Construction Week 2 | Bauwoche 2

Our second week of construction is over! 

This week we screwed together and assembled the interior walls. We built the roof modules. We also attached and sealed the vapor barrier. 

We started by insulating the first, already built roof elements with seaweed. Furthermore, we assembled the next roof elements from already dimensionally accurate tied wooden beams. Round tenons and dovetail tenons were used as joints. The elements could be put together like a modular system, which made it possible for us students to assemble elements on our own. On Monday afternoon, the film team was on site and recorded the materials used and documented the working process. Over the next few days, we assembled the roof elements piece by piece, planked them on one side with diagonal cladding and insulated them with seaweed. The last thing we did was to build the module for the terrace roof. In this module, unlike the other elements, a steel beam was installed. The beam was already delivered with drillings. Through these drillings we screwed the wooden rafters. 

Furthermore, we have attached the vapor barrier, here it is especially important to do the details right. At the window openings we extended the vapor barrier with an additional piece of foil to the middle of the reveal in each case. At the joints of the foils, as with the entire project, we do not use adhesives. The sealing is made by a PE round cord, which is pressed onto the joint of the vapor barrier by a U-shaped wooden batten. 

On the facade on the north side, there were remaining areas between the windows, as no custom-made windows were used. So-called storage windows were used, which could not be built in in their original project due to measurement errors, for example. We sealed these residual areas with the vapor barrier and then insulated them. 

On Thursday, the interior walls separating the technical core from the living space were installed. The inner walls also form the outer edges of the modules. They are important for transport and assembly. To be able to attach the modules to the crane, we screwed steel plates into the walls. A threaded rod can later be screwed into these steel plates. We erected additional interior walls to divide the sanitary area into shower, toilet and washbasin. Like the exterior walls, the interior walls were built in timber frame construction and boarded with diagonal boards. 

Finally, we installed the exposed ceiling joists with HVP connectors. This connector is similar to a dovetail connector, but it is made as an aluminum built-in piece. In preparation for next week, we cleaned up the hall, swept it up, and already moved the windows to the HDU. 

After the second week, you can already walk through the rooms of the HDU and imagine what the finished project will look like one day. We can‘t wait to see the continued progress! 

Best, Julian and Jonas