The built detail (left) and the reconstructed detail (right)

KieranTimberlake constructed a full scale critical detail of Loblolly House in our Philadelphia shop, now on display at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's National Design Triennial, Why Design Now? exhibition, on view from May 14-January 9, 2011.

The Loblolly House was built in just six weeks in 2006, inaugurating a novel approach to building off-site using integrated component assemblies that are factory built and assembled together on-site. In the same way that an anatomical section provides insight into the body, this critical detail offers a view of the house's physical properties beyond what can be learned from drawings or photographs.

Measuring 4 x 6 x 11 feet and weighing approximately 1000 lbs, the Loblolly House detail contains the aluminum frame and steel connectors that support the building, a section of the fully integrated floor and ceiling cartridges containing radiant heating, micro-ducted cooling, ventilation, and power, glass and metal floor components, and wall cartridges with integrated windows, interior birch ply finishes and exterior cedar rain screen cladding.

The detail assembly followed roughly the same sequence as Loblolly House, beginning by erecting the aluminum frame and bolting the other components to it. To ensure that this building fragment could be freestanding at the Cooper-Hewitt, the vertical systems, specifically the roof cartridges and roof framing, needed to function nearly unsupported while some of the loads are transferred through the window units. This was achieved with special fastening brackets to support the framing and by connecting the vertical systems together so they would act as a single unit.

The critical detail was assembled in our shop, disassembled, shipped and re-assembled at the museum. This allowed us to re-engage the design for disassembly principle central to the Loblolly House.

The framing is laid out and prepared for assembly.

The floor unit includes a painted steel plate attached to the central support post.

The remaining sections of floor framing are attached and the assembly is tilted up.

After installing the roof support framing, the roof cartridges are lowered into place.

The wall panel is tilted up and fitted into the structural framing.

The casement window is installed into the wall cartridge.

The fixed window unit is installed and the smaller roof cartridge is lowered into place.

The floor cartridges and glass floor are installed.

Punch listing the nearly completed assembly.

Materials for the model were generously provided by Bensonwood, Loewen, Innovative Building Products, Inc., Artistic Doors and Windows, Inc., and Bill Curran Design, with structural engineering consultation provided by CVM Engineers.