University of Colorado   |  Junior Architecture Praxis Studio  |   Summer 2015

The Sky Hut was built as a studio class project at the Lama Foundation in Questa, New Mexico. Our class designed and built everything from the foundation to each piece of furniture within the hut, white sleeping on-site in tents for one month. The entire class participated in the final design, as well as the construction process. We were each assigned certain elements inside the hut to design. I was commissioned to design the skylight cover and the desk. The skylight cover is 4’ x 4’ and is attached to a pulley system on the ceiling that enables residents to raise and lower it easily.

 

Engraved (by CNC machine) in the wooden cover of the skylight are constellations one will see while stargazing in bed at night. The desk takes on a simple rectangular form to act as a cubby (due to size constraints), and can also fold out to be twice as wide for residents to read or write. The experience and knowledge I gained throughout this design/build project was invaluable, and it gave me a greater understanding of the design process and what it takes to construct a building.