Introductions

Growing up, I was lucky enough to live near a beautiful church designed by Fruto Vivas. With a shell-shaped floor plan and a sloped concrete cover, it funneled easterly winds from the nearby lake, refreshing the air before exiting through a myriad of tiny cross-shaped openings on the western face. It blended form and function with an elegance that amazed my 8-year-old self. It ultimately made me fall in love with bio-climatic architecture.

This turned out to be a fairly unpopular interest among my peers at the time, but that’s neither here nor there.

Less than a decade later, I found myself double-majoring in Civil Engineering and Architecture. I was determined to study sustainable construction materials, systems, and techniques - and to help improve our built environment. But, as the saying goes, “Man plans, and God laughs.” When my country began to unravel around me, I barely managed to finish one degree and had to shift my priorities.

I practiced a bit of structural engineering, mostly supporting projects by architect friends. For the past several years, though, I’ve made a living as a remote freelancer, working mostly in digital marketing. No complaints - it’s steady work that carried me through migration, helped me settle into a new home, and gave me personal and professional stability. I also got to sharpen my skills in communications and strategy.

Still, the passion never faded. And that’s what this space is for.

What This Space Will Be

This newsletter is a place for reflecting on sustainable construction systems, materials, and design. You can expect:

• Fairly niche news coverage, focusing on developments in the sustainable construction space, worldwide

• Commentary on exciting new research, where I arbitrarily decide what is exciting (feel free to suggest topics in the comments!)

• Curated ideas coming from the sustainable design & construction space, sustainable paradigms & philosophical musings

• Fair critique when it's due - this isn’t a space for green-washing and never will be

With some luck, we’ll also open up conversations with like-minded folks, fellow travelers, and practitioners who’ve been in the trenches. If any of this resonates with you, I hope you’ll stick around - follow, subscribe, tell a friend, pet the dog, all the good things. I’ll be setting up shop across platforms, so we should be easy to find.

I’ll try to keep up with a weekly publishing schedule, most likely Sundays. Will keep you posted! (Get it? Because they’re posts? Leave a comment if you get it. Please.)