McMurray Shelter

Hi, I'm Bennett Visser, a student at Edmonton Christian High School in Alberta, Canada going into 12th grade. This is my entry for the Make it Resilient contest. I wanted to design a habitat that was both relevant for my surroundings and also something that I would actually want to live in. I decided to tackle the harsh environment just north of where I live; Fort McMurray.

Fort McMurray is a municipality in northern Alberta that a wildfire swept through back in 2016, forcing residents to evacuate and rebuild their lives once it was over. Just this year, history nearly repeated itself as another fire endangered Fort McMurray again. Crisis was averted, though this event got me thinking. Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the 2016 fire and it nearly happened again. Its hardly sustainable to continue using up resources to rebuild. Is it possible to rethink housing in order to make life in northern Alberta sustainable?

For the designing process I used Fusion 360, and then used the following supplies for creating a physical model:

Materials

• Jumbo Popsicle Sticks (approximately 40)
• Plywood - 1/32" or 0.8 mm thick (a 6x12" piece should be more than enough)
• Acrylic - 2 mm thick
• 3D Printer + Filament - I used PLA on a printer with a 220 x 220 mm bed
• Glue - Elmer's All-Purpose was suitable for the wooden components and I used supplementary hot glue
• Thread - any sort of sewing thread would suffice
• Cardboard - not corrugated

Tools

• Masking tape
• Hobby knife
• Ruler - preferably metal
• Pencil
• Square

As mentioned previously, I chose to design a house with the area of Fort McMurray in mind. Now, it may seem more reasonable to try to prevent wildfires rather than try to survive them, but wildfires are actually an integral part of Alberta's ecosystem. Wildfires are needed to keep the certain plants in check and to help others grow. We need to find a way to coexist with the boreal forests in order to make sure that both humans and the ecosystem flourish. Therefore, the first criteria for my house was that it would have to be able to withstand a forest fire. Here are some of the other criteria I had:

• Fire Safe
• Attainable Building Materials
• Compliant with Local Requirements
• Comfortable
• Efficient and Eco-Friendly

What came to mind when mulling this over was the sod houses that I learned about back in 5th grade (hey, turned out I did use that later in life!). I remembered that these had good insulation - beneficial considering the cold climate - and effectively became a part of the landscape. This could result in a house that is less effected by a wildfire, so I decided to go down this route and design a more contemporary version of those underground houses.

Another inspiration came from the "tiny house" movement. Of course, its fun to look at these homes because of how miniature they are, but they also have the positive benefits due to their small footprint and overall impact on the environment. I decided to go down this route, targeting a square footage of less than 1,000 sq. ft. I also chose to go for a round shape, partially because it adds some interest in the structure, but also because of some benefits which we will go over later.

I wanted the build site to be near the Athabasca River so as to include access to water, however it had to be upstream since Fort McMurray is an "oil town" that introduces pollutants to the water. The Athabasca originates in the Columbia Icefields in southern Alberta, so the location I decided on is just south-west of the limits of Fort McMurray, also ensuring that the inhabitants could easily go into town for basic necessities. I used a report on the soil conditions in the area to find an area that would have suitably stable soil, and settled on this area (pictured above) because it's soil fit into the "clay loam" category and is generally preferred to build upon.

One of the first issues that I ran into while I was brainstorming was that such as house would be dark and frankly unpleasant to live in. As a result, no one would choose to live in such a shelter, meaning that its positive benefits would not be realized (not to be cynical, but people are rarely choose to change if it means a severe sacrifice to comfort). This meant that I had to incorporate some sort of way to redirect light into the house.

Above are some of the sketches I made while I was brainstorming.

I started by creating the walls for my house. Because I wanted to make this house sustainable, I eventually decided on reusing the walls of a grain bin/silo as the walls. In most cases, it is better for the environment to use materials that can be locally sourced and do not require extensive manufacturing or transportation. Since there are a lot of farms in Alberta, a grain bin could be easily found and repurposed. Moreover, I did not want to use more concrete than was necessary, since mining for aggregate causes a lot of pollution.

I began by finding the standard dimensions of grain bins. Typically, they are constructed from galvanized steel (resistant to ground moisture) with 4" tall and 1" deep corrugations. They are available in a variety of widths, including 30 ft across, which with two floors would fit within my target living space.

With that I opened up Fusion 360 and started modeling. I created a new Component, "Walls", and began modeling. I created the sketch pictured above of 4" long and 1" deep corrugations with the Arc tool, distanced 4526 mm on center away from the origin point of the design (not exactly 15ft, but the actual dimensions I found for a grain bin model). The metal is 9 gauge, or approximately 3.6 mm thick. I then used the Rectangular Pattern tool to continue these corrugations a distance of just over 8 m, which I could cut down once I knew the exact height of the inner framing.

I Revolved this sketch 360° around the Z-axis and then used the Split Body tool to divide the walls along the XZ plane so that I could easily access the inside while I was modeling.

Note: Since I am using standard construction materials in my design, there were a lot of components that originally had imperial unit dimensions. In most cases I use the original dimensions when discussing components but then converted these to metric for consistency within the design.

Now that I had established the biggest design constraint, that is the grain bin walls, I could start forming the rest of the house around it. I began with the footing.

Though the house is small, it's diameter is wider than is allowable for a span of floor joists. Therefore, it is necessary to have loadbearing structure bisecting the house to shorten the span of the floor joists.

I used the National Building Code as a starting point for the size of the foundation. It stipulates that strip footings supporting 2 floors should be at least 350 mm thick. I rounded this up to 400 mm thick for the outside section for an extra margin of safety and kept the middle section at 350. Since the house reaches quite far below the frost line - that is, the depth at which ground will freeze in winter and then thaw, causing stability issues - there is not much concern for issues with the soil settling.

It was also necessary to add a large pad in the middle to support the column that I wanted to include from some of my brainstorming sketches (to be added later, the sketch could be adjusted when the pillar was established). I then extruded this profile -200 mm.

The connection between the walls and the foundation would be sealed with liquid rubber, as is commonly used to seal grain bins.

Next, I modeled the sill plate on then the header joists on top. But first, a brief explanation of wooden construction:

Wooden frame construction is the method employed for most every home you will encounter. There are a few main components that are common across the board.

• Studs - more likely than not, if you have tried to mount something to a wall you have encountered studs. These are vertical beams that form the walls of houses. Studs also provide a backing for the drywall.
• Joists - joists are pretty much solid beams that support the floor or roof. Joists are usually laid out evenly spaced, parallel to each other.
• Plates - plates are used to sort of tie the whole frame together. These flat pieces of wood provide both a base for subsequent layers and also a way to hold walls together.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled instructions.

I opted for a wooden frame for similar reasons that I repurposed a grain bin; pine is readily available in the area and would not require excessive shipping and is a renewable resource that can be responsibly consumed. These houses also have great potential when it comes to Additionally, there are workers that are already skilled in this area, making this design more feasible.

At this point I decided to use 2x4 studs for the walls. The ground is not an especially great insulator, but the amount of ground between the walls and the air mean that less volume of insulation is needed, so walls could be thinner. I started a sketch on the XY plane and used the Rectangle tool to make a 1.5 x 3.5" rectangle, the actual dimensions of a 2x4 (that's 38.1 x 88.9 mm). I then made two circles originating on the center point of the design, the larger one coincident with the innermost point of the grain bin walls. Once that was done I made two points of the rectangle (the corners of the 1.5" side farthest from the center) coincident with the larger circle. Finally, I used the Tangent constraint to connect the inner circle to the inner 1.5" side of the rectangle.

It is necessary to do this because the bottom plate that the studs attach to will be the same width. This way, the corners of the studs will not stick out and will fit within the grain bin.

I sketched a center sill plate as well, this one 5.5" wide. The National Building Code dictates that floor joists need an end bearing of at least 38 mm, so I increased the width of the center sill plate so that floor joists on both sides of the bisection could rest on it. The next size up in lumber is 2x6", so I used that.

So as to keep the center and outer sill plates separate, I extruded them individually 1.5".

Next, the header joists needed to be formed. The header is a plate that is perpendicular to the sill plate and provides another face for floor joists to be fastened to.

I mapped this sketch to the top face of the sill plate, offsetting the outer circle by 1.5" /38.1 mm. Lumber is readily available in limited sizes, so I added two lines originating from the center point, spaced 45° apart so that the extrusion was a realistic size. A header also needed to be added onto the bisecting sill, this one also 1.5" wide and centered on the plate below.

Once again, I extruded the two headers separately at 9.5" tall, but I also used the Circular Pattern tool to replicate the single header joist around the circumference of the house. As you can see, these joists are rounded, and lumber doesn't really work that way. Therefore, upon research, I decided that this would be made possible using steam bending.

Now it was time to introduce the floor joists, which are the beams that support the floors of the house. I opted to use 2x10" joists to try and keep the home relatively vertically compact and leave space for higher ceilings in an effort to keep the house feeling more open.

In a sketch on the top face of the sill plate I made a rectangle with the dimensions 4526x38.1 mm with the long side originating from and perpendicular to the bisection. Spacing it 200 mm on center from the Y axis, I created a rectangular patter to replicate the first joist 22 times. In order to do this, I selected "Spacing" for the distribution method and entered a value of 400 mm and chose the "Symmetric" option. I then projected the header joists onto the sketch so as to make the profiles of the floor joists fit within.

After that, the joists could be extruded 9.5" and mirrored across the XZ plane. I created a group for the bodies created just to keep things nice and tidy in the browser drop down.

Finally, I added some blocking to the joists that would provide support for the floor later by sketching a 1.5" rectangle in between the joists distanced 2438.4 mm on center from X-axis. I repeated this profile so that it would be in between all of the joists.

Concrete anchors are used to fasten wooden frames to the footing. Once again, I differed to the building code and found that 12.7 mm wide anchors spaced roughly 2 meters apart would be sufficient. Generally, more anchorage is needed in areas prone to seismic activity. In this case, the limiting factor was ensuring that the anchors were evenly spaced without butting up against the joists. I messed around with a sketch, creating a circular pattern of points to figure out how I could arrange the anchors. 14 anchors ended up being the ticket, resulting in the sketch above, including evenly spaced points in the middle section.

Then I opened up McMaster-Carr and found a suitable wedge anchor that met the required depth of at least 100 mm. I mapped appropriately sized holes, which meant making them slightly deeper than the anchors to accommodate for the sliding action used to engage the "wedge" of the anchor. After that, I could insert the McMaster-Carr component as a STEP file and fit it to the holes using pattern tools.

In order to create the subfloor I started a sketch on the top face of the joists. Standard size for the type of plywood used in such a scenario is 4x8 ft., so I decided to sketch two rectangles with these dimensions that I could reproduce in a pattern later. Note that I created two 4x8 ft. (2438.4x1219.2 mm) rectangles that were distanced 609.6 mm - half of the width of the sheets - so that when I created the pattern the rows would be offset and fit within the house's form better.

After extruding the sketch 5/8", I made a rectangular pattern of each body in order to cover the entire floor. Then, in order to cut the subfloor down to size, I quickly made a sketch of two circles, the inside one with a width of 9052 mm, and the outside one 2000 mm offset from that. Then I could extrude said sketch, cutting the subfloor into a circular shape.

At this point it was time to actually incorporate the frame of the walls, so I started with making the bottom plates by extruding the sketch I made earlier for the sill plate. I set the "Start" as "Object" and selected the subfloor to be the origin of the extrusion. I had to offset the faces of the center plate by -1" so that it would be the same width as the studs.

In order to make the studs I simply extruded the rectangle that I used back in step 4 to establish the width of the sill plate. Once again, I made the extrusion originate from the top of the subfloor, this time imputing a value of 2400 mm for the extruded height. Because I wanted the house to be comfortable and not feel claustrophobic, I made the ceilings relatively high to give an open feeling.

Then, I made a circular pattern, repeating the stud 94 times around the Z axis. This results in studs that are spaced roughly 300 mm on center. This is a smaller spacing value then is typical in order to compensate for the thinner walls.

Afterwards, starting a new sketch on the middle bottom plate, I made another rectangle, this one 1.5" wide and its corners coincident with the corners of the plate. I created the pattern within the Sketch environment, replicating the rectangle with a spacing of 300 mm on center. I made the pattern go up until the middle, leaving some space for the central column to be added. Then, after mirroring the resulting patter across YZ plane, the center studs could be extruded 2400 mm as well.

The final step was to extrude the sill plate sketch once more, originating from the top of the studs. This part is called the top plate and completes the wall unit.

In between the studs, walls would be filled with insulation. I decided on using cotton batting, which is available as a form of house insulation. It is typically made from shredded up denim clothing, so it is another way in which discarded clothing can be reused.

With that, the basic structure of the first floor was complete and I could begin adding some finishing touches.

First, I added blocking to all of the studs. While not absolutely necessary, it is good practice as it prevents buckling in the studs. I designed these by creating a midplane in the center of the studs and sketching out the profile of a 2x4 in order to be extruded.

It was also important to include a slab of wood to the back of the studs that were on the book ends of the center wall. As mentioned before, studs are used to provide backing for drywall and if you do not have wood behind drywall in a corner it can be potentially pushed in and damaged. Typical practice is to form a "T" such as the one above, though this practice results in a void behind that cannot be reached by insulation. One solution is to back the intersecting stud with a wider slab of wood (e.g. a 1x6"). This solution is more advantageous for the rounded nature of my design, too.

Once I had finished the main frame of the first floor I got to work on the second. This was significantly more simple as I could reuse most of the bodies from the first floor. I made a new Component and started by using the Offset Plane tool in order to create a new plane on the top of the first floor to serve as the origin for the second floor. I began with a sketch on it.

This sketch was the exact same as the sketch that was made for the sill plate previously except for the fact that the center plate extended all the way to the perimeter of the walls. This is done so that the walls are connected to each other. I extruded the profiles individually so that they would stay as separate parts. Each was 1.5" tall.

Following this, all I had to do was duplicate the bodies of the first floor and position them on top of the plate I had just made. And viola! The second floor was (sort of) done!

The only part left to complete was the roof. This was how I was going to allow light to come in despite the subterranean nature of the house. Originally I wanted to figure out some way to redirect light into a central prism of sorts that would diffuse the light throughout the house. I used a light simulator to test different options. However, there were several barriers getting in the way of this working:

1. I wondered if it would work to make tubes out of mirroring materials that would receive light from windows in the roof and reflect light down their length. This would work in theory, however, due to the circular nature of my design, any sort of tube would have to take on a converging shape to fit (like a bunch of pizza slices). However, this would not function as light would just reflect out of the tube. The tube would have to be perfectly straight, limiting the possible size of window. Fig. 1
2. While I did manage to find a configuration of mirrors that would reflect sunlight coming from any possible angle into a prism (such as the one above), this only worked when light was coming in from one window. Sunlight could still be reflected out another window. Fig. 2
3. I could've motorized a mirror that tracked the sun and directly reflected light into the prism, but this would've had its own set of problems. Because of the sod roof design, the amount of light that could reach this mirror would be limited. Also, I wanted to avoid electronics in this section of the house because they would require maintenance and would be hard to reach.

I eventually decided that I was holding on to a concept that just wasn't going to be effective, so I changed gears. I decided to incorporate skylights into the roof. This way the majority of the structure was still protected from fire in the ground and I could design fire-safe windows. I still wanted to incorporate a pillar as it would provide a central point of interest in the overall design, so I decided to go for a structural pillar that helped support the roof. And with that, I got cracking on the CAD.

After creating a new component, I started the pillar with a sketch on the face of the footing. I created a 12 sided polygon with the Circumscribed Polygon tool. I set the radius 370 mm and then added two lines, creating a triangle with one of the sides of the polygon originating in the middle. I extruded the triangle a distance of 5900 mm and replicated it with a circular pattern, creating a full column with 12 faces. I kept the pieces separate since that is how they would be in the construction process. Cutting down a tree large enough to cut into such a column would be 1. Hard to transport and, 2. Harmful to ecosystems.

In order to connect the pieces of the column together I created a bunch of pegs that would be inserted into each piece so as to keep the parts of the column from moving in relation to each other. Then I created a sheet metal part by making a 279.4 mm tall flange of 2mm thick steel around the end profile of the column. I then replicated this band multiple times along the length of the column, specifically where they would be hidden within the floor.

Typically, rafters are arranged in a triangular pattern, resting against a ridge beam down the center. However, I had to rethink my method of creating the roof. The main limiting factor was the windows. The round shape of my house was partially meant so that an even amount of sunlight touched the house at all times, but for the benefits to come to fruition there also needed to be windows evenly spaced around the house.

In Fort McMurray, the sun altitude ranges from 0-60°. The optimal angle of the window for catching light for as long throughout the day was perpendicular to the average altitude of the sun; 30°. This meant that the outside face of the roof had to be at this angle as well. With that in mind I went for more of a hybrid design, making the outside part of the roof more like a wall and the inside bearing most of the weight. This resulted in the profile depicted above, which as a side benefit also created a nice profile for a vaulted ceiling that contributed towards a more open feeling home.

I made a sketch of both rafters, the inner ones being 2x10s (1.5x9.5") and the outer ones being 2x6s (1.5x5.5"). Additionally, I incorporated the profile of the ridge beam in between them, its corners coincident with the edges of the rafters. After making the rafter sketch into solid bodies I duplicated them with a circular pattern; 36 inner rafters and 48 outer rafters.

The ridge beam serves the purpose of keeping the rafters in place. All I had to do was revolve the ridge beam profile from the previous step. I revolved the profile 90° so that it would not be longer than any available lumber (this part would be bent like the header joists). After replicating the body around the center point of the house I began working on a sheet metal part to hold lumber together.

"Ties" are commonly used to splice lumber together. They are simply sheets of metal with holes in them that nails can be driven through. I designed mine by creating a 2 mm sheet metal flange around the profile of the ridge beam. After that I used the "Unfold" tool to make it a flat part that I could cut holes for the nails into. Then I refolded the part to shape. I did so for both the inside and outside ties. I replicated the ties at each joist between the ridge beam parts.

In order to make the windows fireproof I took two measures:

I went for a double pane design for the window. Not only is this more energy efficient and keeps heat in better, this also ensures that if one does break in the event of a fire, there is a fall back, sort of like ablative armor. The panes are to be made out of tempered glass - while still able to shatter, tempered glass has a higher tolerance for uneven heating which would make ordinary glass explode. Basically, the uneven heating of a fire would make different parts expand at different rates, making highly brittle glass break.

The other measure that I took was to design a hinged, insulative cover that, in the event of a fire, could be used to shield the windows. I chose to make the hinge a rolling joint. This allows for thicker material to be used, material that would not warp and become stuck as normal door hinges do. As an added benefit, the hinger covers also provide a way for the sun to be blocked. In Fort McMurray, summertime means that the sun does not set until 11:20 and rises at 4:30. Most people find that it unpleasant. The covers allow for light to be blocked out or it can be set so that direct light does not enter at certain times of the day by closing windows that are pointed towards directions where the sun is at during particular times of the day.

Once I had created a frame for the window, which involved making a header and sill that it could rest on and doubling up the adjacent rafters, I started working on the actual window. Once in the "Sheet Metal" workbench I drew up a sketch that was to be the profile for the metal frame that the window panes would sit in. After creating a flange with a length of 1005 mm I gave it beveled edges so that I could make four more copies of it and complete the frame.

The next part to add was the seal. Made out of silicone due to its heat resistance (the highest of comparable rubbers). For this I simply made the sketch, which had slots 4 mm wide to accommodate the panes, and then used the "Sweep" tool to make it fit in the profile of the metal frame. Then I added the panes, each a meter squared in dimension.

For the rolling joint I decided that steel tubing 50 mm in diameter would be perfect as it's extra beef would add some distance between the window pane and any potential fire. I added an outer box 70 mm deep so that the joint could be mounted to it. Using the "Revolve" tool, I created the tubing tangent to the outer face of the box, along with grooves (which would be added via a lathe) in which wire could be rest. Next, I added the rolling component which consisted of more pipe as well as caps on the end that would allow for the cover material to be attached. I left a tolerance of 0.2 mm for free movement. Then I designed a body to fill in the place of where the wire would go, including screws as a way to fasten them. The joint would be controlled via a Bowden cable from the inside.

The cover material would be made out of an insulative material. In my research I found materials that would work perfect, such as carbon-carbon, space-age materials that are lightweight and are fantastic insulators. However, these are generally quite expensive, so what I settled on was more commercially available materials. There are ceramic based fibrous insulation that can withstand very high temperatures such as alumina fiber. This material this would be significantly more economical and would be lightweight and easy to move. It would have to be placed inside of a shell to keep it dry, made of a material such as aluminum.

With all of the main components completed I added some smaller details to wrap up the roof section.

In order to be fastened to the pillar and to the ridge beam, the inner rafters needed some from of hanger, such as the one pictured above. For the pillar I simply bent out tabs from the metal band that I made earlier for the purpose of holding the pillar together. The tabs could then be drilled so that nails could driven into the rafters, holding them in place. Similarly, with the flange feature I constructed a hanger for holding the the rafters in place on the ridge beam.

To cover up the outside I added some plywood sheathing, which would be radiused to fit. A clay-based stucco would be used to cover this. Not only does stucco have a nice, natural look that would complement the sod roof, it is also quite resistant to fire.

And finally, I had finished the structure of my design.

After that was complete, I was able to make the frame look more like a house. I made drywall for all of the walls. Suitably thin drywall can be radiused, as is needed for the outside walls of my house. Speaking of walls, I added some more walls to the two levels, assigning purposes to rooms. I also added a doorways to where necessary, consisting of jack studs and headers. This includes a front entrance. The house would be on a slight rise in order to avoid pooling water, and so the entrance would lead to a path going straight through the side of the small hill. Additionally, I had yet to add a way of moving between floors, so I created a ladder, which would help take up less space.

To complete the look, I used the "Appearance" feature of Fusion 360 to make everything look more real.

To finish off this project, I made a physical model of my house. I chose to do 1/25 scale since it conveniently made popsicle sticks the perfect thickness to be lumber. Additionally, any smaller scale would've meant that the pieces would've been too small to make. I chose to make it a cutaway model, since I thought this would provide a more interesting way to look at it.

I began by cutting up popsicle sticks into the appropriate sizes, scaled down from all of the lumber used in the project. This was easiest to do with a hobby knife and a metal ruler. It was helpful that at this scale an an inch converts very nearly to a mm (the conversion of mm to inches is by a factor of 25.4).

For the plates I decided to test the method that I thought would be most appropriate to use in real life. Using a stencil I 3D printed, I cut pieces of 0.8 mm thick plywood, making them an eighth of a whole circle. Then, I assembled them together using All-Purpose glue, overlapping the smaller pieces of plywood so that they formed an entire plate. I tapped them together and let them dry. Plywood would be necessary to use because it could be cut into rounded pieces, and plywood is already just strips of wood glued together so the plates would effectively become one large piece of plywood.

Once the glue had dried I started making the walls, hot gluing the popsicle studs in between two plates. I used hot glue so that I could quickly position them and not waste time accidently jogging drying pieces.

There were several parts that I 3D printed due to their complex shape; the outer wall, the footing, the window frame, and the pillar were all 3D printed. I used raft as build plate adhesion to try and prevent warping as much as possible.

In order to make the header joists I took popsicle pieces that I had cut in order to be mini 2x10s. I placed them in boiling water for 20 minutes and then placed them in a for I had created by inserting nails into a scrap piece of wood. I did the same process to bend the ridge beam. After letting the bent pieces dry, I could begin assembling:

1. I used hot glue to attach the first plate to the foundation. Hot glue provided the best bond because it slightly melted the 3D printed plastic and held better.
2. Using a square to ensure that it was perpendicular, I used hot glue to attach the pillar to the foundation.
3. Using All-Purpose glue I put the header joists into place, cutting them down to size where necessary so that they fit together well. I taped them down and then put the floor joists into place.
4. Next I cut out a piece of cardboard to the shape of the floor and placed it down on the joists.
5. Once all of that was dry I was able to put the wall that I had made earlier. Using All-Purpose glue I fastened it down to the subfloor, taping it to make sure it stayed aligned.
6. I repeated step 2, 3, and 4 to make the second floor.
7. I glued the outermost rafters to the ridge beam, ensuring that they were at the right angle in relation to each other. Then I glued the rafters to the pillar and the top of the wall and began filling in the rest of the rafters in between the outermost ones.
8. Using some craft foam as simulation drywall, I covered all of the studs. This was best done with hot glue.
9. Finally, I could put the window into place. I had strung it up to test out the rolling joist, which worked well. Framing it in the proper wooden pieces, I put it into its proper place and covered it with cardboard as the wall.

All finished!

At first I thought that this house would be all about surviving wildfires, but I found out that there were several ways in which the house I made was advantageous. Because it is underground it is actually more energy efficient than above ground homes. Not only that, but the window mechanism I designed also meant that people could more easily decide how they wanted to light their homes, which is especially valuable in northern lands where summer days a very long.

I think that one of the key things that I learned is that when we don't put purpose into our infrastructure it becomes a bit of a missed opportunity. Through my research I found so many ways in which homes can be made more efficient (even in small ways i.e. framing techniques such as "T-wall"), but often we don't embrace more positive options because of barriers such as more time or higher cost. I think the biggest takeaway was that if we designed all of our houses with the purpose of making change, we would be live in a better place where homes are burnt down and storms don't destroy livelihoods. And when we don't have to spend time rebuilding, we can spend more time helping others and working towards a better future.

Thanks!