Visit the UMass Design-Build “HyggeHaus” this weekend at the Green River Festival

Visit the UMass Design-Build “HyggeHaus” this weekend at the Green River Festival

The HyggeHaus (pronounced “hyoo-guh house”) is a UMass collaborative design-build effort between UMass Building & Construction Technology, UMass Architecture, Five College Architectural Studies, & East Branch Studio. After a full semester of building this house in Chesterfield the time has now come to show it off. As can be seen in the video timelapse below, the house was loaded on a trailer and is en route to Greenfield where it will be part of the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA (6/24-6/26). Festival visitors can enjoy performances on its porch (where it will serve as the Green House Stage) and can sign up for tours led by our students and faculty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYenidAaok Project Background This project was started by a group of students and instructors in 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19. Vaccinated and itching to finish the build, we have a new group of students who will be completing the project by this summer (2022). The HyggeHaus is a modular, 350 sq. ft,...
Read More
93.9 The River Interviews Design-Build Students

93.9 The River Interviews Design-Build Students

Local station 93.9 The River recently interviewed BCT student Owen Grierson, M. Arch student Megan Futscher, and BCT Adjunct Faculty Kent Hicks about this year's iteration of the Design-Build program (a collaboration between the BCT program, the Department of Architecture, Five College Architectural Studies, and East Branch Studio). The house, which is currently under construction in Chesterfield on the East Branch Studio property, will soon transform into a pop-up stage at the upcoming Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA. Listen to the story as told by our students... https://soundcloud.com/939theriver-1/the-hyggehaus-at-the-green-river-festival Links: The HyggeHaus at The Green River Festival | 93.9 & 101.5 The River (wrsi.com) Hygge House Project Blog Green River Festival ...
Read More
UMass Students Place 11th in National Competition and BCT Program Receives $100k Grant

UMass Students Place 11th in National Competition and BCT Program Receives $100k Grant

Students Participate in Residential Construction Competition As in years past, a group of UMass students traveled to the International Builders Show (IBS), a national conference, which was held this year in Orlando, FL. There they competed in the "Production Homes" category of the Residential Construction Management Competition, which allows our students to practice many aspects of their coursework, such as estimating and budgeting, scheduling and various other pre-construction topics. Under the faculty supervision of BCT's Dr. Ho-Sung Kim, this group had been busy preparing for this competition for the entirety of the fall semester. The UMass team landed the 11th place spot this year out of 27 competing schools. Its members were Akira Ontsuka, Matthew Klingman, Mohamid Zabir, Lauren Nothe,  Oliver Pullin, and Samuel Khokhlan. See the gallery below for some impressions from the event. BCT Program Receives $100,000 Grant From NHE's HELP Program The Homebuilding Education Leadership Program (HELP), launched in 2006, establishes closer relationships with institutions of higher education by awarding major...
Read More
BCT Students Start Construction on the “Hygge House” Design-Build Project

BCT Students Start Construction on the “Hygge House” Design-Build Project

The Hygge House1 is a portable, 350 sq. ft, Net Zero, Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) designed and built by students in a collaborative effort between UMass Building & Construction Technology, UMass Architecture, Five College Architectural Studies, & East Branch Studio. The semester-long design-build course that encapsulates this project is led by L. Carl Fiocchi (BCT), Robert Williams (Architecture), Naomi Darling (Five Colleges) and Kent Hicks (East Branch Studio). It offers learning opportunities in high performance construction, construction practices, low load mechanical systems selection and installation, performance verification, and carbon accounting. The project as well as the course helps students understand the climate impacts of carbon in the built environment and explores ways to design and build better structures, as the inefficiency of buildings is responsible for approximately forty percent of global carbon emissions. After the Build is completed, students will have the opportunity for teaching about the building when the Hygge House is used as an Auxiliary Stage at the Green...
Read More
UMass Student AGC Group Wins Outstanding Emerging Chapter Award

UMass Student AGC Group Wins Outstanding Emerging Chapter Award

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) national organization has announced that the AGC Student Chapter at UMass Amherst has earned the Outstanding Emerging Student Chapter Award. The judges for the 2021 AGC Outstanding Student Chapter Contest said they were impressed with the obstacles the UMass chapter overcame, as well as the growth documented in its application. The UMass Student AGC Chapter flourished this year under the leadership of its president, undergraduate Nathaniel Wright of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, and its faculty co-advisors, CEE professor Scott A. Civjan and BCT professor Fernando Romero. This team initiated a full schedule of events for both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters, despite being remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter hosted two virtual construction site tours, OSHA-10 Training for 47 student participants, multiple guest lectures, and multiple chapter meetings. The chapter also developed a club website containing event information, blog posts, resources, and event summaries. Beyond that, the officers overcame the fact that none of them...
Read More