The Hero and Sustainability

It is with rapt fascination I stare at gas station signs at $4.01 / gallon. The words of the Whos in Whoville echo in my ears...we are here...We Are Here...WE ARE HERE. Sooner than anyone could imagine we're tasting the beginning of the next chapter of our lives with this siren call from the gas pumps. (I'm sorry if I abuse all kinds of metaphors but I can't help it.)

A friend over for dinner the other night was discussing the gas prices and how we need a new nationwide 'race to the moon' galvanizing call to action with the goal sustainable survival here on earth rather than a moonshot. As I reflect on the return of Indiana Jones in the summer movie season I remember the attraction and primacy of the hero figure in our cultures. Well, we need new hero's today to help us move towards a better tomorrow. However, we need both epic heroes and everyday heroes.

We need the epic ones to motivate us a nation to do better and make different choices and change our energy usage and other behaviors counter to sustainable values. We need everyday heroes to make difficult choices to change on a daily basis. These unlikely heroes must figure out how to car pool more, turn out the lights, not take car trips to faraway vacation destinations, insulate their homes, grow their own food more often and work together as neighbors, communities and regions to change group behaviors to help us all stabilize the uncertain times ahead.

Our next president and others in the national limelight hopefully can play the role of epic hero inciting us to join together to make the rapid changes our society so badly needs to respond to the continuing unpredicatable energy and economic situation we are facing. My hope is this next President and administration will turn outward to other nations to work together to change behaviors on a giant epic scale. Turning inward only, while initially satisfying and absolutely helpful is myopic and unhealthy. We must both work within our borders and without as the earth knows no such boundaries only inter-relationships and inter-dependencies.

Goshen School in Indiana_Go see this place

http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/rieth/index.php , Very interesting link to a environmentally focused school in Indiana with an interesting perspective on sustainabilty and land use.

Best, Steve

A Carbon Conundrum

Recently the office I work at reviewed the carbon footprint of our workplace and our professional activities. During this process, we discovered something I want to share. Our Carbon conundrum.

The carbon conumdrum is the following. We all thought our carbon footprint of our building would be larger than anything else we did. You know, all of the workings of an office, keeping a building fueled up, lights on, maintaining the facility etc. Given our rural location away from significant population centers 3/4 of our 20+ staff must drive more than 2o to 30 mins roundtrip to work. Our average commute is is actually an hour. We found the biggest part of our carbon footprint pie is our commuting, driving back and forth from job meetings, flying to conferences, meetings etc. out of state. It's not our building's operational costs. It's just plain old us moving around burning fossil fuel.

How did we react as a group to this news? Well we're much more sensitive to how much impact our driving is making and carpooling more often. We're at least more self-aware and possibly can change our commuting and meeting behaviors. Perhaps we don't need a face to face project meeting or really go to that conference or trade show out of state. You don't change this behavior overnight. I'm especially finding it hard as I have a different family schedule and after work activities every night, no set routine. For others it is easier. Regardless, it's important and I hope I can successfully carpool at least one day a week for the next year. It does make a difference.

Anyways, what do you think about the Carbon Conundrum? Best, Steve

This is a study of a composite of some homes we're designing in our office in an idealized setting.

Innovation and the Curse of Knowledge

Last night I read in the Sunday NYT 12/30/07, "Innovative Minds Don't Think Alike" by Janet Rae-Dupree in the Bright Ideas section.

I found it very compelling reading as every day in practicing architecture and design I confront my knowledge and lack of knowledge in the work I participate in. As I grow in experience I share the same tendency to come at design challenges with the past in mind rather than with eyes and mind wide open.

Quoting from the article, "when it comes time to accomplish a task - open a store, build a house, buy new cash registers, (design an sustainble, green buildings)..those in the know get it done in the way it has always been done, stifling innovation as the barrel along a well worn path."

This struggle to effectively design a project and/ or provide a service of value vaccilates uneasily between re-use of building systems, site plan ideas or space layouts which are comfortable like old friends or purposeful re-imagination of the design problem or brief with eyes wide open to all of the possibilities.

It is important to have outsiders involved in these design processes to keep professionals and the experts in check. Maintaining a fresh perspective is challenging especially with tight budgets, short timelines and high expectations of clients and other design team members towards designers. If outsiders can't be brought in ask "basic" questions yourself.

Design should be easy to understand and to use, whether it's a knob on an IPOD or entry leading into a large building. This process is difficult as so often there are so many details and issues to grapple with. What I take away from the article is to always keep a fresh eye on where a design is going and constantly ask very basic questions to test the validity of design choices.

An example for me is when choosing a design strategy, regardless of scale, is this choice in someway helping rather than hindering the quality of our environment for our generations and generations to come. If I can't comfortably answer this essential question I pause and take notice. Often such choices come with interdependencies which also must be figured out.

So often, we aspire to design something truly compelling, interesting or unique and in doing so express some aspect of our own inner creative qualities and leaving our mark on humanity, while serving the needs of the greater good. As architects and designers of the built
evironment the marks we leave are usually all too visible and long lasting. Taking care to be reflective and insightful along the whole design process is essential to producing value.

Read this article.

Nature-Near Design: A new home rising next to the Mad River

What does nature-near design mean to you? I've been using this term a bit while describing a residence we are working on in our office. I use this term perhaps for many reasons, but a primary one is because the dwelling is sited to connect to the remnants of an old Dam off of a beautiful portion of forested land of the Mad River near Middlesex in North Central Vermont. The dam forms a strong edge to the north part of the home and creates a datum along which the entire building is organized. The easternmost portion of the home practically juts out over the River in a symbiotic and respectful manner with fabulous southern views downriver.

The building literally comes out of the earth with the stone dam edge anchoring it against the steep stream edge. It has strong horizontal lines with stone cladding and a slate waterline encircling the home. The stone is being harvested from generations-old stone farm walls from the site. The flat roof will have deep overhangs emphasizing the horizontal qualities helping to tie it back into the landscape. A green roof is being designed to mitigate stormwater impacts on the nearby stream. Heavy timber fir roof framing is currently being erected on site.

Numerous renewable energy features are in the process of being installed on site. In front of the building a pond is being constructed to provide a safe swimming environment and do double duty as a heat sink and to tie into the radiant heating & cooling system in the home. A nearby stream will provide water to the pond. A portion of its flow will be diverted along a pipe snaking through the woods feeding into the pond.

Photovoltaic electric panels are going to be installed on the river side of the building as well as directly south-facing atop a wood shed building adjacent to the building. An orchard of Solar Tracker PV electric panels will be installed in a nearby field a few hundred feet from the building.

I will be posting images of the building soon. (Here are some images now!!!)

Western view

Watercolor site plan, Stephen M. Frey

Main entry view

River view of the home

Post-script note: This River House project was designed during my time serving as Design Director at Maclay Architects. I was part of the Design Team of many that brought this beautiful project to life! What a once in a lifetime opportunity it was. I worked at Maclay Architects from 2001 through the late Summer of 2010.  An inspiring foundational time as a younger architect. Working there truly kindled by desire to commit my architectural design life to sustainable modern spirited design and exploring the concepts of Nature-Near. 

Interested in learning more? 

You can find us now at www.arocordisdesign.com, the website of our Montpelier, Vermont-based residential architecture firm practice Arocordis Design. If you want to contact us there, click on this link. 

#netzero #homedesign #arocordisdesign #vermont #vermontarchitect #architecture #climateaction

Seventh Generation New Headquarters in Environmental Design & Construction June Issue

To all, please see link to Feature articles for the Seventh Generation Corporate Headquarters the firm I work for helped design with them. It opened about a year and a half ago in Burlington, VT.

Features - EDC Magazine

Features - EDC Magazine _ See article about Seventh Gen's New Headquarters in Burlington, VT we worked on.