Mike on site checking out a kit home.


Sample pages; subject summary


Sample pages; main body text


David presenting the research guide to community partners

  

Alternative Construction Research Guide

Partners : Small Business Administration, Mississippi State University

The Alternative Construction Research Guide is an on-going research effort by the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio.The goal of the project is to inform our various community partners about the variety of construction processes available for residential construction. By being better informed, we hope that local community builders will feel better able to judge for themselves the strengths and weakness of these different systems. As builders become more comfortable with emerging and less common construction techniques, they will be able to increase efficiencies in their projects rather then sticking with familiar systems despite performance short falls. This research project included presentations to community groups, homeowners, and municipalities.

A grant from the Small Business Administration founded the production of research binders which we provided to various volunteer builders, municipalities, banks, and other community organizations. Our research was put into broad subjects such as "panels" or 'flooring" divided by binder dividers with a summery on the subject. It is a goal of the project that these binders become a tool into which our partners will add pamphlets, print outs, or other research as they become more informed about the variety of building solutions available for residential construction.

The images below link to PDFs from the corresponding parts of the Alternative Construction Research Guide binder. The full text is also available at the bottom of the page. If you'd like to add any research documents or information to our on-going research we'd appreciate it. Please feel free to email them to scarlsen@gccds.msstate.edu.

Note: The section on elevated foundations, Chapter 5, is currently unavailable while under revision. Please check back soon for an update.

 

Click on the below images to open a a PDF on the topic.