Sustainable Architecture Day 2

Nate Barry
While getting multiple perspectives today, our group learned of the intricate relationship between architecture, social approval, and economic circumstances. At HMFH Architects, whose clients are mostly schools and urban/government funded, the architects presented three kinds of projects dealing with solving the problem of universal housing. Several conceptual drawings sparked the thinking of our group.

At Northeastern University, Director of the School of Architecture George Thrush thoroughly explained his pre-fab housing ideas and what major contributions they could make in our world that is so economically fragile.

Luke Tallarida
I learned a lot about the logistics of becoming an architect. It took one person that we met at HMFH Architects 9 years to get his masters. I learned that architecture includes both math and psychology. I consider those two subjects opposite one another. I thought it was interesting how the two come together in designing architecture.

Sustainability is about not being wasteful. Sustainability is saving money and saving the earth. Sometimes in architecture you can do both and sometimes you can't. A good architect does all he can for his client and what the client wants is to save money. In essence, an architect's job is to be sustainable.

Mike McBournie
Today we met with a larger architectural firm, with 40 employees. Mat-Lab had only four. They design schools, mostly, and are a real supporter of reusing existing buildings, making for better living space, and trying to think socially into the future.

We later met with the head of the architecture school at Northeastern. George Thrush gave us a lot of information about modified pre-fab housing and modular processes. He talked about how they can be pieced together and brought in different parts to their sites, rather than transported as one big unit.

Cameron Fields
After checking out of the hotel this morning we headed to HMFH Architects to learn about a big architectural business. They had a lot of great information for us on how they work. Next we headed to Northeastern and learned about new kinds of buildings that change the way current housing manufacturing works for the better, and greener. It was very interesting, and a good day.

All these architects were very concerned about being green. They all made it easy to understand how these houses can affect our lives and make it more affordable in today's economy.

Theoren Aube
Today we headed into the city of Boston to meet our second architect group. This was a firm that built very environmentally friendly housing and schools. They were very hospitable and the hour-long meeting went very well. I feel as though our group took away a lot of important information.

After lunch in Northeastern's student center, we met with George Thrush who is hosting a conference called "Home Work: contemporary housing delivery systems." He explained how ideas of prefab housing, such as trailers, are outdated and that prefab modular building will solve so many housing problems. We were also lucky enough to have a student give us a tour of the studios where students were hard at work.