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,...
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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 ...
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MoMA Panel Discussion on Mass Timber with Prof. Clouston Now Available

MoMA Panel Discussion on Mass Timber with Prof. Clouston Now Available

A presentation and panel discussion on "Material Worlds: Mass Timber" was organized by the Museum of Moden Art in New York on Dec 14, 2021 and included BCT Prof. Peggi Clouston. From the MoMA website: Wood construction is ancient, and surprisingly more relevant than ever before. The United Nations predicts that nearly one Manhattan worth of floor area will be built every two weeks globally over the next 40 years (GlobalABC, IEA, and UNEP 2018). Since the built environment is responsible for almost half of global carbon emissions, it is essential that we redesign what these cities are made of. Mass timber laminates small pieces of wood into scalable structural elements that have strength comparable to concrete and steel, enabling urban density, a key component in a low-carbon way of life. It has the potential to be more renewable and carbon-sequestering than any other structural material in existence. But questions remain. Who has access to healthy building materials like this? Are there enough...
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Summer 2022 Sustainable Building (Online and UWW) Courses are Now Available

Summer 2022 Sustainable Building (Online and UWW) Courses are Now Available

Our Summer 2022 online and UWW professional-education courses and programs are now available and you can start registering for those. See below for a listing of our courses, which start either May 19 or July 11. New this year is also a three-week credited "City-Lab" summer pre-college program for High School students in Newton, MA (in-person). You can learn more about this exciting opportunity here. You can always find our current UWW courses and enroll at this link (search for BCT or ECO under “Subject”): Find Courses and Enroll Courses Construction Estimating (BCT 314) - Any successful building construction project relies on accurate and consistent cost estimates. This course provides students with the skills and background to perform construction estimating, bidding, and cost management. Lectures will cover quantity take-off from construction documents and estimate costs for material, labor, equipment, overhead, and profit. Students are required to prepare and submit a formal bid which details an estimate for a building construction project. Furthermore, students will also...
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Introducing: BCT’s New Summer “CityLab” Pre-College Program in Newton

Introducing: BCT’s New Summer “CityLab” Pre-College Program in Newton

This summer, BCT is offering an exciting opportunity for high-schoolers in the Boston area to learn about buildings, cities, and the many technologies that are used to create and operate them as part of a two-week summer pre-college program. This program, housed at our beautiful Mount Ida campus in Newton, MA can be attended as a commuter, but a residential option is also available. See below for more information. CityLab The BCT (Building & Construction Technology) CityLab is a two-week immersive pre-college program for high school students interested in exploring building construction, sustainability, engineering, architecture, and technology-related career paths. The BCT CityLab course format includes a series of daily hands-on activities including construction site tours, use of emergent technologies (drones, infrared cameras, air quality testing, AR/VR), software (Fusion 360, SketchUp, Minecraft, AutoCAD), and fabrication tools (specialty 3D printers/lasers, hand/power tools, industrial sewing machines, CNC equipment). Students also conduct science lab experiments and participate in service-learning activities. The learning experience culminates with a design-build...
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