Arch 209, Spring 1974 – On construction: Student paper on the Etna Street building project

01/01/1973

Student Work, Paper

10-page student paper reflecting on the process of building the Etna Street Cottage following a construction pattern language. An attempt to formulate the aspects of the followed process which were successful and those that failed the objectives of the experiment.

Authors:

Walter V. Wendler, University of California Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Content of

Academic Course

Etna Street cottage: The students built a small house, while developing an experimental building system in which the construction patterns would be incorporated and tested 1974

University Program:

Master of Architecture

Course type:

Graduate Design Studio

Course number:

Arch. 209

Instructors:

Christopher Alexander

Enrolled students:

Donald Corner, Walter V. Wendler, Antonio Risianti, Langston Trigg, Donna Lucky, Gabriella ..., Bill …, Joan …

The assignment of the class was to test the first construction patterns, before they were incorporated in “A Pattern Language” published in 1977. It was a building experiment, at the end of which the Etna Street cottage was built, experimenting ...

References

Projects

Etna Street Cottage 1974

Etna Street, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1974

Client:

Center for Environmetal Structure

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander with his students in the 1974 Spring studio class Arch. 209, including Walter V. Wendler and Donald Corner

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure

Project cost:

$3.000

Project stages:

Pattern language for the project by C.E.S. Layout on the site No drawings were produced Users involved in the construction Innovative construction methods

Experimental building project, two-story 400 sq. ft. cottage, with a hollow wooden structure filled with concrete and featherweight concrete vaults. Completed in ten weeks, without a building permit at the back of the C.E.S. office on Etna Street, and was ...

Photographs