The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is an organization of "over 80,000 licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners." They call themselves the voice of the architecture profession. AIA wanted to know how the sustainable parts of Pringle Creek (i.e. the LEED-Platinum Cottage) fit into the whole sustainable project. They spoke with Pringle Creek masterplanner James Meyer and here is their web article.
Opsis is designing several other housing models (row houses, loft apartments, single-family homes, etc.), some as traditional as the cottage house, and others featuring more contemporary flat roofs and vertical profiles. They are currently building their first three-story “Tall House,” and other designs are in various stages of construction design and permitting.These designs will be suggested templates for builders. Other architects are allowed to create new designs pending approval of the Pringle Creek Design Review Committee. However, the development’s commitment to sustainability is contractually mandated: All new buildings must be LEED certified. Meyer says the Design Review Committee’s charter is less aesthetically fixated and more sustainably oriented than a typical subdivision’s equivalent. “We’re not stylistically driving it, but we’re driving it on a set of principles,” he says.
Key to the development’s potential attractiveness, Meyer says, is allowing the community to grow and develop organically, without restrictive and detailed building regulations, so “that you feel there is a history of [the place], that it wasn’t just sort of a piece of machinery that was crafted the week before,” even though his initial design impulse might be to rigorously define this very machine.
