestle frame construction for a greenhouse, the internal framework is heavily braced owing to the numerous triangulated sections. And it is simple- a series of trestles with two rows of beams extending as long as is needed. Fundamentally, virtually all structures follow this vertical post and horizontal beam layout, only here it is reduced to its essential features. The basic unit shows a heavily braced right angled hexahedral polyhedron (a cube, more or less).



Recently I was reconsidering Roald Gunderson's log buildings (see also here), where logs are used in place of dimensional lumber. He built a greenhouse that resembles a very primitive longhouse - one beam, supported by a single row of posts, and a gabled roof with low or absent walls. Although in such a design - kingpost columns supporting a central beam - the amount of cross bracing appears low when compared to trestle frame buildings, there are three cross braced sections in different planes that support one another.  In fact any two of the sections can support each another, providing more than the minimal needed for a tripod.  The kingpost (third section) adds structural support and permits easier construction.

Minka

Composed mostly of big gorgeous pictures of minka, I read through Chuji Kawashima's 260 page “Japan's Folk Architecture: Traditional Thatched Farmhouses” in two days. It is a great book that has probably done more to help me understand these buildings than anything else. It is a well written, fairly comprehensive, and rationally organized introduction to the subject. As with any good book, I took notes as I read and ended up with a full page. One house that was interesting, to take an example, is the sao-ie style of minka in Miyazaki Prefecture (described on page 108). It literally means “clothes-drying-pole house”, but is essentially laid out in the so-called longhouse configuration (also called heiretsu-gata). Later on page 162-164 (in the Longhouse subsection of the Hipped Roof section of Part 3: Styles) an example of this style of minka is given: the Takeyoshi Migita house (Shiba-mura, Higashi Usuki-gun, Miyazaki Pref.). Figure 270 is a floorplan drawing of the house; it is elegant in its simplicity, yet it also contains all the distinctive features of minka. Why longhouses in Japan? Here they are an adaptation to building on narrow terraces cut into the slope of steep terrain that does not permit building wide houses.

If the structural layout of the Migita house could best be described as linear (and it could), then the Nohara house (a modestly porportioned gassho-zukuri minka, page 115) would be called symmetrical. The visual impact of the stout ushi-bari beam bisecting the length of the house with curved chona-bari beams perpendicularly flanking it on either side gives the impression of a rib cage (see picture). Japanese minka are fascinating for their materials, craftsmanship, and variety.

Cabin fever Takedown: It never had a chance

Winter time in the Tanana Valley is cold, dry, and dark (but McKelvey Valley beats it on all three counts). Organisms here must either leave or adapt when the conditions become increasingly harsh. This adaptation can be both biological and behavioral. Humans tend to simply transform their immediate environment to suit their needs, spending nearly the entire winter in enclosed buildings, where an "African savanna" environment is artificially sustained. This is in contrast to warmer locations, such as Cappadocia where people have lived in places such as Uçhisar Hill and Castle, which is a large block of sedimentary rock sitting on a hill with rooms and stairways carved into it. (Uçhisar Castle puts Gaudi to shame, and Gaudi is peerless.) Sustaining emotional/psychological health in a harsh environment is also a concern. An indoor aquatic garden can relieve cabin fever. This winter around Christmas time I had unintentionally bred Buenos Aires tetras, and three lucky fry are now half an inch long and thriving in a separate tank. This is not a common event, in fact I think it puts me in a whole other class of fish expertise. (Still, though, it is more common than keeping a walking sea pig.)

Another way to relieve cabin fever is to do more outdoor activities. This summer I plan to build a few small outbuildings: a woodshed, a greenhouse, and a sauna. A sauna is a lot of fun in winter, its just a wood box with a stove. A greenhouse can allow an aquatic gardening hobby to explode in the summer, produce an abundance of fresh vegetables for the kitchen, and provide a platform for experimenting with photovoltaic power. A woodshed will keep my wheeled steeds ready for a ride at a moments notice, provide much needed outdoor storage to keep the property looking tidy, and allow me to test the appearance of shou-sugi-ban (焼杉板). After learning a few things about construction, I feel these projects (or at least one of them) lie within my means and ability to complete this summer. For a basic foundation, I will use flat solid concrete blocks and/or triangular concrete pier blocks with flat or slotted tops (to accept a beam or post). Some of these have anchor bolts and metal brackets already set. This should be sufficient on well drained soil that does not expand when freezing. A trip to the local hardware and lumber store is definitely planned! I'll need a good reference book, like Joseph Truini's “Build Like a Pro: Building a Shed”. I know that these aspirations depend upon my personal health, and my employee and academic performance, and that they should be balanced with improving my digital media and language skills. It's a reachable goal that requires my full conscientious effort.

---

Architectural flair is essentially unnecessary.  Here are two pictures, one from pg. 46 of Shelter by Lloyd Kahn and the other from pg. 172 of Low-cost pole building construction by Doug Merrilees, Ralph Wolfe, and Evelyn V. Loveday.  The first describes how to build a shed floor, the other is a basic shed.  This is primary reference material for the building projects.  With glazing in place of wood siding, I have a greenhouse.  With wood siding and a stove, I have a sauna.  With just wood siding, I have a shed.  One basic format, three different buildings.

Ainu and Sioux

(Here is a simple 3D drawing of the way the shed was put together.) Impatient with my progress on the shed (in light of the decreasing time available in which to complete it), I returned to the drawing board looking for a simpler means to building a structure for outdoor storage, while trying not to compromise my core aesthetic ideals. The first thing that could be simplified is the complex joinery in a Norwegian trestle frame building. For while the way the joints lock together is beautiful, the cuts take considerable time and energy to get right. On original longhouses, whether constructed by Vikings or Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, the construction was much simpler than trestle frame buildings- it was possible to build them such that no more than two logs met at any joint. So I tried this, but after erecting the first post and beam unit, I soon found that without careful measurements the posts would not stand plumb and square. Though not too critical, the combined error of all the posts together seemed to present a problem. I needed a faster solution. I returned to another alternative construction method I learned about from the Ainu four months ago. Instead of posts supporting the beams, I could use tripods. This is how the Ainu built their houses, and as I learned later, it is also the foundation of most tipis, such as those used by the Sioux. If I lash three posts together, I create a tripod. If I set out four tripods and lay beams across them, I create a shed roof. A tripod requires only rough cuts, and can be put almost anywhere. Shelving, and hooks for tools, could easily be mounted on walls that do not bear the full weight of the roof. I could also make a reciprocal frame roof for the shed, or add two more tripods and make the shed a hexagon shape... there are lots of possibilities. Overall, this seems the most expedient solution. Still, the question remains, can three angled posts bear the same weight as a single vertical post? I will find out.

Jay Shafer

Jay Shafer is a very humble sounding person, but contrasting with this gentle demeanor is a marketing genius. He is at the center of the small home movement and has produced several small home plans as well as authored books, taught workshops, and gets the word out through appearances in big name media outlets. The model home he lives in is called the Epu and it really is amazing how much functionality and efficiency he is able to squeeze into such a small space. Get a tour of his house on youtube. His love of living tiny is echoed by others. This is all very inspirational to me, proving that most anything is possible.