Play Frame

Personal project

Fall 2024

After six years of architecture school, working on assignments during nights and weekends, I promised my kids I would build them a tree house after graduation to make up for the lost time together. After surveying the backyard and not feeling confortable with any of the trees, we decided to build an a-frame playhouse instead.

The structure is composed of a floating deck on concrete piers, with a pressure-treated half-lap-joined timber frame supporting a semi-transparent polycarbonate roof membrane. Stone slabs will be installed as a transition step between the deck and the grass next spring when the weather warms up.

The project was also an opportunity to round out my education with some practical experience in project management, budgeting, permitting, and construction. I built the project as I did with other academic projects, over nights and weekends, but this time with the interspersed help of my wife, kids, brother and father.

I couldn't have chosen a better client for my first architectural project than my two children.

Play Frame Intro
Full Bleed
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
An overhead tree casts a summer-time shadow across the corrugated roof
A closeup on the wood joinery supporting the roof, dappled with raindrops The roof hangs overhead, with tree branches whose leaves have been lost for the winter hanging further overhead A girl sits on a chair, sheltered from the leaves in the fall A view through the space between the rafters and collar ties, from one end of the structure to the other
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
Full Bleed
An overhead tree casts a summer-time shadow across the corrugated roof
Snow clings to the corrugated roof, with patches of snow which have fallen off from their own weight, forming interesting patterns
Full Bleed
Intro

Next project:

Put Away House

Advised by Penelope Dean and Grant Gibson

Fall 2022