Our in-house architect Michael Thompson has been designing successful passive and active solar homes for the past 25 years, starting with a solar-heated, shade-cooled earth-bermed home in Southampton, Long Island in 1982. He went on to design a passive solar home on a hillside in Spokane, WA in 1986, incorporating a heat-collecting, two-story greenhouse, with which the owner developed a lifelong, year-round hobby, growing rare orchids. The orchid greenhouse still creates enough heat during sunny days to contribute to the overall house heating needs while also keeping the orchids happy.
With the development of (LEED) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development certification practices for buildings, Michael offers design services that incorporate sustainable building practices and material specifications, also designing energy-productive buildings. Develop a new home or modify your existing home into one that needs no ‘life support’. Your home, creating its own energy directly from the sun, wind and surrounding plant communities will be your ‘gift to the future’ and anyone who lives there after you. What could be better than a simple, local, energy-independent home?
