Building Tradition Episode 17: Designing Sustainable Housing with JB Clancy

JB Clancy, Principal Albert Righter Tittmann Architects talks about Zero Net Energy home-design and how to reduce carbon emissions using traditional building techniques.

With the right site-orientation and readily available energy saving materials, we can design and build houses that save more energy than they consume. J.B. Clancy designed the first certified passive solar house in Vermont.

Clancy explains, "we all remember Louis Sullivan's proclamation that 'form follows function.' But as we aim to reduce our carbon footprint, we think about how 'form follows energy,' We've also revised Vitruvius's "commodity, firmness and delight," to explain how sustainable home-design achieves 'harmony, health and beauty'."

Listen in as J.B. Clancy discusses energy-savings design solutions which are simple, affordable and time-tested. "Zero net energy is not the architecture of austerity," says Clancy, it is an opportunity to solve problems for our communities and our environment, to acknowledge the importance of embodied energy that exists in traditional buildings and to practice contextual design."