HAVEN STUDIO

Project Brief

Dirt Works Studio

Chad Kraus| Fall 2021-Spring 2023

Studio Space and Demonstration Home

3813 Greenway Drive, Lawrence, KS 500 sq ft

Description

The Dirt Works Studio entered in the 2023 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Build Challenge. As one of the original team members, the Dirt Works Studio and I began work on the design of Haven in late October 2021. In the summer of 2022, our funding availability shifted and upon returning in the fall, 10 now fourth-year students from the original project were joined by a new semester of the Dirt Works Studio to redesign and construct Haven Studio.

Haven Studio will be an interactive, full-scale, teaching tool and learning environment to benefit current and future generations of students as well as our broader community. Due to its location adjacent to the KU School of Architecture and Design’s 67,000 sq ft East Hills Designbuild Lab, this project will serve to educate many different groups on sustainability and net-zero building solutions.

Dirt Works Studio has gained a large amount of support from sponsors and communities nationwide. In addition to in-kind donations valued at well over $100,000, we set up a crowdfunding page through our University that raised almost $27,000 from businesses and individuals in our community.

My role in this project was Student Team Lead, so I focused on project management and written content for deliverables. I was also heavily involved in all major design decisions. This role has provided me a diverse range of learning opportunities, from helping my professor coordinate efficient and effective construction progress between the several sections, to organizing fundraising events, to building cabinets. The construction will be completed during the Spring 2023 semester.

Learning Outcomes

Keeping an open mind to new possibilities will bring the best possible solutions.

Nothing prepares you better than diving in headfirst (among many, many others).