Snapshots in sustainable design: area architects inspire urban migration with aim of 'elegant density'.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

A virtuous cycle keeps residential construction on the front end of, sustainability. Best practices emerge and get embedded in industry--standard checklists before they quickly migrate into the building code. A home built in 2012 is considerably more green than one Hilt in 2002, and light-years beyond the homes of decades before die turn of the millennium.

Architects and designers are on the front lines of the push for more sustainable lifestyles, balancing cost and carbon and a whole host of other data points in their quest for a future of net-zero energy homes. The question is not merely "How green do you want to be?" The question isn't one home builders or home buyers can answer on their own. Rather, its a complex query based on economics of scale, adoption rates and production efficiencies.

Looking beyond environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality, today's architectural and design communities are taking the next step into socially sustainable place-making, aiming to integrate and optimize health, collaboration, recreation, and other aspects of a sustainable lifestyle.

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PLANNED COMMUNITY

David Barrett of Barrett Studio Architects in Boulder says Colorado communities are learning that huge tracts of open space can only remain huge and open if we plan denser communities. "We've been calling it elegant density," Barrett says.

"People are really starting 10 realize the draw of, these wide-open spaces can be continued through denser urban areas rather than spreading Out haphazardly," adds Maggie Flickinger. Barrett Studio's director of business development.

Barrett says the trend toward sustainable design and architecture has been fueled by, industry initiatives like the 2030 Challenge, which aims to make all new homes and renovations carbon-neutral by 2030. Currently, the industry is at about 60 percent. "Let's do something and not fiddle away while Rome is burning," says Barrett of what he sees as the prevailing industry attitude in the face of climate change. Sustainable features "are in the minds of most clients today," he adds. "Developers are slowest to respond, because they are more focused on cost, but the market is demanding it."

Barrett's portfolio includes everything front greenhouses to barns to planned mixed-use communities, namely the Holiday development in north Boulder.

Barrett is working on a net-zero energy New Belgium "workhouse" in Fort Collins with six temporary quarters for visiting sales...