We are officially half-way through the program! This week we began our Engi 200 course and met the other people we would be working with. We all gathered bright and early at 7am on Monday and took the tram ride to the second Chalmers campus in Hammarkullen. We were led to a classroom on the seventh floor where we waited for the masters students in architecture and structural engineering to join. We had been introduced to the Dare to Build project before, but none of us had a super clear vision of what we had to do. So, we began with a much needed and informative presentation on the five different groups that would be represented in our project: woodpeckers, mushrooms, frogs, plants, and the wilderness.

Each group was tasked with creating pathway which was inspired by their part of nature. It seemed pretty simple, but when we began designing for the space we were in, it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Working with an architect and structural engineer in a group for the first time was a new and cool experience. It became apparent pretty quickly that we all had different perspectives of the project and how to approach it. But soon we began to understand the process better and worked together well. As the week went on we visited the site and started to sketch out and eventually model our plans. Designs started getting more and more concrete and I’m excited to start implementing them on Monday!

 

We were each given a pair of shoes and pants that would allow us to be safe on-site and that really started to get us excited and a little nervous about how much work we had ahead of us. On Thursday, we visited the site to put up fencing around the spot we would be working in, and carried A LOT of logs down a path to the site. It was a lot of heavy lifting and teamwork, but we got the job done. We had a safety talk about tools we would be using and then mapped out our path to conclude the day.

During our lunch break I asked one of the girls who had lived in Sweden for a while what some typical Swedish dishes were, and she told me to try the specialty pizza. Now, I’m not a particular fan of pineapple on pizza nor am I a hater, but this pizza had chicken, pineapple, and bananas. It seemed pretty crazy to me, but I couldn’t not try it, and it was actually pretty good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we had to grind out deliverables, including site plans and drawing, materials lists, and schedules. Everything was getting more and more real and the pressure was setting in. We ended our week at Hammarkullen with our daily dose of Kebab from our Kebab guy down the street; He will be missed.

On Saturday, we visited the Archipelago and jumped in freezing water. It was definitely a shock to my body and maybe not the best idea in the world, but it was definitely worth it. We took the ferry to two different islands and enjoyed being a little bit more secluded than usual.

Our week ended with us grinding out the midterm for the our cad class; with all the design and project-work going on cad was put on the back burner, but we had to dive right back in. I’m excited to get started on Monday and see how things play out.