Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Achievement

Through my work of creating green, prefab homes, I have been able to educate and enlighten so many people about sustainable design and have begun to make it more accessible to more people. Teaching and equipping people to change the way they live so that they can make less of an impact on our environment is incredibly important to me. I’m so proud of so many things that have happened and are happening right now. Through the "Green House" exhibit at the National Building Museum in D.C. and through West Coast Green conference in San Francisco, more people, not just our clients, have begun to have the chance to see what a green home looks like and the impact one can have. In May, an mkSolaire* will be going on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which makes me so excited because it's an opportunity to extend the reach of my message into the Midwest and to be involved in a project that will touch and inspire children. Since this will be the first mkSolaire* ever built, my computer has been invaluable for creating renderings, images, and 3D models of what it will look like so everyone involved in this fantastic project knows what they are working toward. It is more inspiring to members of our team to be able to see rather than just imagine what this wonderful house is going to look like when it’s finished!

Inspiration

I grew up in Iowa in a world where there seemed to be a sort of perfect balance between the land, the climate, and the needs and demands of the people on both. But when I left Iowa for school and work I began to realize that the delicacy of that balance was not only being threatened but broken at the expense of everything involved – land, climate and all of us. My inspiration is that balance I enjoyed throughout my childhood – I know it can exist and I know how wonderful it would be for everyone of us to get to live in that sort of world – a world in which we don’t have to worry what’s going to be left for our children by the time they’re raising their own families. What inspired my creativity was recognizing that there had to be a change in the way we live but a change that people could commit to. Sustainable living can’t be forced on people – it has to be made simple and beautiful and comfortable so that it’s something people embrace. My homes are my solution to this – they open the door to clean, green living and make it easy.

Insight

Technology has been the key to so much of what is sustainable about the homes we create. Everything from PV solar panels to spray in foam insulation to energy monitoring systems has come from advances in technology, advances that make a greener life possible without having to sacrifice comfort and beauty.

Dream

My goal is to one day make thoughtful, sustainable design accessible to all so that anyone who wants to can live in eco-friendly home and live an eco-friendly life. I want to offer simple and beautiful sustainable solutions that make a green lifestyle something easy and elegant – something anyone would want and anyone could have. Technology will play a major role in turning that goal into a reality. Every new advance in technologies like clean energy or renewable materials or methods for delivering these solutions to consumers faster and better is a new way to lessen our impact on the earth. Change the way we live and we will change the direction in which our planet is headed.

Michelle Kaufmann uses a laptop powered by

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor