Why I’m Betting on Microfluidic Electronics Cooling (And You Should Too)
My laptop turned into a space heater again last Thursday while I was reviewing zoning variance applications at my kitchen table. The thing was so hot I couldn’t rest my…
Why Most Sustainability Education Is Missing the Point (And How We Fixed It)
So there I was last spring, sitting in a windowless conference room at UC Davis, watching a PowerPoint presentation about “sustainable innovation curriculum” while the building’s ancient HVAC system wheezed…
Why I Stopped Throwing Away Perfectly Good Building Materials (And You Should Too)
I was standing outside a job site in Louisville last month, watching our crew load up the third dumpster of the week, when it hit me how absolutely backwards this…
Why I Can’t Stop Thinking About That One Building in San Francisco
Last March I dragged my fourteen-year-old to the California Academy of Sciences and spent most of our visit acting like a total architecture nerd, which… okay, I am one, but…
How a Portuguese Hotel Taught Me Everything About Climate-Responsive Design
My laptop crashed right in the middle of a call with this developer from Scottsdale who kept telling me that “buyers don’t give a damn about which way the house…
Why Everyone’s Asking Me About Sustainable Planning Jobs (And What I Actually Tell Them)
Got a text from my cousin’s daughter last week – she’s a junior at UW studying environmental science and wants to know about “sustainability careers” in cities. Made me laugh…
Why I Finally Got My Sustainable Design Certification (And Why It Actually Mattered)
You know what’s weird? I’ve become the person younger architects come to for career advice. Me – the same person who used to roll my eyes at professional development seminars…
The Books That Actually Taught Me About Sustainable Interior Design (Not the Pretty Coffee Table Ones)
You know what’s embarrassing? I became an interior designer in 2006 and didn’t read a single book about material health or environmental impact until 2015. My education was all about…
Why I Got My Hands Dirty Learning Adobe Construction (And You Should Care About Thermal Mass)
That smell hits you immediately when you’re working with adobe – earthy, almost sweet, like wet clay after monsoon rains. I was crouched in Maria’s backyard in Tubac last spring,…
When My Wastewater Project Turned Into a Bacterial Habitat Design (And Why That’s Actually Brilliant)
You know, sometimes client requests sound absolutely bonkers until you realise they’re actually genius. Three months ago, a client called me about their off-grid property in New Mexico and started…