MISSION

To create beautiful, healthy buildings to empower families, uplift communities, and improve our living world.

VISION

ZeroEnergy Design strives toward a socially just and equitable world where buildings make positive contributions to the environment. We envision a status quo of energy positive, carbon neutral buildings, made of biodegradable and recyclable materials. We engender love through creating spaces that are beautiful, functional, durable, and provide healthy, comfortable environments for living.

OUR FIRM

ZeroEnergy Design (ZED) is an architecture and mechanical design firm specializing in high performance homes and buildings. Our commitment to innovative and ecologically sensible design is reflected in our multidisciplinary knowledge base, which spans architecture, mechanical design and financial analysis. With this shared expertise, ZED originates designs that are tailored to a client’s way of life, environmental values, and unique sense of style.

We believe that great design should enhance the value of each place, make optimal utility of space, elicit an emotional response, and use less energy. Our designs are inspired by clients and the surrounding landscape, resulting in an architecture that is uniquely informed by both subject and place. We are also committed to designing homes and buildings that use 50% less energy than building code requires, in pursuit of energy independence.  Design Philosophy

OUR NAME

We take our name from the industry term zero energy (or zero-net energy), which is defined as a building that creates as much energy as it uses. A zero energy building is the result of a multi-disciplined effort and thus appropriately symbolizes our integrated design philosophy and approach.  

OUR DIFFERENCE

The Renaissance Team. Our design team is composed of professionals from the fields of architecture, mechanical design and finance. This integrated design approach yields holistically designed solutions and brings much-needed technical and financial rigor to the residential sector.  Team | Awards | Media

Our Designs Transcend Style. Our designs may take cues from vernacular styles, but they are uniquely adapted to the site and our client's aesthetic tastes.

Design Visualization. We produce a wide array of visualizations and renderings to help our clients understand the design before it's constructed. Renderings convey space in three dimensions and can aid in the development of design features and material selections. As a design communication tool, renderings are important because they effectively allow clients to preview how their decisions will impact home aesthetics.

We Ensure Occupant Comfort and Health. We provide green and healthy building materials options with easy to understand explanations of their benefits. Healthy indoor air quality is an important goal that we target by specifying and recommending low- or no-VOC materials and finishes or designing energy efficient ventilation systems that ensure consistent, fresh indoor air.

Building Science Collaboration with Builder. Building science applies physics principles to home construction, ensuring the longevity of the built home. These techniques holistically consider the interactions between the building, its occupants, and the climate and environment in which it exists. Applying these principles on paper is meaningless if the details are not successfully executed in the field. We work with the builder on each project to ensure that our construction details are both implementable and meet the principles of sound building science, thus ensuring a long-lasting, healthy home or building.

OUR START

The firm's founders got their start leading Cornell University's 2005 Solar Decathlon team. The competition, sponsored by the US Department of Energy, challenges universities from across the US and beyond to research, design and build an 800 square-foot off-grid solar home. Cornell's first entry to the competition was awarded second place. The team's success was driven by a well-rounded team fielded from the top-rated departments within the University. Subsequent to the project's conclusion, the founders chose to continue working together to realize their shared vision of bringing sensible green design to residential market sectors.