Studio 804 house gets top Home of the Year Award from Architecture magazine

LAWRENCE -- The Studio 804 Modular 1 house designed and built by 20 University of Kansas architecture graduate students of Professor Dan Rockhill is the top winner in Architecture magazine's third annual Home of the Year competition.

The Grand Award-winning house was prebuilt in Lawrence and trucked in sections to its Kansas City, Kan., site during the spring 2004 semester. It will be featured in the magazine's November issue and on its Web site at http://www.architecturemag.com.

For these students, their master's degree is a house, a combination group thesis and an affordable single-family home.

The Home of the Year program recognizes outstanding and innovative residences. Winners are chosen based on overall design excellence, creativity, programmatic and site sensitivity, and formal expression.

The five categories comprised houses of 1,500 square feet or less, 1,500 to 5,000 square feet or more than 5,000 square feet; and apartment/condominium (individual residence) or multifamily buildings of two to 10 units. Jurors cited 10 dwellings for House of the Year honors. The Studio 804 house, entered in the under-1,500-square-foot category, was the only Grand Award winner.

In June, the house also won an international Wood Design Award. It is one of 12 that will be featured in a 2004 Wood Design Awards book and in Autumn 2004 issues of Wood Design & Building magazine and, in Canada, Wood Le Bois magazine. Additional details are online at http://www.woodmags.com.

The 1,200-square-foot wood-frame dwelling was prebuilt in five 12-by-20-foot sections in a Lawrence warehouse, then trucked to a steep and wooded hillside in the Rosedale area of Kansas City, Kan., for final assembly.

For exterior wood siding, students chose massaranduba, a Brazilian hardwood that is certified by the Sierra Club and Forest Stewardship Council. The wood is both rot- and impact-resistant and has a Class A fire rating similar to steel or concrete. In its natural state, the hardwood is red-brown but weathers to a grayish hue. Students liked the original color so much they applied a clear finish to the wood, hoping to sustain the color for 10 to 15 years.

The 1-by-2-inch siding boards appear to float over the 12-by-60-foot exterior. They were cut to size with mitered corners and attached with stainless-steel wood screws to a framework of 2-by-4s that camouflages gutters and downspouts. The siding also conceals the waterproofing and rainscreen system, which involved wrapping the roof and exterior walls with a continuous rubber membrane.

Inside, prefabricated wood trusses support the roof and floors, creating a spacious appearance and eliminating the need for load-bearing walls on the main level or support jacks in the basement. Both floors have 9-foot ceilings. Another sustainable material, vertical-grain bamboo with a clear finish and hardness similar to maple, was the students' choice for floors throughout the main level.

The project was a cooperative venture of the Studio 804 class in the KU School of Architecture and Urban Design and two Kansas City, Kan., nonprofit community development organizations: City Vision Ministries (CVM) and Rosedale Development Association (RDA).

The students handled the design and construction processes. CVM and RDA paid for materials, provided site work and foundation construction, and coordinated neighborhood and municipal compliance issues with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. The house has been sold to a person who meets CVM-RDA qualification guidelines.

Rockhill set up the Studio 804 program in 1995 as a nonprofit corporation to provide hands-on training. The 2004 effort is the ninth project and sixth house built by students. The class projects have consistently earned international recognition and numerous awards. Prize monies go into the nonprofit corporation funds.

All Studio 804 participants this year are master's students in architecture. Their names, hometowns, parents' names and high schools attended (when available) are:
DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence and New Orleans, La.
Danielle Brooks; O. Perry Walker High School, New Orleans.
HARVEY COUNTY
From Newton
Hallye Chau, daughter of Lan Duong; Newton High School.
JOHNSON COUNTY
From Olathe
Michael Haas, son of Chuck and Jean Haas; Bear Creek High School, Lakewood, Colo.
From Prairie Village
Nathan Couch, son of Peggy Couch; Bishop Miege High School.
LEAVENWORTH COUNTY
From Leavenworth and Bullhead City, Ariz.
Troy Ramirez; Mohave High School, Bullhead City, Ariz.
From Leavenworth
Will Robarge, son of Ed and Janey Robarge; Leavenworth High School.
SEDGWICK COUNTY
From Wichita
Nick Owings, son of Peggy Owings; Wichita North High School.
David Parks; Wichita Northwest High School.
From Wichita and Oroville, Calif.
Wade Gardner, Oroville, Calif., son of J.W. and Peggy Gardner; Wichita Southeast High School.
ARIZONA
From Bullhead City
Troy Ramirez, Leavenworth, Kan.; Mohave High School.
CALIFORNIA
From Oroville and Wichita, Kan.
Wade Gardner, son of J.W. and Peggy Gardner, Wichita, Kan.; Wichita Southeast High School.
COLORADO
From Boulder and Montrose
Brooke Knappenberger, daughter of Linda Knappenberger, Boulder, and Clifford Knappenberger, Montrose; Broomfield High School.
CONNECTICUT
From Litchfield
Brian Finan, son of Doyle Finan; Litchfield High School.
ILLINOIS
From Barrington
Adam Gumowski, son of David and Mary Jo Gumowski; Barrington High School.
From East Dundee
Anne Painter, daughter of Tom and Marilyn Painter; Dundee-Crown High School, Carpentersville, Ill.
From Hinsdale
Tony Onesti, son of Barbara Onesti; Hinsdale Central High School.
LOUISIANA
From New Orleans and Lawrence, Kan.
Danielle Brooks, Lawrence, Kan.; O. Perry Walker High School.
MISSOURI
From Chesterfield
Gregory Keppel, son of Robert and Mary Keppel; Parkway Central High School.
From Raytown
Zach Allee; Raytown South High School.
From St. Louis
Jeff Goode; Parkway North High School.
OKLAHOMA
From Norman
Jennifer DeWitt, daughter of Donald and Beverly DeWitt; Norman High School.
TEXAS
From Dallas
Kevin Mut, son of Stuart and Marta Mut; Jesuit College Preparatory of Dallas.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Kai Raab; Col. Zadok Magruder High School, Rockville, Md.