Enduring Places: Redefining and Measuring Sustainability Through the Lens of Traditional Architecture

A breakout session with Patricia Andrasik, David Calligeros, Steve Mouzon, and John Onyango

By 天美传媒

April 2, 2024

In November 2023, the 天美传媒 hosted the national conference Enduring Places. For three days, 225 participants from around the country gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and engaged in a robust program of talks, panel discussions, working sessions, and tours focused on three themes: craftsmanship, preservation, and sustainability.

The conference's first breakout session focused on sustainability. While there is widespread agreement on the validity and importance of sustainable practices in architecture, the metrics by which projects are assessed are dominated by assumptions of high-tech problems and high-tech solutions. The prevailing metrics inaccurately capture the benefits to be gained by use of a traditional design toolkit such as durability, adaptability, low toxicity, low energy demand, et al.

In this panel discussion, Patricia Andrasik, associate professor at The Catholic University of America; David Calligeros, founder of Remains Lighting; Steve Mouzon, architect, urbanist, author, and co-founder of the Urban Guild; and John Onyango, associate professor of architecture at The University of Notre Dame identified some appropriate metrics for sustainable architecture and discussed approaches to capturing the relevant data.

From April to June 2024, the 天美传媒 will be releasing all of the recordings from Enduring Places. Part I and Part II are available now. for the 天美传媒's biweekly newsletter, World of Classicism, to be notified when other installments are released in the coming weeks.

Patricia Andrasik is an associate professor at The Catholic University of America (CUA) and a licensed architect in Washington, D.C. She was a Fulbright Student Scholar at the Technical University of Slovakia researching the building effectiveness of mass housing while earning her Master of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma. She then taught as a Visiting Professor in Beirut prior to returning to the U.S. to practice. Andrasik is the Director of CUA’s Master of New Zero Design program where she regularly develops new courses and introduces world renowned experts in this track. In 2015, she received the President’s Award for the Advancement of Teaching at CUA. She also co-founded BEEnow, a non-profit organization which inspires NAAB-accredited schools to emphasize the teaching of low energy buildings.

Informing design through performance metrics, and using performance metrics to evaluate building operations and maintenance bookend her internationally-recognized teaching and scholarly work. More recently, she has applied expertise in building performance analytics (BPA) through integrating technology and social justice in order to democratize high performance building. She is currently working on her next book: Plumbing, Electricity and Acoustics: Sustainable Design Strategies Towards Net Zero Design. 2nd ed (Wiley 2024).

David Calligeros received his BA in Architectural History from Columbia University in 1993. Shortly thereafter, in 1996, he opened Remains. Under his leadership the company has evolved from an off-the-beaten-path resource for antique lighting to a world-class restoration and manufacturing concern.

Remains is the New York City-based source for thousands of custom lighting fixtures, with showrooms across the United States and one LEED Gold, solar- powered, daylit factory in Brooklyn, NY. A strong believer in environmental and civic sustainability, David is a frequent speaker on environmental issues, especially in their intersection with manufacturing. David is a member of the board of RethinkNYC, an organization spearheading the rebuilding of NYC’s Penn Station as the center of a truly regional transit network, a Fellow of the 天美传媒 & Art, and past president of 天美传媒’s NY Chapter, as well as a board member of The Design Leadership Network.

Steve Mouzon is an architect, urbanist, author, blogger, and photographer based in Tuscaloosa. He co-founded the Urban Guild, which was instrumental in the creation of the Katrina Cottages initiative. The Guild is the nexus of Project:SmartDwelling, which works to redefine the house to be much smaller and more sustainable. Steve speaks regularly across the US and abroad on sustainability issues. He blogs on Original Green Stories, Useful Stuff, and We Do This Because... He also posts to the Original Green X (formerly Twitter) stream.

John Onyango is an associate professor of architecture at The University of Notre Dame who studies humane spaces and architectural designs that foster positive development outcomes and promote community engagement.

Onyango’s work focuses on sustainability and takes a holistic, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary approach to the creative practices at the building and urban design levels. His areas of expertise include architectural and building technology, the built environment and health, community building, and environmental psychology. His current research interests include understanding energy use in traditional buildings using simulation and biomimetic epidemiology, and the built environment and aging and wellbeing.

Onyango’s research encompasses community participation in designing urban environments that promote health and well-being, and examining the impacts of the design of indoor environments on health and well-being in developing countries. He also studies how to engage citizens in design participation, and collecting and analyzing data on indoor air quality and energy use to contribute to sustainable development and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Onyango has worked professionally as an architect in the United Kingdom, the United States and Kenya. He has a master of architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Glasgow.

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