A design/build project at the California Academy of Art turned out to be an award-winning affair for a group of five architecture students who built this beautiful prefabricated outdoor office. Located in San Anselmo, California, the P.A.A.V. (which stands for Pre-fabricated Adaptive Auxilary Volume) was built during an intensive 3-month period on a limited budget with a number of recycled and reclaimed materials. Not only did the students learn a ton during the project, but they took home a citation from the East Bay AIA in their Exceptional Residential 2010: Bay Area Regional Design Awards.
The student project was created by Justin Ackerman, Mary Telling, Justin Hanan, Shaum Mehra and Shanay Moghbel, with the help of their instructors Greg Upwall and Jennifer Asselstine. One of Asselstine’s clients was interested in a prefab office space for their backyard, so the instructors turned the opportunity into a design/build project. The students worked for 3 months to design and build the 120 sq ft split-level sustainable home office with customized desks and storage space.
Materials were sourced by the students from places like Craigslist — they found aluminum frame window units, copper roof panels, reclaimed redwood siding, mahogany doors, and recycled denim insulation. The unit was constructed in a factory setting and then installed in the clients’ back yard. Waste reduction was also an important aspect of the project — the students were able to cut construction waste down to approximately one inch of waste for every 12 feet of materials used.
Via Jetson Green
