Frank Carmine was with the Says moderator.

Of a symposium put on
by the way last night.

Frank made a very intriguing comment
toward the end which was that.

He thought really.

Preparing architects.

Boil down to two things.

One is that they had to
learn how to listen.

And having listened then.

Then it was time for
them to exercise their creativity and

he had great confidence that
architects good exercise creativity but

he was concerned about how we all
dealt with the issue of listening.

And looking at the at the work that at

some of the work Frank's going to present
tonight I mean I have a real sense that.

Frank is a very good listener and
you can see the way in which

through his work he is listening to

the ground in the sky and the elements and

all manner of factors that go into
the complexity of architecture not.

Have a favorite art.

I have a favorite poet.

Wendell Berry.

And if Wendell Berry.

Should decide to become an architect.

I would think that his work would look
something like Frank Carmen's work.

In terms of the kind of sensitive eighty
that it expresses there's a little taste

here at least of Wendell Berry Frank's
going to give us a taste of his work.

The sycamore.

And the place that is my own place.

Whose earth.

I am shaped in and my.

Bear.

There is an old tree
growing a great sycamore.

That is a wondrous healer of itself
fences have been tied to it.

Nails driven into it.

Hacks and whistles cut in it.

The lightning is burned it.

There is no year it has flourished
in that it's not harmed it.

There is a hollow in it.

That is its death though
its living BRAMs Whitely.

At the lip of the darkness and
flows outward.

Over all that scars has come
the seamless white of the bark.

It bears the narwhals of
its history healed over.

It has risen to a strange
perfection in the warp and

been doing of its long growth.

It has gathered all
accidents into its purpose.

It has become the intention and
radiance of its dark face it is a fact.

Sublime mystical and
unassailable in all the country.

There is no other like it.

I recognise in it a principle and
Indwelling The same is itself

and greater than I would
be ruled by a see that

it stands in its place and
feeds upon it and

is fed upon and is native and maker.

Frank Carmen.

Fellow in the American Institute of
Architects is an award winning architect

and adjunct professor of architecture
at the College of Design

at North Carolina State University
in Raleigh.

He was educated both in
Sea State School of Design and

at the Architectural Association in London
where he studied under James Stirling.

Mr Harmon worked for Richard Meyer in
New York before founding his own practice.

Frank Carmen architects in raly.

His work has been featured in numerous
national and international journals

magazines and books on architecture
including the greenhouse.

New Directions to sustainable architecture
from Princeton architectural press and his

work has been exhibited in the National
Building Museum in Washington D.C..

As a practitioner Mr Harmon

is considered a leader in
the field of sustainable design.

His work has been featured in.

I should say that.

He has received
the North Carolina architecture

Foundation has foundations
camp Heffner prize for

distinguished design over a ten year
period in two thousand and five.

He was named top firm of the year by
residential architect magazine and

more recently.

His firm received first place in a
professional design competition to select

an architect for

the North Carolina components new
headquarters in downtown Raleigh.

He was featured recently.

In the conversation section of the well
magazine and on American Public Media.

It's the story with Dick Gordon on N.P.R..

Following Frank Carmen's two challenges
for architects and treat you to listen.

Thank Mormon.

And you will admit it
is them who will lose.

The way you know lasers.

It's.

A lot of OK OK here.

Thank you again on a house
when the very right.

Well.

Thank you for inviting me to be here.

I'm somewhat intimidated by
speaking of George attack because

your institution has had such high
regard in my state North Carolina.

I'm especially intimidated to speak
here because in the audience is

Carolyn Lawrence who was one of my best to
dance of all time at Auburn University.

And whom I've not seen in some time.

And I asked George what this lecture.

Should be about and

he suggested that I should really
speak to students at Georgia Tech.

But also to practitioners in general.

So really my talk is to those of you who
are students of architecture now and

will one day be moving
into the profession.

And here you see mile office.

I'm going to show you the work a mile
faces are important to remember that it's

the work of these people.

The man on the left is
Matt Griffith next to him as well.

Lambert they both studied it in sea state.

And there on his air in Sterling
who is from Mississippi.

Next to her is Ashley I'll
burn who is from Virginia.

And next to Ashley is Joey.

He is from Florida but
came to us by way of the Rural Studio.

What I'm illustrating are some really
talented people but also to tell you

a little bit about the fact that they
don't all come from North Carolina.

Now if you were living in
Georgia in fourteen ninety one.

The building that you lived in mind of
looked like the one there on the left.

Why fourteen ninety one.

Well of course that's
the year before Columbus and

there's a wonderful book out now by a man
named Charles man that's call fourteen

ninety one America before
fourteen ninety two.

And in it you will learn that the people

who lived in what we call America now
in fourteen ninety one were healthier

better fed lived longer had a more
democratic society and were generally much

happier than all of the people who
came from England to find them.

And they lived in buildings like this
which this is of course a recreate but

I'm very interested in this building.

You will notice that it has a porch and
the porch faces south.

You'll notice that it's made of bark and
they could and

more Bork to it in winter
to keep it warmer and

they could open the flaps of
the bark in the summer to cool it.

That bark and
everything about it came from the nearby.

There was a flap on the door so
that it can

be cross ventilated from the prevailing
wind that's coming from the south and

it's embedded in the landscape it
really seems to be part of its place.

Well all over all of you who
study sustainability you will

recognize those are exactly the features
that we refer to a sustainability today.

Now the building on the right is
the home of our fourth president

James Monroe it's in Virginia.

It's a little bungalow our presidents.

I'm from modest backgrounds at that
time and you'll notice that a little

bungalow has the same characteristics
as the Native American dwelling

it has a porch facing south
it's made with local materials.

Its doors and windows open.

So it can be cross ventilated
it shaded by the trees and

it's embedded in the landscape.

It's two hundred years later than
the one on the left and really for

the next four hundred years in
our country that's how we built

the building up on the left of
course is Jefferson's Monticello.

And it may surprise you to know that
Jefferson side at Monticello exactly

in this position facing Southwest because
that's where the cool breezes came from.

In the summer and
he put a porch on that side to shade and

of course all of his windows open.

The bricks were made from a play
nearby In other words it's a very

sustainable building.

And we've continued that tradition
through much of the South in our domestic

buildings in the building such as
the one you see on the right for

my favorite farm buildings in
North Carolina up above it's

got a sleeping porch but you'll notice
that it has all of those qualities.

So.

From fourteen ninety one until
around eighty ninety one.

Buildings were made in our country in
this very inherently sustainable way.

Now over there on the right is one
of our North Carolina Mint mansions.

And you have corporate recognize
it because you have lots

of these in Georgia obscene a flock
of them in the last few days.

And far from inheriting the sort of
sustainable principles that I've talked

about in Jefferson's two and you'll see
that it's got pieces of Jefferson as well.

But here's a building that's
approximately sixty feet by sixty feet.

It's a very deep plan
though shutters never work.

The windows are not open
because it's their condition.

And the brick probably
came from Nebraska and

the columns who knows came
from that were easy Ana.

So it's it's it is however what most
people think of as being saw their own or

belong to the place.

You'll notice that the builders made
an improvement over Jefferson has reduced

the columns by half.

So you.

Cost less.

And it allows them at the same time
to show off that what in our part of

the world is called a political window.

Best advantage.

So that's what passes for when we talk
about architecture in the south and what

I'm going to talk about tonight is how do
we build in the south in a way that seems.

As in the poem window Barrett
to be rooted in the south.

Now largely We have an equally long
tradition of building in the south.

That's mostly descended from
people who came from Africa.

That's much more in keeping
with our climate than the sort

of buildings that even Jefferson's bill.

Cited as the mark Jefferson's house was
actually patterned after an English

country house which was really on suited
to his climate there in Virginia.

But from Africa.

We got the notions of building
buildings not on a brick.

But out of wood lightweight material so
that and

heat up during the day in
a cool quickly at night and

we got the tradition of building very
deep porches and living in shade.

So building like this one that
you see on the left to me has

a much greater you know real lessons for
us as architects and

the way that we seek to build and the
building owner writes in South Carolina.

It's one of my favorite buildings and

you can see the spirit of invention
still lives in the south and.

You know you're don't have to guess but
this is obviously in a flood.

So they put it up on cement blocks and
you know strapped it down and

they're ready to go.

Sustainable it may not be in our.

Could mean board a lot of I
didn't ask George to do that but

I am a big fan of window Berry.

And you might be interested in other
than addition to being a poet.

He's a sheep farmer.

He lives in Kentucky is a philosopher and
poet and a novelist and a sheep farmer.

And dirt farmer and tobacco.

And he has an essay in one of his
recent books called sixty seven

kinds of sheep and in it he says
that his favorite magazine to read

you know we some of us read architectural
record someone must read The New Yorker.

He reads the British sheep
farmers because that

only comes out four times a year but
he reads every word of it and in it.

He's discovered that in in England in
Great Britain a country about the size of

Kentucky about the size of Georgia.

There have over the centuries been
bred sixty seven kinds of sheep I.E.

a sheep that those well on
a north facing slope in Norfolk.

Or sheep that do as well on
a south facing flat land in Kent

very specifically because each
farmer in order to increase is Eagle

the wool will very carefully see how sheep
do in those conditions and breed them.

This is of course totally opposed to
the way that we do agriculture today and

that's what Barry is writing about we
tend to have a monoculture the same corn

that's grown in Georgia
is grown in Virginia.

But in this in the fact that there
were sixty seven kinds of sheep.

Wendell Berry thinks there in
lies the hope of the world.

Now you know I've been practicing in
North Carolina for over twenty years and.

One of the things that never
ceases to surprise me this.

A map of ecological regions of North and
South Carolina and

Virginia is the variety of
landscapes that we have

in North Carolina from the mountains
right down to the coast.

How nice I thought to myself
as I travel around the state

would it be if we had an architecture
that was equally varied and

distinct as we have geographic regions.

In North Carolina for example in our
mountains around Mt Mitchell We have

the greatest biological diversity.

In North America greater number
of plants and plant dependent

species in this little part of the world
and anywhere else in North America.

And over in this part of North Carolina.

We have a plant called a Venus
flytrap that developed only in this

tiny little area in North Carolina to
develop because the fall was so poor that

all the plants wouldn't grow because
there was no nitrogen in the soil so

it developed a way of
capturing its on food.

Flies and insects.

How nice it would be I thought
if we had an architecture.

That was as varied you
know from here to here.

Of course we've done but
you know would that be possible.

And it turns out that we do.

But it's not architecture
that's my bark otitis

made by people who depend
on being absolutely.

In sympathy with their environment.

Farmers in order to survive.

Now are until recently our
major crop in North Carolina.

Was to back it kept generations of small
families able to stay on their farm.

But in mountains of North Carolina
when it comes to cure tobacco they

built bombs like this because it was much
better to be sure the debacle in the air.

And in the eastern part of North Carolina
when it came time to shoot about.

When the fall.

It's very humid.

So they learned to cure their tobacco with
feet so they built these kinds of barns.

And each of these barns you'll find
literally thousands of them all

over North Carolina has porches
that have been added by the farmer

the barn itself is a standard size
based on the size of a tobacco leaf.

But the farmer puts a porch on
a particular sod according to which way

the wind is blowing or the sun is shining
when they're doing particular chores.

Connected to tobacco.

So here in fact is an architecture
that's closely related to its region.

I pulled this out of one of my favorite
books it's called historic more

barns of North America and
these are of arms in Georgia.

You to have this wonderful guy.

If you will.

Two of the regions and that's array in
the part of fi and what grows in Georgia.

Just by looking at the barns that
you can find across Georgia.

And probably my favorite book right
now is written by a professor.

At the University of Georgia
named Richard Westmacott and

it's called African-American yards
gardens and farms in the rural South.

It's a fantastic book.

And Dr Westmacott who is actually
English has spent the last thirty years.

Traveling through Georgia and
South Carolina and

Alabama and finding small farm holdings.

That might look like this and
Chris if you look at that or

I looked at it the first time it looks
like a jumble it doesn't make sense that

you just think well you know that's
just a bunch of fences and buildings but

Westmacott interviewed the people living
there and made these very systematic

maps of what he found and so
what you'll see here is the main house.

That faces south because of course
that's the best orientation.

A puts a big.

Porch on that side to
shade it in the summer but

allow the sun to come in in the winter.

Over here is the cornfields and

across that sweeps the prevailing
breeze in summer to cool the house but

to help where that trees are planted
in the West in the south side.

Over here to give his pig shade.

He's got smaller trees
growing back here is the barn

where the manure is kept and
you'll notice of that's on the least.

Side so that the flies and
the smell of the barn.

Won't come into the house you will
never find that barn over here.

And back on this Saddam or shelters for
various activities in the farm.

You'll notice on their own
the north side so that for

the occasional bad cold north winds in
the winter they shelter the whole area.

Well I think in you know in something
like this there is the embedded wisdom of

over two hundred years of living in
Georgia on this farm is in Georgia.

That is this wonderful textbook that we

can learn from not that we're
going to build like this.

But that it gives us validation for
what we're doing today.

So with apologies to window Barry I'm
going to show you a few of my projects and

they're each prefaced by a sheep that
belongs to a particular region believe it

or not in North Carolina we do have
different types of sheep that are bred and

grown and different areas.

This is a peep my sheep.

Because I live in the Piedmont right here.

And my wife Judy and I built this
house almost twenty years ago.

And so when I talk about you know living

on the ground in this particular
region it comes our combined honestly.

We live in a very busy neighborhood
next to the State University.

You know what it's like around Georgia.

Lots of activities that go on day and
night especially the.

Is a big basketball game.

So we live right in that environment.

And so the streets are usually
filled with cars and

garbage chains and certain mornings
aligned with empty beer cans.

But we love it there because
we're next to the university and

it's full life of their shops and
bookstores nearby.

So we've created a noises for
ourselves inside a walled garden.

With a house that looks
out of that walled garden.

And a little swimming
pool at the end of it.

They were able to swim and for much of
the so we created our own little oasis.

But you'll notice that.

Here's the plan of it.

Here's the house.

And here's a swimming pool.

And we built it under these really big
trees because it was shaded in the summer

but the sun can come through those trees
in the winter the floors are concrete so

they absorb heat.

And it looks out to this really big
garden Judy is a landscape architect so

from the word go.

We wanted a really big area to
landscape in here's the house.

So when it was built people remarked this
is such a modern house does it really fit

the neighborhood is it the right thing
to do is Raleigh ready for this.

But if you look at the plan it's a very
traditional Southern planned it has

a central hallway.

With two rooms only either side and
it works just as well.

Now as it did when
Thomas Jefferson built it.

We can open these doors and
catch the breeze all summer long.

And because our biggest windows
face north out of the garden.

We didn't have to show
you them from the sun.

Here's another

building in the Piedmont it's
really very different not

North Carolina has the oldest surviving
craft tradition in North America.

It's the throwing of pots people have been
throwing pots in North Carolina since

a seventeen hundreds some of the same
families live there are today.

And a few years ago they asked us to
design a museum for that pottery.

And of course it's you know it's it's that
pottery is one of those things that you

can't get away from it being made by human
hands and we looked at pottery buildings

in the in the region which have
the same sense of being crafted.

As the pots do and here for

example is a pottery that belonged to
Mr Allman and this was his first building.

And when e needed to expand
he built this building and

then you need to expand little bit more he
built this building and so on and he made

it big with a particular kind of pot and
he built a bigger building over here.

You'll notice that almost
everything here has been recycled.

You know it's in here it will stay
nable when you when you have a when you

when you when you try to
make a living off of pots.

You use everything that comes to hand and

you also notice that
didn't move the earth.

No bulldozers here they just
built it stepping down the hill.

Well one of the nature of
a throne pot is that you can

you can see the person's hand see through
it every time you have a cup of coffee or

mix a salad or need bread in a bowl
that somebody has made in a pottery

in a sense you're
communing with that person.

So it seemed very natural to
me to have a building that

showed the evidence of how it
was made in its completion.

You know most buildings
when they're going up.

You can see this all over Atlanta.

They look so much more
interesting when they're going up

than they do when they're finished.

Because when they're finished
they get all covered.

So I wanted a building that looked as good

when it was going when it was finished
as it did when it was going up.

So we designed us and

such a way that everything could be made
out of you know simple two by lumber.

By two people and
it was built by two people.

Paul.

Tourbillon the son Paul Jr.

And they built the whole
thing in six months.

Now it may look rather rule.

But it's actually of course a very
sophisticated museum building with

Class A exhibition space ventilated and
cooled.

But I like the way it seems to sit
very gently on the landscape and

of course we didn't use a single
bulldozer when we made it.

It's turned out to be a very popular
building for the pottery museum.

And a lot of people come here and they say
you know this building looks like a barn.

And I'm really all right with that.

And other people have gone inside and

they say you know this building
looks like a church and

I'm alright with that too because I think
there is something quite spiritual about

families who've been able to make
a living using their hands for this long.

It's in a very rustic village
called Seagrove this is

you know this is not your
slick part of North Carolina.

There are things like you know old
things popping up out of the ground.

But I like the way the building
seems very comfortable there.

And even on the outside.

We did our best to celebrate the craft
about how the building was put together.

And one last building
in the Piedmont is for

the North Carolina Museum of Natural
Sciences they asked me to design for them.

A classroom as a field station and.

Quite naturally I said why don't you think
about making the classroom open a year.

And I think I can design a classroom for
you and

this is it that you can use
ten months of the year.

You won't have to air condition or heat.

In.

Part of my mission behind that was
that when we look very carefully at

their landscape.

And we had an ecologist as a consultant.

He told us that in this one area here
there were six ecological regions that all

came together and there was a pine forest
and a hardwood forest in a bottom land.

This is actually a what you call
a Piedmont prairie and this is a slope and

this is a bottom land and
this just seemed the obvious

place to put it because you could
look out in all directions and

really get what you
know what it was about.

Part of that's because I was actually
a very poor student as a child and

was far happier looking out the windows
of my school elementary school.

So I thought I you know I had a secret
idea here that that would be the case.

So that side of the building and

of course you know I didn't want
it to disturb the hill at all.

So we've perched it up on
the is platforms here.

The museum honored to be
an illustration of sustainability.

And it's to date the most sustainable
thing we've ever done all the rainwater is

collected all the roof and

goes to the cistern is used to flush the
toilets all the lighting in the building

comes from both photovoltaics
that are just over the hill.

The wood comes from nearby or
This is Atlantic white cedar that grows on

the coast of North Carolina or
yellow pine from within the county.

And at the same time it makes
this really delightful classroom.

I was out here this summer in July and
it was one hundred degrees outside.

But you see we've designed it because the
prevailing breeze comes up this valley and

through these screens and
I walked in here and

there was a class of about thirty children
in the temperature was eighty degrees and

there was a very comfortable
in this hot day.

As George mentioned.

I'm also an adjunct teacher at N.C.
State and we make it a habit.

Our firm every year to
take one small project and

let the in terms design and build it.

So we continue to do that for

this group the Museum of Natural
Sciences They're all into education.

So we suggested that they try out a green
roof on one of their projects using

native plants most green roofs are done
with sea Timbs that come from like Norway.

And we thought well why
don't we use local plants so

we actually got things growing here
on the prairie built a shelter.

That's Willamette who you saw earlier and
David Cole and it's been in place for

two years now in the green roof was
done really well surprisingly well.

So with the mountain sheep.

I'm going to talk about building up
here in the mountains of North Carolina.

This is near Mount Mitchell And it's for
the Penguin school of crafts pen and

school crafts is a nationally
recognized institution where students

come from all over the country as well at
this from different parts of the world.

To do amongst other things.

Blacksmithing so they asked us to
design them a new blacksmithing studio.

And opinions about a hundred years old and

most of the studios
have grown by accident.

You know just adding on and
I noticed that the site had

these absolutely beautiful views of these
of the Black Mountains of North Carolina.

But none of their studios did their
studios are all you know very introverted.

So this is the craft that were
housing in this building.

And this is the building.

It's a course a steel frame for
obvious reasons.

But it's almost an upside down building
all the structures in the roof and

all the cross bracing as up in the roof.

So the floor plan is completely free and
open.

And decided to make the building open ear

because most of the study is
done there in the summer.

And it creates a lot of smoke and heat.

And I thought this is really
the right thing to do.

It's creating heat let's
let the heat of scape.

Well those of you work with
the present day building codes we have

the international building code in North
Carolina know that you're not allowed to

do that in a national military subject
demands that you have you know.

Are twenty at least in the walls
in our thirty in the ceiling and

here I was proposing to do none of
those things to let the heat of scape

you see because the real
purpose was to let it escape.

So when I drew the plans and
went to get the building permit

it was really you know fear that you
know I wouldn't get a building permit.

Because it really reversed the rules
of the international building code so

I go up there to Mitchell County to
the building inspectors office building

inspectors also the town engineer and
when the snow on the roads he

also scrapes the snow off the roads
a little town about three hundred people.

And my experience usually
doing projects of

this nature if they get a building
permit it can take three to six months.

Try to get a building permit in
Raleigh it's at least six months.

Because the plans are examined they're
turned down the comeback with red

lines you know go back and forth.

So here I'm going in with a building
that doesn't meet the building codes of

the building inspector and I show him
you know showing this roll of plans.

And I said here's the plans I
know you'd like to look over and

he was mocked telephone number get back in
touch with me and so on and he said I said

you're the architect I said Yeah I'm
an architect his plans a minute and

rolled them and
he took sort of a cursory look at them and

he said OK and took your stamp over
here and stamped approved on it.

So wow.

And I'm I'm beginning to like building
here in Mitchell County and he said.

I said Don't you want to look at
the plans a little bit more and

find out more about here.

The specs you know about two
hundred pages of specs and

he said nope said just about anything you
build here in Mitchell County is going to

be better than what we got anyway
that that's our billing and.

It does open at the hands
it's flooded with light and

people like in this one to a cathedral and
I like that too because I do think there's

something very spiritual about
being able to commune and and

coordinate your on your hands and to make
a living from it and support your family.

It takes a great deal of belief.

And so it's very you know it's a very
rough steel concrete block and

Pollock Al whole building is
made with three materials.

It's now almost ten years old and
it's been immensely successful it

tripled the number of students
studying in this particular program.

And after the first year they built it.

This is a lizard but
brim who is the arm master.

She's about five feet two inches tall.

She's got hands that could bend a crowbar.

And she wears a pearl necklace.

When she works and Elizabeth brim.

And these are her students.

And they've got this scrap
yard over here on the side and

they want to make a gate and
close their scrap yard and so

they made it with all these pieces
that are Asher their failures.

You know because making
making art is not easy.

And her thought was to make them out
of their failures because that's

where you learn the most and I've always
thought that was a good philosophy and

there are no mistakes.

There is just.

Learning about you know what
you're going to try next.

This is a coastal sheep.

We have some of the most interesting
coastline in the world as you do

in Georgia.

We have I think I'm I think I call this
the finest building in North Carolina.

There's a whole little series of
houses in a place called Nags Head.

Into right out here is totally exposed
to all the that the hurricane season

can can throw at it and these are summer
cabins built around one nine hundred ten.

The people would come and

stay all summer and they were built
by one man whose contractor name.

S.J. twine.

I would argue that he's the most
important architect in North Carolina.

No historian will back me up on that and
he made these houses that are so

suited to their environment they're
like a seashell or a horseshoe crab.

You notice that there's always
a porch on the south side and

on the east side it doesn't even bother to
put a porch on the west side because you

would burn up let alone on the north side.

The whole thing is made with Atlantic
white cedar which will not rot and

weathers this house is
one hundred years old and

weathers this beautiful gray color.

Is all up on little stilts and

you know the outer banks
over the decades have moved.

So if the ocean got too close.

Mr twine would hitch a team
of mules to this house and

put rollers under and
just pull it back one hundred feet and

then in ten years later if the ocean
receded he'd do the same thing in reverse.

You know fits the site in as
naturally as the sea grass doves.

And here other things that you
know to learn from in this part

of North Carolina this is
my favorite detail for

the side of a building to join
clabbered Cis wall here is over

one hundred years old never been
painted doesn't leak as is for.

Beautiful detail that was
actually designed it varies

on each corner of the building.

Depending on which way the wind blows.

So with that in mind

when I was asked to design the Taylor
house which is here in the Bahamas.

Here's North Carolina of course.

I knew something about hurricanes goes.

Mr S.J. twine it taught me
something about hurricanes.

So we pulled out an atlas and

we found this is the track of
hurricanes in the last fifty years.

And notice that they really tend to focus

right around where we were
building plate or house.

And so I went to the Bahamas
this is in Scotland key

enough of this is a typical
way to build in the Bahamas.

Typically people live on the upper floor.

And they use the ground
floor as a cistern.

Because there's no you can't do a well if
you drill a well you're into salt water.

So they live up here and they capture
all the rainwater on their roof and

take it to the cistern via a gutter.

And living up here also keeps
them away from the mosquitoes

which tend to be down here.

And it allows them to get
good cross inhalation.

So I took that same idea
to make a house for

the Taylors except I
made it three stories.

And instead of doing a roof like this
I said why not just turn the roof

upside down and make it like a photo.

And we collect all the rainwater
through the middle of the house.

So you don't have go to as that
get torn off in a hurricane and

years the water can be stored down here
and you put your living room here and

your sleeping area here and you're even
farther away from the mosquitoes which

are still down here so
that became a diagram of the house.

We saw it really carefully so it's on
a due east west north south axis so.

That Here's a little sketch I
made on March twenty first.

You know that economics when the sun
sets exactly in the West and

rises exactly in the east.

So here's the sun setting in
the west right on this axis.

Of the house is really
thrilling I thought.

You know so much is asleep on the couch
they're missing the whole thing.

You know modesty for business.

So you that is.

Anyway here's the house.

Very dramatic house but done for
these very pragmatic reasons and

I would argue that this house is done
with the same spirit that Mr S.J.

twine used in his houses but

you notice it doesn't have to look
like Mr Esthwaite on tells us.

So here we are we're collecting
the water from the roof.

And then that's the main living level up
here this is the bedroom a level and.

Down below are all the cisterns and.

This is another view of the sea of Abacha.

Where the sun is setting and just over
this hill where you see these really

thunderstorm clouds forming is the
Atlantic Ocean incredibly dramatic sorry.

The island is about two miles long and
four hundred feet wide.

And this little house
sits on this ridge and

this is of course an ancient coral reef.

So you can see that the lower
part of the house is

concrete block that's the standard way of
building in the Bahamas concrete block and

they put stucco on and so most beautiful
store go I'll ever get in my life.

Absolutely gorgeous stuff and

so smooth you want to look at
you know it's just beautiful.

And then above that is this wouldn't
roof really carefully designed so

you can see the building
is like a concrete mass.

And then the roof is like a hat.

And you know I was very aware that we
might get hurricane winds a modern.

Miles an hour or so
my engineer Greg Sullivan

designed the roof such that it has
these four steel beams on it and

those four steel beams are tied down right
to the ground with these four columns.

So they're like a hatband.

And it ties it right into the ground and
rain

of course comes down through these gutters
here the cistern is in the basement.

We thought we had it licked every major
opening has some kind of sliding door.

So this is their master bedroom and
this slides over it and

this is where the cisterns are in
the workshop that's the kitchen.

That's a little powder room.

Because the Taylors wanted a house that
they didn't have to worry about in

a hurricane that was one of their things
that came to me they said you know I

want to house I want to worry about.

When there's a bad storm because
you get this sinking feeling.

So we designed a South that you could
just zip you know like a knapsack and

leave the island in
the event of a hurricane and

sure enough just as about we were to
finish the house such a thing happen

the worst hurricane in fifty years was
bearing right down on to this island so

that Taylor's left the island and
flew back to Raleigh.

And we all sat around in Raleigh watching
C N N to see the effect of this hurricane

and sure enough they showed a photograph
of the Bahamas and it was wiped out and

not only that there was this pyramid shape
roof rolling away into the distance.

You know you can imagine how that made.

Jim tighter feel.

And know a see in him.

Shows the same image over and over of.

So you'd see that every half an hour
this pyramid shaped roof rolling away

because there was nobody on the on it.

We don't know what happened.

But finally three days later a for
another is flew over law Island.

In his own airplane.

And call them and said Your house
is all right so the next day.

We got in a plane to go down
there to see what we can do.

And this is what we found this was
the house next door to the tell yourself.

Knows that it's was so certain amount
of urban renewal going on here.

You know it's.

It's been moved in this was another
house that had been picked up and

I have to show you this but
you can see everything was

thrown around in the space and
over here is a glass cabinet and

the glass has been completely
ripped out of the cabinets.

But inside here is a really beautiful
wine glass when you're talking.

This is your Crate and
Barrel fifteen dollar wine glass right.

And it's full of sea water and sand.

And how that can happen at the same time
this house is moving about two hundred

feet across the top of the ridge.

In the middle of the night with one
hundred fifty mile an hour winds and

hurricanes are truly phenomenal.

So since that time this
was seven years ago.

We've further refined all of our
apa truer so that it really can be.

Wrapped down and we replaced.

This was a laminated class.

A peer but we've replaced it with
tempered glass to make it you know

a storm proof as possible.

Having said that I don't want you to think
that's what the House is about this is

a most delightful place to live and
you can imagine.

I mean I you know whenever I come to
this house and walk up the stair and

get the view of the two oceans.

It's really a lie.

It's truly life and Hansing.

Another coastal sheep of course.

I want you to know that this idea of
building with the land is not simply

about being in the country.

It's also a bit of being
in an urban situation.

Based on the kind of practice.

I have.
Have I don't get asked to do many urban

buildings but that's actually one
of my favorite building types.

This is in Charleston.

As you know in Charleston and
Savannah there's this wonderful house

called the single it means
it's a single room wide.

And it has a porch usually on the south or
southwest side.

They call them Piazzi S. And ironically
into the house through the porch but

it's got a regular door.

And you might think well gee you know
they don't get a lot of view over here.

But that porch is their
outdoor living space for

much of the year when these houses were
built in the one thousand hundreds.

And actually this house is shading your
porch in your house shading their porch.

And because the house has one room deep.

Of course is very good
cross-fertilization.

So this is a pattern that's developed
in Savannah and Charleston and

it can be used for
a very large dwellings as well.

Much larger dwellings.

And I think Savannah and Charleston
are two of the most beautiful we.

Of landscape architecture and
sustainable design anywhere.

So I was asked at his eyes
on a Sunday school for

the oldest church in Charleston.

It's called the circular church and
they're right on Meeting Street.

And this was their
original church dated from

sixty five and they built this
Sunday School they call this their new

Sunday school that was built
in eight hundred fifty four.

And they wanted me to
build something here.

So this is what we designed.

And it's actually they also said we want
the most modern building you can give us.

We want totally sustainable.

So you know we've been here this will
be our fifth century in Charleston and

we want to hand something
on to our children.

So we want you to design this really my.

Modern sustainable building.

So that's what I designed it has
a flat roof which is a green roof.

And of course it has an elevator
all the rooms across ventilated.

I picked up on the idea of a Piazzi
is their circulation space and

to their credit they say we don't
have to have an enclosed corridor.

You know it can be outdoors.

North is actually in this case.

So that the morning sun comes
into the Sunday school rooms.

And of course I magine this little garden
that we created to be his luxury and

to the kind of gardens that
you find in Charleston.

So this was a design and
you may know this but Charleston has

the oldest historic review board in
the country it's call the B.A. are.

And when they came to me they said you
know Frank we want this really modern

building and
sustainable legacy to our children and

by the way you have to go to the B A R.

You know in North Carolina we think it to
be a ours place where you get a drink.

Or something you do if you're a lawyer but
I found out that the board worked for

sure you know they had they had
an approved a modern building in years.

So all the time I was designing this I
had in the back of my head this kind of

elephant in the living room that you
know I know you all like this but

what are we going to do
when we go to the B A R.

Well I got the minister to
go to the B.O.R. with me.

It's a very formal setting
it's held in a court room.

And before us.

They were chewing up these
projects that had gone.

I mean they were they were merciless.

So where comes our turd you know and
I put on my white suit my bow tie and.

I get the Minister to go first and
and Bert the minister he says

we at the circular church believe
that building sustainably.

Is a moral imperative.

Right away.

I knew I was you know I was
we were going in strong.

And so I explain this game and
I just pretty

much what about what I told you it has
a green roof to collect the rain water.

This is a good idea because we're
not adding to the storm drainage.

It's a flat roof because then it won't
detract from the roof of your eight

hundred fifty four Sunday School Building
Notice that it doesn't even touch that

building in fact everything this
walkway is a one inch off of it.

Is built of the sort of materials
you love in Charleston wood and

stuck and iron and
it's painted dark green.

And I got about that far
in the conversation and

then the chair of the board or
texture of you said Stop it.

Well OK I know it's here and
here it comes he said stop.

This is the sort of building that
we've been looking for for ten years.

This is a modern building that actually
does what we think it should do and

just like that building inspector up in
Mitchell County they approved it that

night it normally takes four or
five passes to get through.

So it just what I'd like for

you to take away from this is that if you
build sustainability into your projects.

It gives you a great deal to argue for
people really get

that you know I could talk about
how this was the play of light and

shade I could talk about how it was
building masses I could talk about how it

was a beautiful architectural form and
they wouldn't listen.

But if you can talk to
them about what they

what they understand like
sustainability people really get that.

It also allowed in the raise the money
to build this thing in six weeks

because the congregation got it that it
was going to be for their grandchildren.

So this is how it turned out very
very pleased with the wood finish.

And the steel which is Payne
in Charleston green and

stucco that's not nearly as nice as
the stucco you can get in the Bahamas.

And over here we've
planted Laiva trees and

I had my grandchildren go here and
get to sit under the shade of these trees.

And by the time this stucco wall will
be covered in the Arcus plant that

grows in Charleston.

I'll finish with this building
which is a building for architects.

The North Carolina decided
a few years ago that they would

build a new headquarters as a as a flat
out new building this is the first time

any of the country has decided to build
its own building from the ground up.

And of course they wanted to be
a sustainable as possible and

how to choose the architect they decide to
hold the competition that's open to any

member in North Carolina or
the twenty four hundred of us.

There are five thousand
architects in the state.

So a competition was held and
sixty five designs were entered.

You know we're a small firm.

You know and we don't usually get to
do the big important projects because

the big firms have you know
they're first in line.

So here was a chance to
be on an even footing.

And here's a drawing of downtown Raleigh.

This is our state capital.

It's one of the most beautiful
state capitals in the country.

Eight hundred forty two.

This is a sort of a government mall.

This is our side.

It's a little pork chop chop
shaped piece of land that's

left over from the grid when
the traffic engineer these big roads.

Over here is peace college.

This is a street that we thought
would really grow commercially.

This is a soon to be three.

Having downtown part of Raleigh hope
people will live and shop and work.

So we saw our design as our gesture
towards sustainability ought

to really become part of
the city as much as possible.

And of course the way we did this diagram
the shows you a fifteen minutes walk.

To our building and the fact that
it's near a light Oriel transit and

bus lines and of course bicycles.

So this is the diagram of our building and

we realized from the beginning that we
needed to think of this whole site is

it's a three quarters of
an acre as the building.

Because the AI a bust their heart
they wanted a building of twelve

thousand square feet and they wanted
thirty thousand square feet of parking.

Right.

Even architects who want to be
sustainable want thirty thousand.

I mean you know three times
as big as the building so.

We talked that over with our landscape
architect and realized the only thing we

could do here to meet their budget
was to make it surface parking.

And because we knew that
the landscape was going to be so

important we made our landscape architect
a member of our team from the word go.

His name is Greg bling
some Charlottesville.

And he's brilliant.

So this was our diagram So

here's as you can see we made
the whole site our building.

And we created this thing
that we call a parking garden

would be a green parking lot with
pavers that grass grew through.

Because we knew perfectly well that there
was plenty of parking on the streets

all around it.

So when we built it.

We could use this parking
Gordon to show films to give

lectures to set up sculpture to do
habitat mockups to do all the sort

of things you do here Georgia Tech
indoors and outdoors.

And then would create another garden over
here that would be more of a city garden.

You know traditional for
resting and gathering and reading.

Shade and study.

And here were the activities
of our building.

And leaking all of them would
be this isn't right here.

Which we made a really big porch.

Now you can draw analogies to
Southern architecture if you want.

We thought they were important.

Here's a big porch facing south.

It's got trees growing on the south
side it catches the south with breeze.

It's a Charleston single if you will.

It's only one room the whole
building is thirty two feet wide.

So every room gets light from both
sides good cross ventilation.

We decided to make a big stone wall
that divided the two gardens and

we would turn that Stern wall and
bring it over to this corner.

By by making this one shed
roof face in this direction we

could either have a green roof or we could
cover it in photovoltaics and we could

collect all of that rainwater and store it
underground in cisterns all of which we're

doing this is our sustainable diagram here
is our sister news our cross inhalation.

And here we are looking at
materials that are local.

This shows you are energy consumption.

Compared to a code compliant building for
energy consumption.

Our goal is to have
a lead platinum writing.

But we also want a building that really
seemed like it belonged to North Carolina.

So you know we just couldn't see
doing a project like this out

of a Luke a bomb in the storefront and
you know.

Brick detailing.

So we wanted to use wood North Carolina
wood which you see here.

We wanted to have a green wall
own part of the south facing

part of the multipurpose
room want to see he.

We want to use North Carolina stone for
the walls.

This is a great Bloom project.

And to contrast that with things
like these wonderfully inventive

expanded metal that we found.

That will use for all our ceilings.

So we really want something that seemed
like it belonged to North Carolina so

when you look at it you're seeing
in a sense an echo of a ten roof.

You're seeing an echo of a camp and
it uses stone but

this is you know it's
a very modern building but

it's gives a suggestion that it's
going to be here for a long time.

So we have worked on this building
in our office this is our

group of folks working on it.

We.

We you know although we're
totally computer office.

We still really learn a lot
from making models this is

a half inch model of part of
the section of the building.

And this is where it stands today we're
just on the edge of starting construction.

Shop drawings have been approved.

This is our latest
version of the building.

You know a little bit when we
made these original sketches.

You know when you make a sketch of
a building you get very taken with how

beautiful it is.

But we knew that this was
a busy street corner and

there were things like these really
ugly street lights and traffic signs and

you know just the sort of normal clutter
that you find in a on the edge of a city.

And I just kind of dreaded taking this
beautiful building and putting that in and

in the environment so one day
the folks in the office tried it out.

They photograph that and
I put a photo shot.

Version of the building and
I think it looks beautiful.

You've got this beautiful serene
carefully thought out build.

Being surrounded by all
the the Trying to us of

of a cityscape that you can throw at it.

And so I think it's improved.

So I'll finish up with this
image of our own house.

And an image of Las Vegas.

You know it is possible in America
today to build anything anywhere.

And it's possible to think
that you're anywhere and

you're really nowhere in buildings like
this you know if you go to Las Vegas.

They they're just brought Venice to you or
the Eiffel Tower or New York.

It's this kind of huge make believe for

whatever its merits are and
there are merits here.

I think it's equally important that
we have the our own little piece

that we can call our own
that we're comfortable with

that belongs to us especially in
a world where so much is make believe.

And the architects who really interest me.

Are the ones who share that belief.

You can find for example Tom Condit
working up in the Pacific Northwest.

Or Glenn Murcutt working in Australia.

Or Brian McCain lions in Nova Scotia or
Ted Flake and

Texas equally concerned with buildings
that fit their place and belong there.

And I will continue to be inspired.

As I think any of us can
by the place that we live

by nineteenth century brick fortresses
in North Carolina which are you know so

permanent they'll be there for
five hundred years.

As well as a farmer's milking shed in
eastern North Carolina that may only be

there another five years.

I think they all carry a quality.

That though very different to
what we build we can learn from.

And so I will finish with this
image is actually an image.

This is the first growing ever
made of buildings in America

these drawings were made by
John White in fourteen eighty five.

A sort of fifteen eighty
five in North Carolina.

This is the first recorded settlement.

Near what is presently Lake Manama Skeete
and you'll notice they have that same

ease with their environment as
the first building I showed you and

to me that would be a wonderful
goal if we could build today.

Not in the same way but

in this in a way that preserves where
we live for future generations.

So well in with this.

This is a sign I are so recently.

On a building site up in
Red Hook in Brooklyn.

And you can see they're having a little
trouble with the with the grammar here and

the trying to keep people out.

So they say no authorized people
allowed in these premises.

And I actually like that.

You know because.

I've been practicing as an architect for
over three decades.

And I still have this idea that I know
I'm not an authorized person you know

I like to come to every project
fresh To be honest it's quite scary

to come to every project fresh because
one's never sure but that it's possible.

But I think a lot of.

You know we talked a lot last night about
flexibility and being able to adapt.

And and

be able to listen to our clients who often
have ideas quite different to our own.

Though I think it's far better
to be a no authorized person

in the sense that you're fresh and
you're going to listen than not.

And couldn't resist
finishing with a sheep.

Making a great leap forward.

Thank you very much for your.

Or I can say something
over if you like that.

Yes.

Yes.

Well that's a really good question.

Enough talk to the.

You know to people like
Tom Condit who now has a national

practice he's building in North Carolina.

I talked to Brian McKenna lines
who's doing buildings in Bangladesh.

About that and
it's quite a challenge on the challenges.

Just to see if you can
translate what you're able

to do in your own place to another place.

And I would say the first thing I would.

Sorry.

Going there is to remember that
I'm a no authorized person.

And to learn as much as
I can about that place.

You know is my favorite habit when I
get the chance of working on a project.

Is to spend the day there and that's when
I do the design like at the pottery center

Judy and I and two other folks from
the office we spent in and day

on the site at the pottery center thinking
actually of where not to put the building.

And what it might be like
just by being there and so

I think that's a second really useful tool
is design to design it while you're there.

You know this this is harder lots of
times for students to do I take my

students to Savannah for example and
we're doing a project there and we spent

two days in Savannah and I'm hoping you
know they've already got the program and

they'll start thinking about well this is
what it would look like here and so on but

they all go back to the studio because
everybody knows you're going design and

light it and you don't you're a light
you know with the computer terminal and.

Often a lot of freshness and inspiration
from actually being there on the site and

the third thing to I think is to really
recognize you might get it wrong.

I never go to a client with one way to do
something I always try to find at least

three ways that make me
comfortable with building their.

To show them to get response and that.

So another way of listening because often
people can't tell you what they want but

they can sure tell you
what they don't want.

Yes.

How is my life influenced it.

We were talking about this today at lunch
I had a very difficult mother as a child.

And I spent a lot of
time out of the house.

And you know most of the streams and

creeks around my house in
Greensboro North Carolina.

I still know by heart
because that's where I.

I had the most fun growing up.

And you know I can't quantify this but

I think most of what I
know as an architect.

I learned from messing around in streams.

When I was you know
eight twelve years old.

That's a big influence on me I would
also say that I share with my mother

a love of nature and art and so those were
things that we could relate about and.

You know I one of the things that I.

And my teaching helped to

empower suit us to think about is how
your own background where you grew

up the friends you had the buildings
you saw your grandmother's bedroom.

You know where you were really
comfortable reading it.

Hearing a bedtime story.

It is to be able at some
point you're locked or

draw on those as influences in your work.

PETERS I'm Tore who was a Swiss
architect that are above all others.

He writes about the importance
of his Gran and

the door handle on his
grandmother's kitchen.

And he says if he can capture the quality
of that door handle in his buildings and

if you know his or
is buildings are extraordinary.

He feels like and that's his ideal.

So in other words we all have a history.

You know we're not you know architecture
doesn't come out of nowhere and

we need to learn about it.

We all bring our own backgrounds to it and

you know and
each of us has a really powerful.

Background.

He.

Well actually our own house
is in the 1930's suburb.

You know.

It's still a suburb that had sidewalks.

And I feel like it fits and we were very
careful not to a building that mansion.

And beat to keep within the scale
of the streets around us.

You know our our house
is twenty feet deep.

And most of the other houses in
that area have a similar scale.

So I would pay a lot of attention to that.

And yes I have done such buildings on
it and I don't show you them tonight.

But.

I think one of the one of the difficulties
of building in suburban developments.

Has to do with air conditioning.

And the notion that the site's
plan is not important anymore.

And the real challenge is to

build in a way that respects things
like orientation climate topography.

The typical pattern of the server
as you know is to make everything

face the street.

Well what of it.

Facing the street just north.

I find these things very
interesting challenges and

in fact our house facing
the street is north.

That's where we put the big
glass window there.

So you know I think it's a wonderful
challenge to build in the suburbs how to.

Do it and repeat it.

Hundreds of times I think David salmonella

has made a really good stab at that
no one's ever come to me and said.

Could you give us the design for
one hundred houses in a subdivision but

I would love that.

And someone did come to David Selma and

I don't know if you know
his projects in Minnesota.

But I think he's done a very creditable
job and the first thing he told

the developer was that no house can
be more than twenty feet wide and

no house is going to have
an attached garage and

all the roofs are going to be twelve and
twelve.

And they're all going
to be made on wood and

everything's going to be painted white.

Now you may think that's very restrictive.

But when you see what he's done
it's incredibly beautiful.

And the house is sold just like that.

Well I remember once I was working
late at Richard's office and

Judy came to pick me up and
Richard was there and

Judy said you know Richard you get
to see more miles more than I do.

I remember that part but
I'll tell you what I got from Richard and

it was three incredibly thrilling and
painful in equal measures years.

What I got from Richard was I learned
what it took to do something really well.

You know I've grown up
in North Carolina and

you know I knew architecture in
North Carolina and I knew how they worked.

And when I went to Richard Richard
took the desire to do a good building

to a whole new level that I learned from.

You know because Richard has this just
inner fire to do it really really well and

I learned what it took to do that.

And all of you get to learn that you know
when you go out you're you have to fight.

To do something.

Well that's not a given that
it's going to turn out well.

And the other thing I learned from
Richard how are really good consultants.

Because if you don't
know what you're doing.

They'll make you look good.

And I try to do that.

Ever since I've hired the really I have
the best coach will engineer in the south.

His name is John Moore and
he works in Charleston South Carolina.

He draws better than I do.

He draws better than architect.

He reads poetry and
he takes photographs remarkable person.

Yes.

I'll tell you one more little story
about that house in the Bahamas and

it's got the roof.

You know all sorts of worries come
up when you do something different.

The clients got real worried at
one point that all they were

drinking water from the roof was going to
be up there where the Sea Eagles were.

And so
this is what we're going to do about that.

And I said well you know people and
good living like that here in the Bahamas.

For hundreds of years and
doesn't seem to be a problem.

So but instead they bolt is really
expensive ultraviolet filter for

their cistern.

Which broke the first week
because one of the by laws of

the Bahamas is that anything sophisticated
you take out there is going to break.

In a thing and not work and
they they found that.

You know they use that water for

everything for drinking for
washing bathing cooking.

They found that you know
it didn't affect them.

And maybe that you know mixing a little
bit of Johnny Walker Red Label with

water every night as they did
had a powerful disinfectant

quality which you know where they live
happily ever after with the water.

All right thank you.