Alumni Atelier ambassador Eric Ross
Eric Ross (M. Arch, 2010; B.F.A., architecture, 2009) is an award-winning director at William McDonough + Partners in Charlottesville, Virginia. His work at WM+P focuses on the integration of Cradle to Cradle thinking at all levels of a project, embodying regenerative design and development principles across scale and typology.
Eric’s Fall 2020 Alumni Atelier project, A Return to Zero, addresses mass timber, the building material that is a critical element in the fight for carbon positive buildings. A collaborative endeavor with contributions from mass timber manufacturer Nordic Structures, A Return to Zero will serve as a landmark case study for carbon positive architecture.
Eric Ross:
Through deep research, the building industry has set targets to reduce carbon emissions substantially in the next 10 years, and ultimately reach zero by 2050. Larger companies have embraced the challenge internally rather than waiting on the public sector and politicians to lead. The housing industry continues to lags behind because it deals with the most economic hurdles.
My idea is: How can we take the work we’re doing for major companies and distill it into case study house projects that can serve as roadmaps for architects and builders?
We’ve been using a new building material called mass timber in lieu of concrete or steel which both have pretty substantial carbon footprints. The test case house is meant to employ mass timber as much as possible, as well as prefabrication techniques which reduce on-site waste. It’s a big vision thing. For Bill McDonough, my boss, it’s something he’s been pushing for 30 plus years. My Alumni Atelier project is a chance to distill it all down as a case study.
For me, this journey began about fifteen years ago. I had been in the Army and decided I wanted to study architecture. My sister living in Hilton Head recommended checking out SCAD. I immediately started the five-year program. Since I was a little bit older, I was working full time while going to SCAD and by the time I started that fifth year, I was completing my thesis and at the same time transitioning into a real architecture profession role, doing high-end architecture including 3D modeling that I learned in at SCAD. It was a nice dovetail.
Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart’s book Cradle To Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002 was required reading for my first SCAD studio project with professor Tim Woods. This ethos of designing beautiful, compelling architecture with a strong, sustainable ethos was instilled early on at SCAD. Now, at WM+P, I’ve worked on five mass timber projects, building on this breadth of knowledge.
With these projects, we can do pretty great photorealistic renderings throughout the process. There are VR walkthroughs and prototype 3D printed models and laser cut models, analogous to what a studio project might produce in the end, but with a with a lot more real world thought and input.
Returning to SCAD for Alumni Atelier project has been wonderful. I’ve enjoyed speaking directly with students, taking them on a virtual walk-through of my work space, answering questions, and sharing my project in progress. I appreciate the opportunity to pay it forward.
The SCAD Alumni Atelier, conceived and endowed by SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace, enriches the creative and professional endeavors of distinguished SCAD graduates.
Learn more about the program here.
By Peter Relic
