Living green: Students to build house of straw
10/16/2009
Environmental sustainability at Pitt State is a big thing. From the efforts of the university to make changes like constructing "green" parking lots to the work of the employee-driven University Committee for Energy and Resource Conservation, the drive to become more environmentally friendly is now making its way into the classroom.
In conjunction with National Campus Sustainability Day, recognized Wednesday, Oct. 21, the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, along with the Department of Construction Management and Construction Engineering Technology, will work with well-known environmentalist "Big" John Lipscomb to build an entire house out of hay bales.
The house-raising will take place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in the west courtyard of the Kansas Technology Center. The build will take approximately six hours.
Denise Bertoncino, associate professor in FCS, said that with all the green education going on in the classroom today, the project is the perfect hands-on application of what students are learning.
"Right now, green is the big issue. We came up with this project after thinking about where we're going in the world," said Bertoncino, who discovered Lipscomb and his work earlier this year. An expert in green construction and living, Lipscomb lives in and constructs homes built of hay bales, just part of his broad focus on natural living. He lived for eight years in the rugged mountains of Montana with his family in a straw house before relocating to southeast Kansas.
The hay bale home, which will be complete with a door and window as well as a stucco exterior, will consist of 60 bales and will be on display for the next year at the technology center.
The theme of using alternative building methods is not only important to future designers, but to future builders, as well. Several instructors in the CMCET department completed their LEED certifications this year and have been implementing green construction techniques into their curriculum.
For more information on the build, contact Bertoncino at 620-235-4458.
---Pitt State---
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