Nearly the entire Whole Trees crew was on site in Fairfield Iowa last week for the raising of the main timber frame structure at Maharishi University. The process went amazingly well – the clear weather lasted just about exactly as long as needed (and not a bit more). The guys all had a tremendous time and Roald led a very popular workshop over the weekend to indoctrinate more eager students to the cause of Whole Tree construction. Without further ado – here are some of the construction photos:
It was a very different feeling to be unloading the truck with a crane!
We assemble each timber frame “bent” on little rolling dollies which makes it easy to move it into position before it is raised into its upright position.
Since the rest of the building will go up right around our timber frame structure (and eventually tie into it structurally) we have it all braced up with scrap lumber for the moment. That way the guys on the construction site don’t have to worry about tipping in the mean time.
Once two bents are up the feeling of the space begins to emerge.
At the center of the building the hallway widens out into a “Brahmistan” space.
Once we got all the elements bolted together it was ready to stand on its own … and hold up the rest of the building as well.
Finally, here are some detail shots from the connections. Whole tree elements can come together very beautifully, even when they are a simple structural framework of columns and beams – we always remember craft.
