Battery Power: The New Frontier.

“Architects are designing the buildings, and buildings are 40 percent of the problem here,” says Nathan Kipnis, Founder and Principal of Kipnis Architecture + Planning. As a child living through the oil embargo of 1973, he recalls feeling the adults around him panicking, and realized then the importance of energy efficiency. It was around this time Nathan began seeing the first examples of solar houses, and as much as he admired their function, they just didn’t look right. Now, under the tagline “high design, low carbon” (which he hopes will soon be zero carbon), his firm creates homes that balance aesthetics with high performance. 

 

In 1985, the year he earned his masters in Architecture with an emphasis in Energy Conscious Design, Nathan felt like he was wearing an invisibility cloak. No one took his concerns about green design seriously. Needless to say, the world has caught up. Now, as a member of the national committee of the American Institute of Architects, he helps to write policy that influences over 90,000 architects across the country, knowing how much the building process currently accounts for carbon emissions. Most notably, Nathan is part of the AIA’s 2030 Commitment, an actionable strategy that sets goals and standards so that the built environment can reach net zero emissions by the year 2030.

 

In this episode of Better Buildings, Better Society, hear Nathan’s prediction about the price of materials, the one thing he wishes everyone would incorporate into their building project, and the big deal about batteries. 

 

Quotes

 

• “Anyone who is designing a building now that isn’t thinking about long term changes, is giving a client a dinosaur from Day 1.” (2:56-3:06 | Nathan) 

• “This is the new frontier—the embodied carbon. Everybody’s been talking about operational carbon for a while and it’s tricky.” (12:50-13:01 | Nathan) 

• “When you do the math, you’re going to want to reuse buildings more, stay local, live close to work and all that good stuff and not be in sprawled out communities.” (13:15-13:31 | Nathan) 

• “Going all electric is a really important one. If they don’t, that’s about 15 years before they have a chance to correct that choice and 15 years is probably too late.” (25:46-25:56 | Nathan)

• “All the top chefs are using induction. Induction is way better. … This in particular makes people’s eyes roll, especially the cooks in the group.” (26:15-26:39 | Nathan)

• “Even Tesla is moving away from cobalt and lithium to more nickel in their batteries—which, nothing’s perfect. I don’t think the coal plants were perfect, ever.” (40:29-40:42 | Nathan) 

• “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.” (40:46-40:49 | Nathan) 

 

Learn more about Nathan Kipnis: 

Website | https://www.kipnisarch.com/

Phone | 847-864-9650

Email | info@kipnisarch.com

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/nathan-kipnis-architects-inc/

Learn more about Better Buildings, Better Society:

Website | https://www.dma-eng.com/

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/dma-engineering/

Steven’s Personal LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-forrester-36a91517/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/dma_engineering/ 

 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm