DesignBuildBLUFF is a program for graduate students to realize architecture that nurtures the spirit and improves the lives of all who experience it.
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All projects

 

 

2011

Current Projects

 

2010

The Windcatcher House

Studio23

 

2009

WhiteHorse

 

2008

ShipShop and BathHouse

 

2007

Benally house

 

2006

Sweet Caroline

 

2005

Johnson house

 

2004

Rosie Joe house

 

2002

Kunga house

 

2001

Urban Treehouse

 

2000

Band stands

2005 Johnson house
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Design term: Sep 2004 - Dec 2004

Construction term: Jan 2005 - April 2005

Participants: 8 students

 

Johnson Photo

Client:

Johnson

  

This team’s work is music to your ears.

An influential Navajo man, friend of U.S. Senators and the like, and the first Native American to be elected county commissioner, visited the Rosie Joe house site during its construction and asked, after he’d asked about the health of Ken (Ken Sleight, upon whom Edward Abbey had adapted Seldom Seen Smith in the Monkey Wrench gang), as if we Anglos all constantly hung out, “Where are all the Navajos?” I agreed; I’ve always embraced the “teach a man to fish” concept of aid. So Brian Johnson and his family (and extended family of promised professional carpenters and other trades) were selected on that basis. We saw Brian on an occasional basis when he shuffled over in the afternoon in his slippers -- he worked the graveyard shift. A cousin of his showed up for half a day for some supervision, and that was about it.

The kids and their mother, Rebecca, were wonderful, however, and ran from the school bus straight to the site, not passing Go, and they played with us relentlessly. When the earth plastering over straw bales began, the scene became wild with enthusiasm. Some big bad thing blew the house down part way through -- this site was the windiest of them all.

Much was learned: the roof, its trusses and the carport are true innovations, as was cutting up and reattaching cheap plastic snow sleds to chute concrete mixed by hand. The family still waits for power and water - Brian wants old-fangled utility, was disappointed that we used no sheetrock, and hasn’t yet moved his family the couple hundred yards from their dilapidated shack. We scratch our heads, have great civil dialogue, but know not yet what to do.

 
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Click to enlarge

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Johnson House Photo 01

 

Johnson House Photo 03

 

Johnson House Photo 04

 

Johnson House Photo 05

 

Johnson House Photo 06

 

Johnson House Photo 07

 

Johnson House Photo 08

 

Johnson House Photo 09

 

Johnson House Photo 10

 

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