An old-fashioned house-raising is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 9, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., when a research and demonstration house will be built on the Mississippi State University campus.
The house, located on Blackjack Road in Starkville, is a cooperative project involving several MSU units, including the departments of forest products, civil engineering, landscape architecture, and the School of Architecture. The MSU units are working in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory.
"This Saturday, we plan on closing the house in by finishing the walls and putting the ceiling joists and roof rafters in place," said David Lewis, architecture professor.
Students in forest products, forestry, wildlife and fisheries, architecture, engineering and landscape architecture will be on-site to participate in the construction process.
"When the Southern Climatic Research Team was formed, our goal was to demonstrate how the various disciplines could come together to solve climate-related housing construction problems endemic to the Deep South," Lewis explained. Now the students are seeing this firsthand through this project, he added.
The Southern climate offers many challenges, including high heat, humidity, decay fungi, mold, high-wind events, and a variety of insects that includes beetles and termites.
"The idea is to make sure newly constructed homes in this part of the country have a chance of surviving to a ripe old age," said Terry Amburgey, forest products professor. "What we are trying to do is intelligently look at the climate we're dealing with and determine what works and what doesn't work."
The house is being constructed from funds obtained through the Herrin Foundation and Osmose Co. Material donations also have been received from Shuqualak Lumber Co., J.F. Day and Sons, Trim Joist, Arch Chemicals, Pella Corp., Louisiana Pacific Corp., VOBB Concrete Blocks, and Anderson-Tully Company.
