Take four master’s students in the
University at Buffalo School of Architecture, one In Rem house bought at
auction, and a two-year program that challenges the students to create a living
environment, and you have “Quad Space”. The students who created it
are Michael-John Bailie, Paul Dudkowski, Ernest Ng and Dan Stripp, and they
invite all to attend a viewing on Saturday, October 17th, from 12 to 5 PM.
According to Ng, all of the master’s students were split into different groups: sustainable urban environment, inclusive
design, situated technologies and material culture. Ng explains that he and his
partners, as the material culture group, were faced with using “materials
as a design direction for architecture. So it’s broader than the physical sense
of the material.” Some students choose to use models, but Ng and his
partners decided that they could probably apply their assignment to an actual
house, and that’s what they did.
In the summer
of 2008, the group was finished with their 1st year of grad school,
and, hearing a rumor that houses could be bought for as little as $1 from the
City of Buffalo, they started to look at real estate. Even though they didn’t
have a lot to spend, the four were particular about the condition of any
potential house, along with its proximity to UB’s south campus.
“We
worked on UB’s South Campus and lived nearby, so we knew we wanted to be
close,” Ng says. “Houses
around there are expensive, and we knew we didn’t have time to look for funding
with one year to finish the project.”
They started
shopping the City of Buffalo’s In Rem list in early October, and then spent a
few weeks visiting houses and neighborhoods. “139 Howell fit our criteria,” Ng says. They bid
and won the small house for $6,500. They immediately set to work, removing
a wood frame back addition that was in poor condition, leaving 400sq ft of
house to work with. In the end, the students used loans and their savings to
buy, deciding to do as much of the work they could by themselves.
Ng says they were spurred on by three
things. One was the idea of
abandoned houses going for a dollar or being demolished by the City, leaving
neighborhoods with empty lots.
Secondly, the students saw this as an easily doable project that would
be to their advantage, as they would have to go through a full-scale
construction process. So not only
did the students design the house, but they also gained invaluable knowledge
with hands on construction through practice rather than theory. “Besides,”
Ng says, “it was better than getting to the end of semester, taking the
project down, and finding a way to trash it. We asked ourselves ‘can we give
our project new life after the academic side?'”
Aside from that, the students asked
themselves how much space a person really needs to have in order to live
comfortably. “We said, ‘How
do we divide the house into 4?’
And then we went through series of design studies, models, drawings,”
Ng says. “We asked, ‘How to cut the house up?’ We had to consider time, paperwork, education fees,
time. When we looked at the amount
it would cost to have a contractor carry out our plans, we decided we might as
well do all the work we could ourselves and put our money in the house. We each pooled $8K, and added more at
end.”
Ng explained
that because the house sits on one side of plot line, they would “bump
out” portions in the front, driveway side, back, and top floor, each
within the minimum sq. ft. area required within housing codes. “The volume
of each space needed to be equal because of how we had to squeeze shared spaces
in around the common areas,” Ng explains. “The private rooms had to be 7 x7, with a 7’6″
height.” They ended up with
three cubes, covered in marine grade plywood, that cantilever out of the house,
and one going north on the top.
The tricky part was reestablishing the kitchen and bathroom, which were
housed within the back addition the students initially took down. With the bump-outs, the students ended
up with a 650 sq. ft. house.
Ng says the
learning experience, from design to completion, with hands-on renovation all
the way, was an invaluable learning experience. “We learned as we
worked,” he says. “We picked up contractor and developer’s skills to
go with our design knowledge.”
One can imagine that this all-knowing view of building and renovation
will benefit future clients of the four in many ways.
And many local
contractors have helped, lending actual work, materials, and sometimes just
standing back, overseeing.
“Alp Steel was a big contributor of materials, along with Danforth
Plumbing, who also taught us a lot about plumbing and gadgets, and CIR
Electrical helped with permitting. The City’s permitting department was very
helpful; we sat with them once or twice, and they were very helpful and glad we
were dealing with the neighborhood.
They hope more people will figure out good ways to deal with housing
rather than demolition.”
As one can imagine, the
neighbors have been quite interested and curious since the beginning of the project. This weekend, they along with the rest of us, will get to do
a walkthrough of one of the best class projects ever.