The design portion of the studio began in January 2004 with research, a series of case studies and site visits. Preliminary designs from each student followed in the next two weeks and evolved into four group designs through reviews and class discussions. After two months of group collaboration, 16 students faced the challenge of arriving at a single design for a house and site strategy by April 1. After the final idea was reached, the following two months were spent detailing and completing working drawings before construction began at the end of May.
Before construction started, the studio received a number of donations from project sponsors ranging from structural lumber to bottled rainwaterwater that made the realization of the 2004 DESIGN > BUILD > TEXAS project possible. The entire studio began the build portion of the studio on May 25, 2004, for a two week period of site preparation and gabion construction. After the two weeks, the studio split into two building crews for each half of the summer. An unseasonbly rainy summer and a slow start to site work pushed the completion date into the fall semester.
