Students in Cabinetry/Millworking class were able to get hands-on experience and help a good cause by building cabinets to be installed in a Habitat for Humanity house.

"The students went to the house where the cabinets were to be installed, measured the area, researched two sources of materials and prepared a bid as a classroom project."

Ken Czarnomski created this live project as a way to help discover sustainable solutions in efforts to combat the affordable housing crisis in NC.  This modular home was built by A-B Tech Construction Management Students with lots of collaborations with other departments and community groups. 

The structure features advanced framing techniques such as super insulated box headers, earthen plaster in master bedroom, energy efficient windows, bamboo flooring, use of many recycled materials, flexible design to fit different occupant needs, and many other custom features. 

A group of teachers and parents from Vance Elementary School joined with Tony Beurskens of Artisan Builders Collective to secure grants for several cob (clay, sand, straw mix) structures in the Vance Peace Gardens at the school.  A-B Tech Carpentry students have built roofs for these structures and have also helped with the main cob storage building.

A-B Tech Carpentry students framed the roof for a cob pizza oven built by Mica Bunch and Tony Beurskens of Artisan Builders Collective at Isaac Dickson Elementary School.  The roof was later planted to become a living roof through another community collaboration (Asheville Living Roofs). 

Ken Czarnomski’s  CAR 112 and CAR 113 classes built a mock solar roof on A-B Tech’s campus which will be used by Frank Miceli’s electrical classes to practice installation of photovoltaic systems.  The roof is located behind Walker Hall on campus.

A Shiloh Community group teamed up with Bountiful Cities Project to build a community garden in the Shiloh community.  A-B Tech instructor Heath Moody has been working with Bountiful Cities for several semesters with their bird house auction/fund-raiser, and he was excited to use the pavilion as a Carpentry I class project.

 

Constructed and engineered by Carpentry students in the 2007 school year, the project actually started as a smoking pavilion since there were only limited locations designated on campus, thus the tobacco leaf motif, which celebrates tobacco as a North Carolina crop.