What do pizza boxes, a canceled wedding, and a community hand raising have in common? This backyard pavilion in Oregon. For homeowners Matt & Laura, 2020 was rough. Both work in the front-line medical industry and their dream wedding was looking less and less likely to ever happen. The couple decided that they would turn tradition around, forgoing a traditional one-time wedding ceremony and instead spending what would have been their wedding fund on a outdoor timber frame pavilion they could enjoy with their friends and family for many years to come.
At first, they used empty pizza boxes laid out on the ground to envision their ideas for the space, eventually deciding on a layout for their timber pavilion that included an outdoor pizza oven and Argentine grill, among other amenities. When it came time to hand raise the timber frame, they emailed thirty or so friends and neighbors who all came out to help. The result is a dynamic communal space right in their own back yard. “We really wanted to create a community space in our own backyard. All of our neighbors pitched in at different points, whether it was on raising day, or the neighbor who fabricated the grill that is part of the outdoor kitchen, even some of the contractors that came through the project are now lifelong friends of ours.
Long term we see this pavilion being a space to gather and form those social bonds.” -Matt & Laura, Homeowners Architect: New Energy Works Builder: New Energy Works Photography: Noel Adams (Raising) Photography: Chris Murray (Final)
What do pizza boxes, a canceled wedding, and a community hand raising have in common? This backyard pavilion in Oregon. For homeowners Matt & Laura, 2020 was rough. Both work in the front-line medical industry and their dream wedding was looking less and less likely to ever happen. The couple decided that they would turn tradition around, forgoing a traditional one-time wedding ceremony and instead spending what would have been their wedding fund on a outdoor timber frame pavilion they could enjoy with their friends and family for many years to come.
At first, they used empty pizza boxes laid out on the ground to envision their ideas for the space, eventually deciding on a layout for their timber pavilion that included an outdoor pizza oven and Argentine grill, among other amenities. When it came time to hand raise the timber frame, they emailed thirty or so friends and neighbors who all came out to help. The result is a dynamic communal space right in their own back yard. “We really wanted to create a community space in our own backyard. All of our neighbors pitched in at different points, whether it was on raising day, or the neighbor who fabricated the grill that is part of the outdoor kitchen, even some of the contractors that came through the project are now lifelong friends of ours.
Long term we see this pavilion being a space to gather and form those social bonds.” -Matt & Laura, Homeowners Architect: New Energy Works Builder: New Energy Works Photography: Noel Adams (Raising) Photography: Chris Murray (Final)