{"id":3187,"date":"2009-03-01T11:33:56","date_gmt":"2009-03-01T15:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batesviews.net\/?p=3187"},"modified":"2018-06-04T09:30:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T13:30:51","slug":"homing-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2009\/03\/01\/homing-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Homing in on Green Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

In an age when volatile fuel markets and fears of environmental Armageddon generate big headlines, it\u2019s astonishing to hear John Rossi \u201988 talk about what wasn\u2019t being talked about in architecture school in the early 1990s. Green technology? Efficient homebuilding? “That stuff wasn\u2019t even on the map,” he says.<\/p>\n

Then again, Rossi wasn\u2019t necessarily looking for it. “I was very typical of a lot of people who recognized that while the environment is important and it\u2019s worth keeping, it also feels way too big to know what to do about it,” says Rossi, who finished Bates with a degree in psychology.<\/p>\n

Which is to say, a lot has changed in the last 15 years \u2014 both for Rossi and the building industry. Solar seems to be back from its near-death experience of the 1970s, wind has made a believer out of Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, and geothermal heating systems are starting to find their way into American homes. And though not quite as sexy, there\u2019s more-efficient drywall and cement, while a whole new generation of insulations and weatherstripping materials has hit the market.<\/p>\n

These are developments Rossi follows closely as principal of the Barendsen Rossi Collaborative, named for Rossi and his wife, writer and editor Lynn Dolberg Barendsen \u201988. From the firm\u2019s cozy third-floor office in downtown Newburyport, Mass., shared with a fellow architect, a landscape designer, and a Web designer, Rossi generates work that attempts to blow apart the notion that high efficiency and attractive design are somehow mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n

“A lot of green architecture looks like a science project,” says Rossi, who exudes an infectious energy whenever the discussion turns to architecture and art. “It looks like an engineering experiment \u2014 a bunch of tubes and pipes. Who wants it? You don\u2019t want it to look like a freak show. The aesthetics have to work.”<\/p>\n

So do the economics. That\u2019s why Rossi cringes at the argument that “green” architecture is a feel-good euphemism for “it\u2019s gonna cost more.” The way he sees it, mainstream construction methods and the bigger-is-better mentality that has infiltrated the homeownership dream are plagued with inefficiencies and rife with hidden costs. Consider: Nearly 90 percent of all U.S. homes draw their energy from fossil fuels, and since 1950 the average size of a home has more than doubled. Add the fact that the U.S. building industry generates 40 percent of all landfill waste, and, well, you get the picture.<\/p>\n

For Rossi, that picture came into focus first-hand. A Connecticut native who come from a long line of stonemasons, he studied in Rome during his Bates years and once worked in a sculptor\u2019s studio. He recalls watching his dad carve out a living as a residential developer. Right after Bates, he embarked on a homebuilding business himself.<\/p>\n

He watched as usable “waste” material was thrown out, inexpensive but inefficient appliances were installed, and the idea that a house should harmonize with its environment was stripped out of the building equation.<\/p>\n

However inefficient, home construction, measured by square foot or by unit, “has never been less expensive than right now,” says Rossi, as anyone who\u2019s seen a row of McMansions lining a golf course can attest. “It\u2019s cheaper because it\u2019s more generic. In many ways we\u2019ve worked hard to idiot-proof the building process. Buy one of those, add two of that, and you\u2019ve got a building.”<\/p>\n

Point being, it is more expensive to hire an architect like Rossi and actually make decisions. “But I\u2019ve found that when a homeowner discovers that they do have choices, the doors start to open for them.”<\/p>\n

Rossi\u2019s former company, PowerHouse, was started in 2003 as a reaction to this inefficient, one-size-fits-all process. The idea was to harness the model of the modular home construction business to create smartly designed “green” houses. “[Modular factories] already offer a more eco-friendly process,” says Rossi. “The site impact is less. The waste is less. And they come to your property in a few trucks, as opposed to making 55 trips a week to the lumberyard.”<\/p>\n

In total, PowerHouse constructed four houses and eight small buildings called “PowerPods” whose green features include:<\/p>\n