Carey Clouse and Josh Jackson Will Lead Inaugural Undergraduate Semester in Sustainable Design/Build

Yestermorrow Design/Build School and the Architecture+Design Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are pleased to announce that Carey Clouse and Josh Jackson will be leading the first Undergraduate Semester in Sustainable Design/Build program next fall.

Carey Clouse is an educator and practitioner with a body of work that addresses the intersection between sustainability, social justice, and design/build. After graduating from MIT with a graduate degree in architecture and urbanism, Carey joined the faculty at Tulane University, where she has taught architecture as an adjunct assistant professor for the past four years. In her time in New Orleans she also spent three years as a Rose Architectural Fellow, working closely with the city to establish green building guidelines, with local grassroots rebuilding groups to share resources and ideas, and with a non-profit housing developer to oversee the sustainable design and development of more than 1,500 units of affordable housing. She is partner and co-founder of CrookedWorks Architecture, a small design/build firm in New Orleans which addresses the tough issues of urban identity, food security, and environmental stewardship. In addition to her architectural background, Carey also taught as an outdoor instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) from 2001 until 2007.

Josh Jackson received his Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University in 1989 and promptly bicycled across the country to San Francisco where he pursued an interest in alternative energy and worked for Pacific Gas & Electric on energy conservation programs. A desire to bring head, hands, and heart together led Josh to the Heartwood School for the Homebuilding Crafts in Massachusetts where he fell in love with timberframing and ecological building during two summers as an apprentice. He has pursued these paths exploring a wide variety of natural materials, handmade paper, stained glass, and timbers of all shapes, sizes, and species. Josh co-founded the firm Humble Abode in the Berkshires, and is now a partner in TimberHomes LLC, a timberframing company based in Vershire, Vermont. Josh teaches timberframing workshops at Heartwood School, Yestermorrow, and Rocky Mountain Workshops and has been a core faculty member of Yestermorrow’s Natural Building Intensive program since 2007.

Yestermorrow’s Semester in Sustainable Design/Build will draw undergraduates and recent post-baccalaureates from diverse liberal arts colleges and architecture schools. Students will be exposed to design fundamentals, principles of sustainability, and a hands-on experience in design/build―designing and constructing a “tiny house” from start to finish. Under the guidance of Clouse and Jackson, they will explore what sustainability looks like in practice. The program is geared for students considering a career in the fields of sustainable design, architecture, planning, construction, engineering and landscape design, including liberal arts students in search of an immersive and unique “study away” opportunity, and students in professional architecture programs looking for hands-on design/build experience. The 16-week semester runs August 21-December 9, 2011 and offers 15 credits from the UMass-Amherst Architecture + Design program.

Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2011 class. For more information visit www.yestermorrow.org/semester-programs or contact José Galarza, Director of Semester Programs: jose@yestermorrow.org.