This episode of Humans of KPARK features junior Marshall Burke, who has been the assistant on this year’s Tiny Home being built by the architecture students. He balances his time with varsity baseball, and he will be the lead architect of next year’s home.

Q: How and when did you get involved in the Tiny Home project?

A: “Well, in eighth grade I signed up to be a principal of architecture and I wanted to join the Tiny home ever since middle school so I joined those classes. So I built up in my freshman and sophomore year and in junior year that’s when my first class of the Tiny Home began.”

Q: What has been your role in this year’s house?

A: “Well, basically, my role is to just follow the leader in this Tiny Home. His name is Carter,and like I’m his assistant kind of so whenever he needs anything I go get it and I’m also learning from him so I know what to do next year.”

Q: What has been the highlight so far of building this year’s house?

A: “It’s cool learning all these cool things, some of my friends are also in this class so that’s cool also that i get to experience this with them.”

Q: What is a typical day like during class for you?

A: “Well we get out there, we get all the stuff out like the ladders, the tools, put the batteries in and set everything up. There’s always like a project we are working on. So right now I go to the tiny home, I’m working on the roof, I go to the section of the house I’m working on, I have a partner and we just do that for the full two hours we are out there. It could be any project but that’s basically how our day goes.”

Q: What’s something that you didn’t know that you learned so far in this project?

A: “I’ve learned so much, like all the tools, like learning all these new things about building a house, i never knew all these things, I couldn’t name anything specific but have learned a ton.”

Q: what interests you about this, like what’s most the most interesting

A: “I really like to do my hands on, I like to get my hands on things and work on things, but so far building the roof was probably the coolest thing cause there’s like tiny little things you need to know, and it’s very peculiar on how you build that.”

Q: Do you plan to study this in college, if so why?

A: “Well it’s just something that interests me, I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve always liked hands-on activities, so yes I would like to go on to engineering or some sort of construction.”

Q: Who has helped you the most in Tiny home class  and in what way did they help you?

A: “Mrs Taylor, she’s a really good inspiration, she knows all these things, she was in an architecture firm so she knows all these little tips and tricks. Then Carter, he’s so smart and he does all of these cool things that you would never think of like tiny tricks and watching him has helped me a ton.”

Q: How do you balance your time with Tiny Homes and baseball?

A: “Well, it depends. I have Tiny Homes 3rd and 4th period, so I go out there and work for two hours. Then in 5th period I have baseball right, so I go into that with baseball, but after school during off season I would focus on it. I would get my Tiny Homes thing done then I would go to the field. But during the season, I can’t do that. I just have to go straight to the field so it just depends on what season I’m in.”

Q: What made you more want to become next year’s  lead in architecture?

A: “Watching Carter do all these cool things like I’ve always wanted to design a house, so getting the opportunity to do that I couldn’t pass it up and I’ve watched the past 4 year of them making these houses and that’s something that I’ve wanted to do so I asked Mrs. Taylor  and she said I could so I’m starting to design the house.”

Q:What have you done so far for next year’s house?

A: “Me and Mrs. Taylor has started writing the design down and like getting the floor planned and how the house is going to look, and that’s all but when we get this Tiny House done we are going to go deep in depth to the design of the house and all the tiny things that we need to look at.”

Q:What do you think will be the biggest challenge of you being in charge?

A: “There’s going to be a lot, what else am I nervous about? I think the plumbing is going to be really hard because that was really difficult for us this year. I need to know how to do that and leading myself is going to be difficult because normally I would have someone to look up to, to help me and to lead me. But I’m worried about just leading myself, and knowing what to do to the house.”

Q: What have you learned so far that Carter Bennet led this year?

A: “The tiny tips and tricks that he just does like he’s so handsy and watching him do all these handsy things it gives me ideas, it gives me new things that I know will help me. I can’t name anything particular.”

Q: So what do you think will be the best thing about being in charge?

A: “That’s a good question, I don’t know. Just designing the house just that thought is going to be cool, I don’t know though.”

Q:What will you miss the most about this year’s building team?

A: “I’m going to miss Carter, I’m going to miss all the seniors, it’s a good experience to build with them and make friendships.”

Q: Is there anything you want to add?

A: “No, I love Tiny Homes, it’s a really fun class and I’ll never forget building this house, it’s like one of the cool things in my high school experience.”