So What Is the BrightBuilt Barn?

The BrightBuilt Barn is a collaboration between Kaplan Thompson Architects, Bensonwood Woodworking Company and many of the finest minds in sustainable design and construction in the northeast who have come together at the invitation of a visionary client who strives for the following goals:

1. To design and produce a building that will serve as a studio for the client and his wife which is sustainable, affordable, replicable, educational and beautiful.

2. To bridge the seam between the building and its context, specifically its impact on the environment by employing passive and active building systems to attain zero net energy status.

3. To create integrated building systems for which it is necessary to connect the seam that currently divides the architect and subcontractors.

4. To bridge the seam between the employment of sustainable design and evaluation of the systems through an analog and digital monitoring system.

5. To thoroughly document the research, design, construction and use of the building through the internet and other means of wide reaching publicity so that this project will become a green building resource, closing the gap between research and application.

6. To create a network of creatively and technically skilled individuals within the northeast who can work together on future projects to achieve similar goals.

"At this point in history, what wants to happen?" - - Keith Collins

This post is from our visionary client, at the inseption of the project:

December 2007
The Maine Solar Barn project is an effort to create an intelligent alternative to conventional building design and construction.

We aim to create a functional, beautiful, economically feasible structure that incorporates the latest thinking in sustainable, ecologically sensitive architecture and home building.

To this end, we have dedicated ourselves to the highest standards in sustainability in the entire process of designing, building, and inhabiting this structure. We will look widely for guidance and inspiration, from standards-setting bodies (such as the United States Green Building Council and their LEED certification process, as an example), practitioners in the field (such as Tedd Benson of Bensonwood), leading architects, and academics and other thinkers. We expect the structure to have a zero (or better) net carbon balance, and to be a net energy producer over its lifetime.

In part, we want this project to be an answer to the question of what one small group of people can do to help save the planet from catastrophic climate change due to emissions of greenhouse gases.

For more of the initial thinking and insiration that was part of the beginning of this project go to: http://www.mainesolarbarn.blogspot.com/