mcdowellespinosa architects

The Stack Shack was part of a series of Design/Build projects that investigated the improvisational methods of construction common in the rural American South. The design and process are inspired by the agrarian structures that are built and mended with local materials at hand. The material for the constructed shed was recycled from a nearby corn crib that had begun to collapse. The corn crib was carefully disassembled, documented, re-milled, and reconstructed.  Yet for the reconstruction, the frame and cladding are treated as bricks and stacked, forming load-bearing walls at the parameter.  Openings were created in the stacking process to allow for natural ventilation.  The new shed functions as a tool and storage shed. 

Very few drawings were created for the project. Instead strategies were created to allow design to occur during construction. All material used was reclaimed from abandoned, local structures. The Stack Shack is simultaneously a ruin and a new construction. It sits in the pastoral landscape like an English folly.