The other side of the drawing board

Partially to give me something to do, and partially to help build my portfolio, I entered the FreeGreen.com “Who’s Next?” green home design competition.  FreeGreen.com has been attempting to bring progressive home designs to mainstream America by offering free home plans to download.  However the “Who’s Next?” competition is intended to kick off the launch of a new plans site with designs that are for purchase.

With over 400 entrants, the competition is stiff.  Public voting began on March 2nd 2010, and will close on March 18th.  The top 3 submissions will receive $5,000, a chance to develop the design and offer it on their new for sale plans site.  All entries are 1,800 square feet or less and in two separate categories.  The first, “The Starter House” for a young married couple looking to expand their family.  The second “The Not So Empty Nest” for an older retired couple looking to downsize, yet still want to accommodate family gatherings and take into consideration potential mobility issues by the homeowner.  I had the chance to enter a submission in both categories, one with an old co-worker and friend, as well as a submission on my own.  So please take some time to review my submissions as well as others, and I would appreciate your support and vote.  You can vote for each entry once per email address.

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Again I have been absent from the blogging world.  With all good reason this time around.  At the first of the year, I have found myself in the same position as many others in the architectural profession, searching for employment.  Even though I am looking for a full time job, I am not hopeful.  I know too many that are unemployed and just heard about a couple more firms that have let people go.  However I am looking at this as a great opportunity not only for myself, but my family and taking this opportunity to take my passion and knowledge to the next level.  As a few professionals in this video I came across last week, I am making Lemonade and am going to be transforming Symbiotic Home from a personal project, to a home performance business.

Symbiotic Home (sym-home) will be offering residential design services, as well as energy auditing, home performance contracting and LEED consulting (both at the residential and commercial level).  Luckily in the state of Ohio, an architectural license is not required to practice residential design work.  So until I complete my Architectural Registration Exam (ARE), design services will be limited to new homes and home renovations/additions.

In the mean time I am running what we jokingly refer to as Daddy Daycare.  Staying home with my two kids to help cut our costs until I can start bringing in some real money.  Last week I attended a week long training session in Cleveland to become a BPI Building Analyst, which will give me the training and certification to perform energy audits.  The written exam was a piece of cake.  Now the 4-6 week waiting period to find out the results of my field exam.  I am confident that I passed, as I see it as a great additional service for future clients.  Especially when Ohio adopts the 2009 Energy code (more about that in a later post).

Therefore in the meantime “The other side of the drawing board” is going to get incorporated into the Symbiotic Home website with a hopeful relaunch of the site in the next couple of weeks.  So stay tuned for a whole new look and purpose.

After a couple of months of sitting in the office, I finally got a chance to go out to the jobsite for a project that I have been working on for the past 3 years.  Construction is scheduled to be completed by May of 2010, and we are targeting a LEED Gold certification for the project.

So here are a few photos that I thought I would share from my recent site visit.

I just happen to come across this post and it just struck a cord with me.  With all my work on an affordable LEED Home and the AIA Ohio Affordable Green Home Design Competition, what this architect writes about is exactly what I believe in and want to advocate as my professional career progresses.

The Case for Affordable Housing & A National Energy Standard
They must go hand-in-hand. ( October 2009 )

Certain items are needed for all people to live a decent (modern) life: decent housing, decent (safe) food, clear (safe) water & air; fair wage/job; access to health care.  All other things are possible (for a people) from there.

Making a (high end designer) commodity of any of the aforementioned, makes those items inaccessible by lower income people and the poor, and now we see, inaccessible to even the middle class in America.

Behind affordable health care, Affordable Housing is the largest problem facing our nation.  When jobs are harder to get, it makes it that much harder to maintain one’s health, and to maintain a decent place to live.  Basic, decent housing, healthcare and  food are a human right.

Continue reading the article at ShantyWorld

For most of us in the architectural profession, this past year has been painful.  Many have lost their jobs, and a good amount of us have had pay cuts, which is equally stressful with the amount of strain it puts on our families.  However I have taken the attitude that even though the time is difficult, you just need to push through it.  Because even with the few jobs that are out there, the competition is fierce.  I interviewed for a new job a couple of weeks ago to try and get my salary back to normal just to be able to provide for my family better, and I was up against 15 other people.  That was just how many they interviewed, who knows how many resumes they actually received.  Because I think the latest statistic that I heard was that close to 30% of the architectural profession is without a job.

I also believe you need to prepare for the worst.  Now for a lot of us, stashing money in a savings account is not an option.  But there are other things that can be done.  My local AIA chapter (AIA Columbus) recently held a seminar for the recently unemployed on various issues to consider if you decide to work for yourself.  Believe it or not, a lot of architectural firms get their start during a recession (article).  Attend AIA meetings and other events and start networking with colleagues.  Let them know who you are and what you are up to.  Even though they may not have work to take you on at that time, keeping an open line of communication with others will put you in the loop when new jobs are available and that personal connection may help you get your foot in the door.  Because it truly is not always what you know, but who you know.

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I have been helping the parents of a friend visualize a basement remodel project, where they are going to be claiming a portion of the basement for living space.  Therefore while helping them, it has brought me back to a few article written on how to properly insulate your below grade walls.  Building Science Corporation has lots of good articles on the subject (here & here), however I will bring your attention to an article that talks both about the good and the bad systems used.

RR-0202: Basement Insulation Systems

by Building Science Corporation

The Problem

Meeting Energy Star levels of performance is one of the criteria for constructing homes to Building America levels of performance – levels defined by the Building Science Consortium and others.  Homes constructed with basements require some degree of basement insulation to meet Energy Star.  As a result all Building America homes with basements constructed by the Building Science Consortium have basement insulation.
In any event, heat loss from basements accounts for such a significant portion of the energy loss from a home that it is clear that a home with a basement must have basement insulation to be called “energy efficient.” Additionally, in many jurisdictions, basement insulation is a building code requirement.

Finally, most homeowners with homes with basements finish the basement area for additional living space.  When they do, they typically insulate the perimeter walls.  Homes with basements often end up with basement walls that are finished and insulated.

There are only three ways to insulate a basement wall: on the interior, on the exterior or in the middle.  Of the three,
the most common approach has been to insulate basements internally.  The reasons for this have been due almost strictly to cost.

Continue reading the article at buildingscience.com