info interview #2: Green Architecture
Wed Jan 26 2005 14:57 MST #I really enjoyed my informational interview with Solar Design and Analysis, an architecture studio in east Santa Fe. I talked with the owner and his assistant, who got her BS in Arch. but isn't officially an architect yet. It seems like fun, lots of drawing, visiting sites. Also tweaking plans and emailing clients.
The house/studio has solar panels, and they haven't had to use the heat at all lately. The solar panels heat the water. The panels themselves contain glycol, so that the liquid doesn't freeze, which runs down inside and heats the water. The water sits in a tank, and the cool water at the bottom gets warmed up again. The hot water is pulled off of the top of the tank. There's a backup heater in case the water isn't hot enough.
They are working on an off-the-grid conference center in the middle of Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. He's also working on a house that will have Rastra bricks (reinforced concrete bricks) on the outside, and adobe on the inside.
I got some more people to contact, unfortunately I left my notepad at the library with my notes, but I remember most of it fortunately.
There is a person in Santa Cruz, just down the road, and the teacher of the adobe certificate program at Northern NM Community College, and Steve from the UNM Arch Dept.
What else...Anyway, it seemed fun. Mark , the owner, works about 60 hours a week, often late at night - something that is easy to do when you live and work in the same space. Kate works around 40 hours a week.
"You won't get rich doing architecture."
Occasionally all the work dries up, and it is wise to live it up and be an artist for those periods of time. So sock away money.
Cool to see something you designed become 3-D and real.