Thesis Question

Atoine Archie ARET-222 April 8, 2010

The Contemporary Pit House

How to incorporate traditional first-nation pit house design and structure into a contemporary single-family dwelling unit that is both cost efficient and has minimal environmental impact?

The Contemporary Pit House designation will be on the land of Kamloops Indian Band of Shuswap First Nations in BC, Canada. The Pit House of the Thompsons Region found and recorded by James Teit will be researched and be the model for the traditional Pit House. The Traditional Pit House is a semi-sub terrainean dwelling found in the late 1800’s at the BC Interior Plateau created by the Shuswap First Nations to escape the extreme Winter conditions. The significance of the Traditional Pit House is how advanced the First Nations building technology was before contact with non-first nations. The Post and Beam structure used in the Pit House is still widely used today, and the Green Roof has a growing reputation around the world. More key features are that all the materials were natural and gathered from near surroundings, and the whole community took part in construction which took less than 2 days. The Traditional Pit House has an opening at the centre of the roof to allow smoke to escape from the open fire directly below, and the floor was left as original ground. The First Nations had a very strong connection with Mother Earth spiritually and physically. The First Nations have the up most respect for the Mother Earth, anything taken from the earth something else was returned, and waste was kept to a minimum.
The major design aspects incorporated from the Traditional Pit House will be the Green Roof, semi-subterranean/underground construction, interior exposure of post and beam construction. Due to Building Code Issues the centre of the roof will have to be modified with a closed roofing system, wall and floor assemblies will also be required. The Walls are (ICF) Insulated Concrete Forms using the 45 degree angled forms to replicate the roundness of the traditional pit house. A number of Case Studies of construction details for Green Roofs will be examined to create a unique assembly that will be suitable for the site and adaptable for the post and beam structure. The flooring system is concrete slab-on-grade, which is most common and readily available, additional layering beneath consists of rigid insulation. To reduce the environmental impact of processing the cement for the concrete, “fly ash” will be used as a substitute for the cement.

The research will be critical to creating the unique and innovative contemporary design. Investigation of all the construction methods and several case studies will be used to determine the most cost effective and which methods and materials have the least environmental impact.

A conceptual drawing has been created and will be used as a reference to give an idea of what the building will look like on the inside.

Interior

Preliminary Design Drawings

Floor Plan

Academic References

-Roy, Robert. (2006).Earth-sheltered houses : How to build an affordable underground home.
Gabriola Island, B.C. : New Society Publishers.

-Boyer, Lester L. Grondzik, Walter T. (1981) 1st ed. Earth sheltered community design : energy-efficient residential development.
 New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold,

-Boas, Franz, (1858-1942) Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia

-Dawson, George M. (1849-1901). Notes on the Shuswap people of British Columbia. Royal Society of Canada.

-Nabokov, Peter. Easton, Robert. (1989). Native American Architecture. Oxford University Press.

-Morgan, William N. (2008). Earth Architecture : from ancient to modern. Gainesville : University Press of Florida.

-Cantor, Steven L. (2008) . Green Roof in Sustainable in Landscape Design. New York : W. W. Norton & Co.

-L. Goldberg, C. Lane,  (1981). The Potential of Earth Sheltered and Underground Space. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

-Al-Sanea (2002). Thermal performance of building roof elements. Building and Environment.

-Luckett, Kelly (2009). Green Roof Construction and Maintenance. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.