We hear too often of the disconnect between architects and builders, between what’s drawn and what’s built, between what’s intended and what results. An easy and efficient means of bridging this disconnect is the building of mock-up assemblies for architects, builders, owners, and developers to review and approve before plans are finalized and construction begins. I’ve been using mock-ups on our job sites since we began building higher performing homes, and not once have they ever proven a waste of time. In fact, just the opposite.

In a previous post about the Bishop Passive House now being constructed here on the Central Coast of California, I evaluated the home against the first 7 of 14 tenets for low carbon homes as outlined by Mike Maines and Brian Hayes in a November, 2019 article on the Green Building Advisor website.

In late 2019 - which seems like a lifetime ago already - Michael Maines and Brian Hayes teamed up for a bird’s-eye view article around designing and constructing low carbon homes, written by Kiley Jacques on the Green Building Advisor website. Widely respected New England design-builders, they acknowledged lacking all the answers, yet simultaneously laid out fourteen imperative and easily-achievable tenets for low carbon home design and construction.