Sponsor Spotlight: Room and Board

We've been looking for the perfect chairs to make the gravel plinth more inviting, and we finally found them! 

Thanks to our gracious sponsors at Room and Board, we are getting two Emmet Lounge Chairs! These chairs are made in America by Loll Designs. The chairs are 100 percent recycled high-density plastic, making them a perfect fit for the sustainable goals we strive for at the New Norris House. Check back soon for pictures of the chairs in use!

For more than 30 years, Room & Board has focused on the simple idea that good design should be beautiful, affordable and long-lasting. We work closely with American artisans to offer furniture and accessories-even custom pieces-that fit the needs of modern life. We're proud that more than 90 percent of the products we sell are handcrafted in the U.S. to give customers the best combination of quality and price. www.roomandboard.com

Rainwater System

Our rainwater harvesting, treatment, and distribution system was put together by the BRAE rainwater group out of North Carolina. As part of our ongoing partnership, BRAE released this promotional video a few days ago describing the rainwater system as installed in the house.

Enjoy!

BRAE Rainwater Harvesting
www.thenewnorrishouse.com

Sponsor Spotlight: Overhill Gardens

Our friends at Overhill Gardens provided the native plants in the New Norris House landscape. This Saturday Overhill Gardens is hosting an open house where you can tour their nursery and learn more about the benefits of gardening with native plants.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

There was a great turnout for the ribbon cutting ceremony and open house tours. The ceremony celebrated the last 2.5 years of hard work by students and faculty as well as the wonderful support from the local Norris community and other project contributors.


Opening remarks were made by Scott Poole, the new Dean of the College of Architecture & Design at UT Knoxville. The other speakers included:

Jimmy G. Cheek, Chancellor, UT Knoxville
Samuel Mortimer, Bachelor of Architecture '10
Loy Johnson, Council Member, City of Norris
Kevin Clayton, CEO, Clayton Homes


The distinguished speakers were joined by other project supporters for the formal ribbon cutting.


Although this event was a well deserved "job well done" for everyone involved, it also marks the beginning of the year-long residency, demonstration, and extensive energy monitoring program. As a Master of Architecture student at UT and one of the Graduate Research Assistants this year, I will be helping to monitor and interpret the collected data to see how well the home's systems are functioning. I am excited to be part of this phase of the process and I am looking forward to sharing what we learn with you. Keep checking in for weekly updates on the New Norris House.

Ribbon Cutting and Open House

I am pleased to announce the formal ribbon cutting for the New Norris House project will be next week, the afternoon of Thursday the 25th. If anyone is in the area, please mark your calenders! This event is the culmination of 2.5 years of work, and will kick off the year long live-in evaluation period.

There will be a formal opening, a few words by university administration and project partners, and of course tours of the home. In addition, a few historical Norris homes will be opening for viewing/comparison, as well as a small exhibit in the city museum.

Hope to see you all there! If you live in Norris, then we want to see you there for sure!

Monitoring Equipment

Thanks to Tony and Philip with ORNL for their all their help to setup our monitoring efforts for the house! Data is coming in and we hope to share some tidbits soon!

Open House: May 2011

This weekend our team hosted a "soft opening" of the New Norris House to celebrate the completion of major construction. There is lots more to do and details to resolve, but this event was a welcomed termination of two semesters of work by design|build studio/seminar participants.

Many parents, supporters, and community members were in attendance for this event and we look forward to hosting many more in the future.

Tuesday Tour

This morning, Professor Stuth, Valerie Friedmann, and myself were joined by a group of representatives from the Tennessee Yards and Neighborhoods program. TYN is a task force, operating through the University of Tennessee Extension Service, whose mission is to "to help communities across the state meet their landscaping needs while also helping to conserve and protect our state's water resources." Their interest in the NNH project came as a result of Valerie's inquiries about rainwater and grey water processing to the Biosystems Engineering department. Dr. Andrea Ludwig, an Ecological Engineer and recent addition to the University staff, not only led us in the right direction with designing our rainwater and grey water beds, but also wanted to take an active role in promoting our project as a prime example of how the TYN program's mission could be utilized in a residential landscape. It is true to say that we love all of the interest and expertise we can get!

Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guests included Dr. Ludwig, Beth Babbit (state coordinator for the Tennessee Master Gardener's Program/urban horticulture specialist/old friend of mine), David Vandergriff (Knox County Extension Agent for Horticulture and Urban Forestry), and Ruth Ann Hanahan (Senior Research Associate for the Water Resources Center). All four visitors were pleased with our work, our methodologies, and our ecologically-sensitive approach, and thankfully, all four had a whole lot of insight and information to share. Tricia gave an exceptional introduction to the history of the Norris community, the events that led to the creation of the New Norris House, and the design features of the home itself. Valerie then discussed the layout of the landscape, covering in detail the design philosophy, usage of water on site, and the construction methodology. I gave an overview of the planting strategies for the infiltration beds, woodland edge, and lawn areas. We definitely received four thumbs up for our hard work to date, and laid the foundation for a working relationship of project promotion and information exchange!

The Tennessee Yards and Neighborhoods website:

http://tnyardsandneighborhoods.tennessee.edu/Pages/default.aspx

Dr. Andrea Ludwig and Valerie Friedmann review the landscape

construction drawings as I gaze into the distance and contemplate

my love of Little Bluestem, bacon, and intelligent women.

Monitoring NNH Performance

We recently met with Jeff Christian (Director, Buildings Technology Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to get an expert's opinion on determining a strategy to monitor the performance of the New Norris House. We discussed some general areas of focus: temperature, humidity, energy use, daylight, and air/water quality testing. In each case, a different approach to monitoring is to be considered. Jeff was able to show us some useful examples of testing instruments, including thermocouples and thermistors, current transducers, data loggers, pyranometers, etc., but encouraged that we take a close look at our personal monitoring goals and design an instrumentation plan with the exact equipment that best suits our needs. He also extended an invitation to his lab where he could help guide us in constructing our desired testing equipment.

The level of detail that can be monitored is seemingly infinite, so part of our challenge is to pose specific questions and set attainable testing goals that will still acquire enough data for a meaningful study. While our immediate focus remains fixed on the NNH, these monitoring studies could potentially apply to a much larger scope. If we can use our comprehensive data to illustrate the superior performance of the NNH in terms of sustainability, then we can begin comparative studies with older homes in the Norris community as an incentive for homeowners to retrofit these less efficient houses with similar sustainable technology.

Reclaimed Oak Floors Going In!

Thanks to Scott and Paul at Salvage Antique! Floors are looking great.

Learn more at http://www.salvageantique.net/

Breaking Ground: Part 2

After two long days of work this weekend, the bio-retention beds in the landscape are underway. We had the benefit of several volunteers from across campus and the community, which made the tasks at hand much less daunting. (Plus the weather was phenomenal!) Arriving Saturday morning there were several tasks to be completed:

-Fill nearly 300 Deltalok bags

-Finish rough grading by hand

-Begin removal of invasive plant species at rear of site

-Dig 10" trenches to secure base course of deltalok into soil sub-grade

Filling Deltalok bags

Beginning to add up...

Rough excavation continues

Hauling dirt

Bags continue to pile...

Beginning excavation of trenches

Finalizing details before inserting bags

First bags go in place

Geo-grid reinforcement

Spike plates between each course

Backfilling between layers

At the end of the weekend, the bags have been filled and the first courses of Deltalok have been laid. This weekend we will push to complete the structural portion of the retention beds, with the intention to back fill with topsoil in the coming weeks! Many thanks again to everyone who came and helped!

Wood Floor Arrives!

Tuesday afternoon we received a load of reclaimed white oak floors from Salvage Antique, LLC. Scott Brady of Salvage Antique has been generous enough to donate the materials as well as aid in the installation of the floor in the coming week. The wood itself (originally cut down nearly 150 years ago) is quite beautiful is comes from a former barn in Kentucky. Check out the Salvage Antique website here to learn more about their product: http://www.salvageantique.net/

To finish the floors, we will be using an environmentally friendly product made by OSMO North America. Often floor finishes can be extremely high in VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and this can adversly effect the interior air quality over time. We have been fortunate enough to partner with OSMO and a specifying a floor finish that is exteremly low in VOCs. Not only will this make our building healthier to live in, but it also earns us LEED points. You can learn more about the OSMO on their website: http://www.osmona.com/

Eco-friendly paints

Paint for the walls and cabinetry has been ordered! The New Norris House team would like to thank the Sherwin-Williams Company and Rodney Bishop on Baum drive, Knoxville, for the donation of their new eco-friendly paint ProMar® 200 Zero VOC. The company is also donating the paint finishes for the cabinetry: ProClassic Waterborne and Premium Wall&Wood Primer. All products have low VOC content which satisfy LEED criteria.

Thank you again to Dwight LeClair and Rodney Bishop for making this partnership possible.

Cabinet Excursion Part Deux

The cabinet production is in full effect now!!!!!! And we couldn't be happier!

With the help of our new found friends at A&M Supply, Blum Hardware, and Columbia Forest Products, we have been able to dive pretty deep in the construction of the base cabinets. They have been great help in the process of picking material and coordination.

It is still a learning process as our lead critic Steve likes to walk by and laugh at us as we struggling to figure the details out. I 'think' we have figured out the process of construction now and the wall cabinets should come together pretty quick. Although we are slightly behind schedule, we are trying to work day and night to get them done. We barely have time to breath, little alone blog, with how hard these 'research specialist' are working us.

As I digress, we are about 90% done with the base cabinets and should start the wall cabinets within the next couple of days. Hoping to install as soon as the flooring is installed, we are trying to get them finished by the middle of next week.

So until the next time I get a Union Break.... I bid you adieu!

...a little help from our friends...

Last semester i was in the New Norris House studio, however this semester i was unable to stay with the studio team. Wanting to see the project through until my graduation, i jumped on board with the New Norris House seminar that meets less frequently and is primarily focused on the interior design and interior installation.

This semester my first task is to work with Michele (another former studio team member) on the layout and details of the tile work in the Norris House bathroom. With such a compact space, every detail around every corner must be drawn in detail to fully understand how these tiles must come together.

Today we met with Bob Brown, a tile professional, to seek advise about how to properly seal the area around the window within the shower as to avoid moisture damage. Moisture might be public enemy number one when it comes to construction, as it can wreak havoc on unseen parts of the house. Having a professional who does this everyday was very helpful to understanding how we can avoid major issues in the bathroom. He was able to give us names of products and suppliers and generally just lead us in the right direction. A special thank you goes out to him for taking time to help us out.

The meeting with Mr. Brown took place at the Norris House, which i had not seen since early January due to the limited hours of the seminar class. I was very impressed with the work the new studio team has accomplished. It was very nice to see the continuation of the work that we completed last semester look so beautiful. The drywall is impeccable, the French doors look amazing, and the house looks very nice all around. I guess the Fall 2010 team left the house in good hands. I am excited to go back in a couple weeks to see what else they have completed.

A Retro Norris House

On behalf of the interiors team I am happy to announce a new project partner: Circa 50!

Visit them at http://www.circa50.com/

Thanks, Circa 50, we are looking forward to it!