With less than 10 years to stop climate change from becoming irreversible,
Let’s make a difference.
Green Rating Systems
Let’s be honest. There are A LOT of green building certification systems out there. It seems like there is some new standard to follow every year. You might be reaching out to multiple architects or builders, and each might say “yes, we do green homes”. But you’re left wondering - how green? What do all these rating systems even mean? Well, I’ve done the hard work for you.
I have a deep understanding across multiple rating systems and can design a sustainable home around your priorities and goals. It might be that Passive House is the right standard for you - or - you might be best with a combined approach. I can fill you in on the real impacts of each standard for your specific project and how they can improve various aspects of your life.
Passive House
I have a soft spot in my heart for the Passive House standard. It may not seem as glitzy or glamorous as some other standards. It may also lean heavily into the "nerdy" side of architecture - which I happen to embrace. But it captured me early on with its focus on integrating building science into our designs. In this standard, sustainability is designed into every detail. It's not a collection of added-on elements or a checklist. I create a detailed energy model and adjust the design to meet heating and cooling targets specific to the home’s local climate and a source energy target based on the global carbon budget. Yes, it's more technical. But because it's tested and verified throughout design and construction you know you're getting what you paid for.
Best of all, this approach leads to homes that are more durable, healthier, and much more comfortable than any other strategy out there.
LEED
LEED may be the certification you are most familiar with. It's mission to transform the building industry and create a market for sustainable design and products has been hugely successful. LEED approaches sustainability through the use of a simple checklist. A project is awarded points within categories that impact sustainability. These include location & transportation, the site itself, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials, and indoor environmental quality. That last category covers air quality, acoustics, health, and comfort. The easy to follow format makes it simple for anyone to apply and is more holistic than a standard like Passive House.
However, following a checklist doesn't always guarantee your home will perform as well as you hoped. It takes a skilled architect to integrate each strategy and determine which are most applicable to your project.
Living Building Challenge
Living Building Challenge is just that. A challenge to think of your home as a fully functioning system - just like an ecosystem - independent from the "grid". The goal is to design buildings that are Socially Just, Culturally Rich, and Ecologically Restorative. It combines the rigorous approach and high standards of Passive House with the wide-reaching and holistic elements of LEED. I also believe it captures the elusive concerns of the Soul. Some might say the qualitative vs quantitative side of architecture.
Besides water, energy, and material categories, it advocates for happiness, equity, and beauty.
Instead of trying to make buildings "less bad", Living Building Challenge pushes architects to design buildings that have a Net Positive impact - on our world and in our communities.
*While I know a lot about the Living Building Challenge, I do not currently have a Living Future Accreditation (LFA)
Design Philosophies
The following concepts are not necessarily credentials you can get for your future home, but they are design philosophies that I try to integrate into each project I take on. They give structure to the design process. They ensure that we are thinking beyond the four walls of the home and are taking into account bigger picture concepts like the role the home might have in ecological systems and the larger human experience.
Biophilia
“Biophilic design can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve our well-being and expedite healing; as the world population continues to urbanize, these qualities are every more important… [It] provides a framework for relating the human biological science and nature”
Permaculture
“Permaculture is a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems.” Often used in a growing number of fields such as regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience, I integrate these principles into residential architecture.
A Pattern Language
“At the core of the book is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment.
