Sweat Lodge Winter Studio 2014
Due to their resilience while threatened by a blizzard, students successfully designed, fabricated, and constructed a seven-person sweat lodge over the course of three-and-a-half days. As students constructed the lodge on a mountain of snow, nasty weather didn’t slow down the fast-paced, all-hands-in collaborative design and construction process. The project focused on the design, fabrication, and construction of a sweat lodge using stainless steel and cedar planks on a 300 acre farm, adjacent to a 1860s farm house. Through design and work sessions, focused discussions, and technical sessions with metal fabricators as well as craftsmen, the assignment intended to spark new life into the old house and nearby apple orchard. The farmers also wanted a structure that was visible from the road and reverent to the surrounding fields. Although the area is predominantly farmland, the sweat lodge seeks to enhance an emerging relationship with secondary user groups such as those involved in the arts, providing an opportunity to connect their interests with an unlikely context.
Project Team: Christin Hu, Michael McDowell, Solomon Oh, Stephanie Vito, Lavender Tessmer, Joseph Vidich, Tim Brewster, William Haskas, Rigidized Metals, Special thanks to Jason Schindler
