In the four corners region, a panorama of iconic mountain silhouettes set the backdrop of Bluff, Utah. The native community has been the location of an academic design build program through The University of Utah, where grad students venture out on a semester-long cultural exchange to design and build new construction. Since the programs onset, dozens of employees from Arch Nexus have participated in Design Build Bluff.

PBS Utah recently aired a documentary on the 2019 experience which included two students from Arch Nexus; Rachel Sittler and Aimee Kyed. Watch their experience here.

Since the programs onset, dozens from Arch Nexus have participated in Design Build Bluff. Nexus Architect, Stephanie Kooyman was among the first group to participate in the program. She says of the experience: It was the first time I had ever designed something and then built it. It changed how I looked at design, construction and even how I viewed the other students at school. We became a group working together and solving problems as a team. The collaboration with everyone in the studio and seeing something we all built with our hands were the best parts.

Congratulations to Arch Nexus’ Zhe Ying Ng, on becoming Living Future Accredited. Living Future Accreditation is designed to acknowledge the most advanced and progressive thinking professionals that are working towards a living future. Regarding this achievement, Zhe says:

“What does good look like? Adopting from the metaphor of a flower, LBC creates a sustainable design framework that visualizes our ideal built environment. The three pillars of sustainability, in fact, are interdependent, overlapping and can be mutually reinforcing; our goal is to think about the system as a whole, balancing the needs and the environment-designing something that is functional, aesthetically pleasing, socially conscious and environmentally responsible. As for a designer, lessons and experience can be valuable. LBC creates a great tool and guidance for each project dealing with different challenges; helping to maximize opportunities in each limitation.”

To learn more about becoming Living Future accredited, visit the Living Future accreditation webpage and check out this postcard from the ILFI.

We are filled with gratitude for the challenges and triumphs that made 2019 such a tremendous year. We are especially grateful for all of our partnerships, without such we could not have such meaningful experiences.

At Arch Nexus, one of the greatest peak moments of 2019 came in a very tiny form. Our partnership with the Block Project and the opportunity to use our own hands to build a tiny home for such a great humanitarian cause was an experience we will never forget

As we forge into 2020 and reach toward new horizons, we look forward to the opportunities to strengthen our collaboration to build a thriving and equitable future.

The world is changing. Storms are getting more extreme; heat waves are becoming more frequent; sea level rise is underway; drought is occurring more regularly; dependable municipal water supplies are at risk; wildfires are becoming more intense; and the people most affected by these disruptions tend to be those who face the greatest economic challenges in responding.

At the same time, forward-looking companies, organizations, agencies, and individuals recognize that resilient design is vital to our future—and a critical component of social equity and sustainable building practices. The urgency of the situation is calling these citizens to action.

Building Resilience 2019 will catalyze this emerging movement. It is the first national gathering of building industry professionals focused exclusively on how to create more resilient buildings and communities. Participants will engage in professionally facilitated, outcome-focused working sessions. The Friday afternoon session is led by Nexus President, Kenner Kingston. In Microgrids and Backup Power, attendees will explore the growing intensity and frequency of storms, wildfires, and other disturbances and why creating more resilient power systems is increasingly important. This session focuses on islandable, resilient power systems, both at a building scale and community scale.

Visit buildingresilience.living-future.org for more details and registration.

Hunter Industries came for a visit to present the Hunter-Welborn Circle of Excellence Award to Arch Nexus SAC. We had a great conversation with their Director of Sustainability regarding the like-mindedness of our two companies and how this award was created to highlight organizations that make social and environmental responsibility a priority.

Hunter is striving to have zero-waste factories and currently has achieved 98.5% of their goal, with their largest challenge being electronic controller end of life. One example of their effort to combat this problem has been to create collection programs that intercept controllers destined for the landfill and reroutes them to Blue Star Recyclers. Blue Star Recyclers is a social enterprise out of Colorado which mission is recycling electronics and other materials to create jobs for people with autism and other disabilities.

The award itself was created from 100% recycled waste from their factories. Thank you for the honor, Hunter Industries!

Architectural Nexus is committed to the enhancement of the built environment, especially our impact on human and environmental health for the projects we design and the materials we select. This is why Arch Nexus is one of more than 70 international architects, designers, and partner organizations that are asking for materials transparency, collaboration, and preferable products that support human, climate, ecosystem, and social health.

By signing the Living Product 50 Pledge, other organizations who are interested in working towards building a product industry transformation, can also commit to asking for transparency and better products.

We are using this information to select and specify products by giving preference to those that have:
• Publicly available material ingredient disclosure information.
• Publicly available environmental impact disclosure information.
• Documentation of compliance with strict VOC emissions requirements.
• Proof that they do not contain chemicals of concern identified by the Living Building Challenge Red List, the WELL Building Standard, and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative’s Safer Chemicals Challenge, and/or the Green Science Policy Institute’s Six Classes.

We want the materials used to create our projects to positively impact human health, the climate, the environment, and society. We cannot achieve this goal alone. We must work together as designers, building owners, developers, and contractors to build knowledge and demand. And, of course, your help is crucial, sign the Living Product 50 Pledge today!

Congratulations to Arch Nexus’ Aidan Garrity, the second person in the Intermountain West to become Living Future Accredited. Living Future Accreditation is designed to acknowledge the most advanced and progressive thinking professionals that are working towards a living future. Regarding his achievement, Aiden says I pursued the Living Future Accreditation because architecture is going to have a positive impact on climate change; it will be through the pursuit of built works that do more good, rather than just less bad. I wanted to back up my commitment to creating a future that is socially just and ecologically restorative.
To learn more about becoming Living Future accredited, visit the Living Future accredidation webpage and check out this postcard from the ILFI.

PERSPECTIVE was the theme for the 2019 AIA Utah Conference, held at Sundance Resort on August 23. The event showcased opening keynote speaker Kenner Kingston, President of Architectural Nexus. Kenner shared his perspective that architecture is about reestablishing the harmonious relationship between people and the natural environment. By blending architecture and social science he has led the effort on several of the most sustainable projects in the region, including Arch|Nexus SAC, California’s first fully certified Living Building. James Timberlake concluded the conference as closing keynote speaker. James has broken new ground with projects such as the Embassy of the United States in London, which employs strategies to significantly reduce energy consumption and sets an agenda to achieve carbon neutrality.

Leading the region in sustainable design, Architectural Nexus is pleased to be partnering with Community Rebuilds, a non-profit general contractor for energy efficient homes. Together, the organizations will be creating homes for low and very-low income households that aim to be the first Certified Living Buildings in the State of Utah.

The International Living Future Institute defines a living building as one that functions as a part of the natural eco system. To do this, they must employ several regenerative features. Some of the features included in the Community Rebuilds Living Buildings are:

• passive solar design
• highly insulative straw bale wall construction
• heavy focus on salvaged material
• materials with low embodied carbon footprint
• composting toilet systems
• rainwater collected and stored for toilet flushing and irrigation
• greywater reuse for agriculture
• permaculture landscape design
• earthen plaster finishes throughout the interior including adobe floors
• Lime plastered exterior walls
• Solar PV array that will offset all annual energy use

With the unique experience of designing, owning and operating the first Certified Living Building in the State of California, Arch Nexus president, Kenner Kingston is eager to bring this level of sustainability to Utah.  “Community Rebuilds is an inspiring organization that is tackling climate and housing challenges in the communities they serve. It is inspiring that they would advance their already high-performance, zero energy model into the realm of Regenerative Design by pursuing the Living Building Challenge. These desert homes will produce more energy than they consume and will store more than enough rainwater to flush toilets and irrigate on-site urban agriculture over the course of a year.”

The construction phase for this project is scheduled for July 2019 to July 2020. For more information, please visit https://www.communityrebuilds.org/project-vision, or contact Brian Cassil at bcassil@archnexus.com, or Rikki Epperson at rikki@communityrebuilds.com.

The annual International Living Future unConference is nearly upon us and several from Arch Nexus will be presenting at the 2019 event. The Friday morning session features Arch Nexus Director of Sustainability, Patty Karapinar and Arch Nexus Site Design Leader, Jennifer Styduhar. Together they will present Abundance through Collaboration: Fostering Community-Based Food Access. Participants in this session will gain perspective from Karapinar and Styduhars’ real-world examples of private-public collaborations utilizing community-driven local food production and Urban Agriculture Imperative scale jumping with a school district. This process increased equity, environmental outcomes, youth education and job skills.

Catch Erica McBride and Peter McBride in the Friday afternoon session, Truth or Dare? Let’s Get Honest About Achieving Healthy Indoor Air Quality. Erica McBride is the Building Manager at Arch Nexus SAC. Maintaining a Living Building requires specialized and specific knowledge, passion, patience, and often long hours; demonstrating these day-to-day, Erica advocates for sustainable changes for buildings and how they operate and are maintained.  Arch Nexus Associate, Peter McBride is passionate about design and was the Arch Nexus SAC Building Manager during the challenging process of becoming California’s first Living Building. Together Erica and Peter will contribute their knowledge and experience to this “Best Practices” session, taking a strong lessons-learned approach that looks at the final success of achieving indoor air quality results within LBC’s thresholds through a series of failures and discoveries.