Emerging Green Builders Symposium - University of Miami School ...

Emerging Green Builders Symposium
“Tropical Vernacular Architecture”
at the University of Miami School of Architecture
Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center
1215 Dickinson Drive
Coral Gables Campus
Saturday, March 7, 2009
We will provide 4 Sustainable Design CEU’s at this Conference.
Please register at http://arc.miami.edu/tropical-vernacular-symposium
Direct and questions to Brian Lemmerman:
954-304-2468 or email brian_lemmerman@yahoo.com
General Purpose
To educate EGB members, the UM student body, the general public, and professionals about the
importance of learning from the past to build a sustainable future in tropical climates. Lectures will
provide insight on vernacular building types and techniques through the unique perspectives of each of
our speakers at they discuss projects they’ve studied and built in different parts of the tropical belt. The
public will learn that green buildings don’t require space-age technologies to function. Students and
professionals will better understand how buildings relate to their surroundings so they can apply those
principles to their own practices.
Tentative Schedule
11:00am-12:00pm: Registration + Lunch-catered by Green Gables Café, Whisk, and Eurotable
12:00pm-12:10pm: Welcome by Liz Plater-Zyberk and Introduction by Brian Lemmerman
12:10pm-1:05pm: Speaker 1- Maria Veronica Machado. Adib Cure to translate.
1:05pm-2:00pm: Speaker 2- Thorn Grafton
2:00pm-2:25pm: Speaker 3- Mark Schrieber
2:25 pm-2:35pm: Sierra Club- Urban Development Boundary Issues in Parkland
2:35pm-3:00pm: Snack/Restroom Break-catered by LA Sweets and Whole Foods
3:00pm-3:55pm: Speaker 4- Nnamdi Elleh
3:55pm-4:30pm: Speaker 5- Ricardo Lopez, Jose Venagas, Steven Fett, and Graham Ivory
4:35pm-5:30pm: Speaker 6- Steve Mouzon
5:30pm-5:50pm: Question and Answer Session. Mason McPhee as Moderator
5:50pm-6pm: Closing Remarks

Speaker: Maria Veronica Machado- 50 minutes
Biography
Graduated Summa Cum Laude and current professor and researcher at the University of Zulia,
School of Architecture in 1996. She has a Masters of Advanced Technologies in Architectural
Construction at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 1998. She has written over 70 papers for
national and international scientific organizations including PLEA- Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, ISES- International Solar Energy Society, and COTEDI- Congreso Latinoamericano Sobre
Confort y Comportamiento Termico de las Edificiones. She has also produced 18 research papers for
several internationally recognized architectural journals.
Lecture
The Impact of Maracaibo’s Humid Subtropical Climate on its Architecture; Past and Present.
An overview of the planet’s climatic and environmental conditions around the tropical belt and
their effects on the evolution of vernacular buildings in those regions to raise the awareness of architects
about proper building siting and environmental sensitivity. A focus on the subtropical zone and
specifically on Maracaibo Lake shows us how the hot and humid climate has a direct impact on how
buildings have responded to its climate through history, and how recent housing proposals arising from
the research of the Lab-ller_VA (Laboratory and Workshop in Video Architecture) at the University of
Zulia.

Speaker: Thorn Grafton- 50 minutes
Biography
Miami Architect Thorn Grafton was principal in his own practice for 25 years before joining
Zyscovich Architects in 2005. As the firm’s Director of Sustainable Initiatives - Grafton coordinates
projects in the LEED pipeline (approximately 15 in 2009), including projects for higher education, K-12
schools, corporate, municipal, historic and existing buildings. Grafton was an early leader in promoting
the sustainable design movement locally, advocating that “green” architecture address the region’s hot
and humid climate. He was a founding member of the local USGBC chapter, and he continues to make
presentations on environmental and green design topics to professional and community groups. Grafton
holds a Master of Architecture from Tulane University, and has been a part-time instructor at the
University of Miami School of Architecture.
Lecture
Design Inspiration from Hot & Humid Zones
A visual survey of the best of South Florida Architecture leaves unanswered questions – why is
there not more of the good stuff The Florida Vernacular, Sub-Tropical Modernism, The Sarasota
School – continue to make valuable contributions to our built legacy, yet the bulk of our horizontal and
then vertical expansion lacks evidence of this. Step 1: Understand the essence of these movements; Step
2: Review exquisite design overtures from other H&H zones around the world; Step 3: In the face of a
changing South Florida environment in the decades to come, can architecture be of the environment
(regenerative), instead of just an imposition in it

Speaker: Mark Schrieber – 20 Minutes
Biography
An Intern Architect at Max Strang Architecture where the firm's environmental sensibilities and
design aesthetics continue to attract a diverse array of residential and commercial clientele. Currently
Mark is working on several exciting local and international projects which will be striving for LEED
Certification. Mark is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Architecture, where he was
awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and serves on the
USGBC Emerging Green Builders National Committee. In the past Mark has worked with the City of
Miami Office of Sustainable Initiatives and currently consults the City of Lauderhill on their
sustainability efforts.
Lecture
An introduction to natural building processes and sustainable living in the tropics. Learning by
experience living at Rancho Mastatal in the foothills of La Cangreja National Park, Costa Rica, where
typical construction techniques include bamboo and timber frame structures, wattle and daub walls, cob
floors and natural plaster. Mark will tell his story of his experience abroad.

Speaker: Nnamdi Elleh- 50 minutes
Biography
Associate Professor of architecture history and theory at the College of Design, Architecture,
Art, and Planning (DAAP), University of Cincinnati. He was trained as an architect at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee and he received his Ph.D. in art history from Northwestern University. He is the
recipient of many awards, including Samuel Kress and Graham Architectural Foundation grants. He was
the Samuel Ittleson Pre-Doctoral Fellow (2000-2002) at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual
Arts, National Gallery of Art (CASVA), Washington, D.C.; the recipient of the outstanding junior
faculty award at the University of Cincinnati in 2003, and he was named a Distinguished Visiting
Architectural Historian at the School of Architecture, University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 2007.
His books include African Architecture, Evolution and Transformation, the first comprehensive text on
African architecture from antiquity to the present; Architecture and Power in Africa, and Abuja: The
Single Most Ambitious Urban Design Project of the 20 th Century. Elleh has contributed to several
national and international exhibitions, served on the board of directors of DOCUMOMO, US, and is also
a current member of the board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historian.
Lecture
Builders of Poor African Neighborhoods as Environmentally Conscious Modernists and Contemporary
Designers.
Do the houses in the economically and politically underprivileged neighborhoods and districts of
great African cities such as Port Elizabeth, Khartoum, Dar es Salaam, Fez, Durban, Johannesburg,
Kinshasa, Lagos and Nairobi belong in the discourse of sustainable modern and contemporary
architectural practices
How can we overlook the resourcefulness of the builders o f Africa’s poorest urban and rural
neighborhoods we consider the concept of sustainable design As a continent that has for too long
remained in the shadows of Europe and American conceptions of modernism, modernization, and
national development, there is an increasing need to define what we mean by sustainable African
architectural practices in the twenty-first century. It appears that the narrative of the Modern Movement
selectively applauded an elite version of the story for its origins and development while refusing to
acknowledge the productions of the underprivileged classes who often built their homes by themselves
by ingenious methods which recycle materials that have been discarded, something we rarely find
academically trained architects doing.

Steven Fett, Graham Ivory, Ricardo Lopez, and Jose Venegas, professionals in practice and part-time
faculty at the UM School of Architecture - - In Search of a Sustainable Civic Art in the Tropics

Speaker: Steve Mouzon- 50 minutes
Biography
An architect, author, and lecturer from Miami Beach. He is the founding principal of the New
Urban Guild and a board member of the Guild Foundation which focus on education about, and design
of, architecture within developments based on the principles of the New Urbanism. He also has his own
practice in Miami Beach.
Lecture
Recent Developments in the Tropical Original Green.
The Original Green is plain-spoken, common-sense sustainability... and its operating system is a
living tradition. Living traditions aren't stuck in time like historical traditions, so they are constantly
changing to respond to current conditions. A small cadre of New Urbanist architects have been working
for several years to develop an architecture appropriate to the Caribbean Rim. This lecture will both
introduce the inner workings of the Original Green and also review some of the most recent Caribbean
Rim patterns and techniques.