On-site work is already underway at 3372 Reading Road, Avondale. Anton Harfmann, UC associate professor of architecture, proposed the intensive 3- D digital modeling as a means of providing students with construction experience that would most closely parallel what will be industry standards within ten years. The digital design is almost down to the individual blades of grass on the final landscaping in terms of detail. Harfmann said the conventional construction drawing is not explicit enough. If 3-D, it only concentrates on the created spaces, not the composition of walls, floors and ceilings.
Conventional drawings leave much to the imagination and experience of the builder.
For instance, they don't include the specific contents of what a wall will be made of, how it should be assembled and its relationship to other elements of construction. That's how very common mistakes are made which then require extra time and extra materials to repair. Thus, the construction site laptop will be as common a tool for the 20 architecture students who comprise the core construction team as will hammer and nails. The architecture students are working and leading other volunteers at the site on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, completing the house in about half the time a Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity house is usually constructed and gaining valuable lessons in how design becomes reality. The project is a perfect fit for UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning which has traditionally emphasized practical work experience through cooperative education quarters, routinely sending students to work in design firms in Europe, New York, Los Angeles and all points between.