Upwall Visits
Last week Thursday D.C. based architect, Gregory Upwall, visited acla:works. Greg was in Trinidad and Tobago to speak at the Energy Conference: his presence there [and in T+T] was made possible by DaCosta Gwendoline, Ltd. – a strategic partner of Greg's firm, Studio Upwall. Greg met acla:works director, Peter Chandler, at the conference; they got to talking and Peter invited Greg to our office to share with us a bit about his practice.
Greg started his presentation with a brief explanation of how he came to be invited to the Energy Conference, and then touched on his [relatively] recent move from San Francisco – where he had first set up his practice – to D.C.
Although he does commercial projects, sustainable housing makes up the majority of Greg's practice. He spoke about this – that we should seek to find "regionally appropriate solutions" to housing issues. He spoke as well of making soul-impacting decisions, and lamented that "we once knew how to make places that were places." [Text continues after the break]
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Above: Greg Upwall at our office
One residential work that Greg highlighted was the P.A.A.V. project. This AIA award-winning modular hillside pod/office was designed and constructed in just three months by a team comprising Greg and five students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he taught.
In addition to demonstrative slides of his own work, Greg referenced the practices of Rural Studio and Glenn Murcutt and the written works of James Howard Kunstler [The Geography of Nowhere] and Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake [Refabricating Architecture].
Ultimately, Greg's message was this: Passive First. In other words, if we are looking to build sustainably, we should first concern ourselves with building for climate and in harmony with the environment before considering the implementation of costly systems into our buildings.
The William McDonough quotation – "How do we love all the children, of all species, for all time?" – rounded out Greg's presentation, and started enthusiastic discussions on the local application of that question.
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Above: Greg talks about passive design in relation to housing
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