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For about two dozen students in 91��ɫ’s��, the summer will be spent directly applying what they have learned in the classroom in an unusual way. They will endure the hot weather as they construct a home that will compete in the��.

“Being able to take our knowledge from the classroom and come out and actually build something feasible and physical, I think that’s where we actually connect the dots,” says Jack Ross, a graduate student in the Burns School. “It’s one thing to read it in a book, but to actually apply it on a job site that’s a school-sponsored project, it really takes the learning experience to the next level.”

Construction of the 800-square-foot house, which also includes an 800-square-foot deck, started earlier this month in a parking lot on the 91��ɫ campus. However, the design of the home started about two years ago on the������������ܲ�.

“We are really good at engineering a design, at coming up with innovative ideas. But 91��ɫ has a special aspect of construction management experience that we don’t have at our school,” says Ruth McGee, a civil engineering student at UC Berkeley. “I think bringing in 91��ɫ has been the best thing we have done.”

A team of students from UC Berkeley was accepted into the competition in 2015. They then worked with other students, faculty, professionals and the city of Richmond, Calif. — where the house will eventually end up — on the structure’s concept. While the students are constructing only a one-floor single-family home, it is designed to have two more homes stacked on top of it. The house also features moveable walls, so the unit can transform from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom unit, depending on the needs of the occupants.