The Stick-Built House (In Situ)

The Stick-Built House (In Situ) A stick-built home is a wooden framed house constructed on a building site piece by piece (or stick by stick). It describes the process or how a home is built. Manufactured, modular, and prefabricated homes are not classified as stick-built, because they are made mostly in the factory, transported to the site, and then assembled. A custom home and a home made according to stock building plans may both be stick-built, provided that they are constructed board-by-board on the land where they will remain. Stick-built describes the construction method and not the design. Other names for stick-built homes include site built, hard construction, and in situ. What Is In Situ? In situ is Latin for in place or in position. It can be pronounced a number of ways, including  in-SIT-oo, in-SITCH-oo, and most correctly in-SEYE-too. Because commercial architecture is not generally made out of sticks of wood, the Latin in situ is often used to describe a process of building commercial properties or, more often, producing construction materials on site. For example, in situ concrete means cast-in-place concrete. That is, the concrete is molded and cured (i.e., cast) on the construction site, as opposed to pre-cast concrete (e.g., columns or beams made in a factory and transported to the construction site). One of the green methods used for the London 2012 summer Olympic Games was to provide a batching plant onsite, a one-source supplier of low-carbon concrete for all of the builders of Olympic Park. Concrete was mixed and poured in situ. In situ construction methods are thought to be more environmentally friendly. The main reason behind this belief is reducing the harmful effects of transporting beam after beam and pier after pier. Pros and Cons of Stick-Built Homes A common perception is that stick-built homes are better constructed, last longer, and have a better resale value than prefabricated or modular homes. This perception may or may not be true. Comparisons depend on the quality of the manufactured product versus the workmanship of a builder or carpenter. The major advantage for the home builder is in control. The contractor is in command of the materials and how they are assembled. Likewise, home owners also have certain administrative rights as they can oversee the piece-by-piece construction of their investment when its built in situ. Disadvantages: Common perceptions against stick-built homes involve time and money - that is, stick-built homes take more time to build and they cost more than house pieces built off-site and simply assembled onsite. Competitors also claim that continuous construction traffic to and from the building site makes the stick-built process less than a green building environment. These perceptions may or may not be true. Pushback From Prefabricators Stick-building is a traditional method being challenged by the marketers of modular and prefabricated methods. American Custom Builders, an independent modular home builder in Defiance, Ohio, describes why a system of prefabrication is better than stick built for these reasons: Stick built home have no controlled environment like a factory does - building outdoors in humidity and water can damage wood and cause delays. They say: A stick builder cannot control the weather....Our homes are all built indoors under a temperature controlled environment.Frame carpenters can take short-cuts youll never know about. They say: With An All American Home they use jigs to make sure the walls are straight and square.Stick-built homes take three times longer to build than prefabricated homes. They say: When the house is delivered, we will have it up in aprox. 9 hours.Homes built off-site are less expensive. They say: Will match our prices against his, any day! In Situ Architecture In situ architecture is a structure designed for a particular place, a specific environment, and a known site. Stick-built houses may be constructed onsite, but that doesnt mean that the building was designed architecturally for that land. Portland, Oregon architect Jeff Stern seeks to create architecture that is site specific....to capture the experience of a particular place; how the sunlight falls, and the rise and fall of the land....maintain and create strong views, maximize daylight and natural ventilation, and generally create a place better than when we began. The name of his architectural firm is In Situ Architecture. Resources and Further Reading BOCA Built, American Custom Builders, americancustombuilder.com/bocabuilt.htm [accessed September 8, 2015]About In Situ Architecture, insituarchitecture.net/about/ [accessed September 8, 2015]

Ten Facts About the State of Missouri

Ten Facts About the State of Missouri Population: 5,988,927 (July 2010 estimate)Capital: Jefferson CityLand Area: 68,886 square miles (178,415 sq km)Bordering States: Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and IllinoisHighest Point: Taum Sauk Mountain at 1,772 feet (540 m)Lowest Point: St. Francis River at 230 feet (70 m) Missouri is one of the 50 states of the United States and it is located in the Midwestern portion of the country. Its capital is Jefferson City but its largest city is Kansas City. Other large cities include St. Louis and Springfield. Missouri is known for its mixture of large urban areas such as these as well as its rural areas and farming culture.The state has most recently been in the news however because of a large tornado that destroyed the town of Joplin and killed over 100 people on May 22, 2011. The tornado was classified as an EF-5 (the strongest rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) and it is considered the most deadly tornado to hit the U.S. since 1950.The following is a list of ten geographic facts to know about the state of Missouri: Missouri has a long history of human settlement and archaeological evidence shows people living in the area since before 1000 C.E. The first Europeans to arrive in the region were French colonists descended from French colonists in Canada. In 1735 they founded Ste. Genevieve, the first European settlement west of the Mississippi River. The town quickly grew into an agricultural center and trade developed between it and surrounding regions.By the 1800s the French began arriving in the region of present-day Missouri from New Orleans and in 1812 they founded St. Louis as a fur trading center. This allowed St. Louis to grow quickly and become a financial center for the region. In addition in 1803 Missouri was a part of the Louisiana Purchase and it subsequently became the Missouri Territory.By 1821 the territory had grown considerably as more and more settlers began to enter the region from the Upper South. Many of them brought slaves with them and settled along the Missouri River. In 18 21 the Missouri Compromise admitted the territory into the Union as a slave state with its capital at St. Charles. In 1826 the capital was moved to Jefferson City. In 1861, the Southern states seceded from the Union but Missouri voted to remain within it but as the Civil War progressed it became divided on opinions regarding slavery and whether it should remain in the Union. The state did stay in the Union however despite a secession ordinance and its being recognized by the Confederacy in October 1861. The Civil War officially ended in 1865 and throughout the rest of the 1800s and into the early 1900s Missouris population continued to grow. In 1900 the states population was 3,106,665.Today, Missouri has a population of 6.114 Million (2017 estimate) and its two largest metropolitan areas are St. Louis and Kansas City. The 2010 population density of the state was 87.1 people per square mile (33.62 per square Kilometer). The main demographic ancestry groups of Missouri are German, Irish, English, American (people who report their ancestry as Native American or African American) and French. English is spoken by the majority of Missourians.Missouri has a diversified economy with major industries in aerospace, transportation equipment, foods, chemicals, printing, the manufacture of electrical equipment and beer production. In addition, agriculture still plays a large role in the states economy with major production of beef, soybeans, pork, dairy products, hay, corn, poultry, sorghum, cot ton, rice and eggs. Missouri is located in the mid-western United States and it shares borders with eight different states (  map). This is unique because no other U.S. state borders more than eight states.The topography of Missouri is varied. The northern parts have low rolling hills that are remnants of the  last glaciation, while there are many river bluffs along the major rivers of the state - the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec Rivers. Southern Missouri is mostly mountainous due to the Ozark Plateau, while the southeastern part of the state is low and flat because it is part of the Mississippi Rivers alluvial plain. The highest point in Missouri is Taum Sauk Mountain at 1,772 feet (540 m), while the lowest is the St. Francis River at 230 feet (70 m).The  climate of Missouri is humid continental and as such it has cold winters and hot, humid summers. Its largest city, Kansas City, has a January average low temperature of 23ËšF (-5ËšC) and a July average high of 90.5ËšF (32.5ËšC). Uns table weather and tornadoes are common in Missouri in the spring. In 2010 the U.S. Census found that Missouri was home to the  mean population center of the U.S. near the town of Plato. To learn more about Missouri, visit the states official website.ReferencesInfoplease.com. (n.d.). Missouri: History, Geography, Population, and State Facts - Infoplease.com. Retrieved from: infoplease.com/ipa/A0108234.htmlWikipedia.org. (28 May 2011). Missouri- Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri