university of oregon student team project

Pioneer Pacific Camp is a nonprofit children's camp on Thetis Island off the coast of British Columbia in Canada. Design work took place in the winter, prefabrication of building components started in April, and, after the pieces were shipped to Canada, the buildings were assembled in June and July.



The site for the project is a sunny hillside sloping down to the sea and wooded with oak, madrone, and fir. Each building consists of two main assemblies: a heavy-timber-frame, moment-resisting substructure built up off the hillside on individual poured-concrete footings and a delicate tent-like cabin with exterior deck.



The design of the heavy-timber substructure is derived from medieval Japanese temple construction and utilizes massive interlocking wedged connections to provide stiffness at the joints in the frame. The exterior deck is built of precast concrete planks, which have an etched surface, resulting in a lovely sandstone-like finish. The cabins themselves are lighter and more finely finished with carefully detailed wooden half-walls, opening canvas upper walls, and canvas roofs. Inside, the soft light filtering through the translucent canvas, the golden-colored cedar, and the patterns and detailing give the building an almost tea-house-like feeling.
The project was a great success; the camp has been provided with two beautiful new cabins and already the young people using them have reported their appreciation of the work.







DIRECTION: Professor Stephen Duff
CONSTRUCTION: Forty-five students from the University of Oregon built these two canvas-roofed sleeping cabins.





PROJECT: Thetis Island Cabins, 1996
LOCATION: thetis island, british columbia
CLIENT: Pioneer Pacifc Camp
PUBLICATION: Duff, Stephen. A&AA Review, U.Oregon. "Three Design-Build Studios Offered Unique Learning Experiences This Summer" v.XV, No.1. Fall 1996, p.[cover], 5.