Build It Forward

Ashley Murphree built herself a tiny house out of a shipping container using every good building science practice she knew. Something in it was still making her sick.

It was not mold. She knew the building well enough to rule that out. But despite testing and doing everything right, the symptoms continued. That experience opened up a question she has been chasing ever since: what else are we not accounting for when we call a building healthy?

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded in the Building Science Corporation Test Hut at Summer Camp 2026, Nick Falkoff sits down with Ashley, a mechanical engineer and former general contractor who runs Alchemech Engineering in California and designs systems for high-performance homes.

Ashley walks through what she has learned about sensitization and why an occupant who has already reacted to something needs a very different building than one who has not. She gets into the research of Dr. Robert Naviaux at UC San Diego on the mitochondria and the healing cycle, and why a so many different triggers can produce the same condition. She makes the case that we are still not putting large, well-sealed filters in the right places, and asks whether the portable air purifier sitting in the corner is now part of the architecture.

The second half turns to mechanicals. Air to water monoblock heat pumps, thermal storage as a battery with no precious metals in it, and why chilled water gives you dehumidification options that refrigerant does not. It ends on an idea for an exposed, cleanable coil you could hang on a wall.

Thank you to Betsy Pettit for hosting us.

Watch Ashley's Summer Camp presentation - Healthy Living in Tight, Compact Homes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjxuDkuQCOQ

Connect with Ashley Murphree and Alchemech Engineering:
https://www.alchemech.com | IG: @alchemech.engineering

Thank you to our production partner Benjamin Obdyke. Build Better™ with samples of their roof and wall products:
https://benjaminobdyke.com/get-a-sample-build-forward-podcast

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

00:42 Who Ashley Murphree is
03:26 How her own health changed her practice
04:53 More building triggers than just mold
06:42 Is the air purifier part of the architecture
11:24 What a healthy home client actually needs
12:50 Sensitization and why it changes the building
17:20 Dr. Robert Naviaux and the healing cycle
26:32 Why leaky is not the answer
28:28 Filtering everything, MERV levels, and wildfire smoke
33:36 Air to water heat pumps and thermal storage
44:19 A cleanable coil you could hang on the wall

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0J8B8c2DKgBKOopmjXK3E8

Made with @PRMEABL at the Building Science Corporation Test Hut

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #HealthyHomes #IndoorAirQuality #GreenBuilding #NetZero #AshleyMurphree #BenjaminObdyke #BuildBetter

John Straube has spent a career breaking buildings on purpose and investigating the ones that failed by mistake.

Test huts exist so that when the experiment goes wrong, nobody gets hurt. The forensic work is the other half. As John puts it, the experiments he could never ethically run himself get run for him, by architects and builders, on real projects.

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded in the Building Science Corporation Test Hut at Summer Camp 2026, Nick Falkoff sits down with John, a building scientist and engineer who teaches at the University of Waterloo and consults through RDH.

John argues that most builders and designers never see enough failures to calibrate their own sense of risk, which is why they can walk along the edge of a canyon in the dark without knowing it. The conversation covers how he teaches people to read a detail, why a wall schedule should list what each layer does and not just what it is, the difference between an aesthetic mock-up and a performance mock-up, and why he thinks a code compliant building is the worst building you can legally build.

It closes on what makes a great building scientist, which turns out to have less to do with physics than with actually cutting wood and pouring concrete yourself.

Thank you to Betsy Pettit for graciously hosting us.

Connect with John Straube:
https://www.johnstraube.com

Thank you to our production partner Benjamin Obdyke. Build Better(TM) with samples of their roof and wall products:
https://benjaminobdyke.com/get-a-sample-build-forward-podcast

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

00:32 Who John Straube is and how he got here
02:13 Why test huts exist and what forensics teaches
05:29 Teaching students versus teaching professionals
08:42 If it doesn't get wet, it won't leak
11:18 Labeling what things do, not what they are
19:07 Having the uncomfortable conversation
21:29 Three kinds of mock-ups
23:58 Solving material compatibility
29:55 Why we are bad at judging risk
41:30 Code is the worst building you can legally build
49:26 What makes a great building scientist

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0J8B8c2DKgBKOopmjXK3E8

Made with @PRMEABL at the Building Science Corporation Test Hut

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #BuildingScientist #GreenBuilding #NetZero #JohnStraube #BuildingEnclosure #BuildingScienceCorporation #BenjaminObdyke #BuildBetter

Become the developer. Become the architect. Become the builder. Tim McDonald didn't do this because it seemed like a good idea. He did it because he couldn't figure out any other way to build what he was trying to build.

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded at Tim's home on the North Shore of Boston, Nick Falkoff sits down with Tim, co-founder of Onion Flats Architecture, for a conversation that spans nearly 30 years of design-build development in Philadelphia. Tim talks about how he came to passive house in 2008, why he sees it as the only serious answer to what climate change demands of buildings, and how the New Gravity concept helped bring passive house into affordable housing funding applications across 40 states.

The conversation also gets into where the work is headed: deep energy retrofits on existing multifamily buildings, panelized wall systems that wrap buildings from the outside while people are still living in them, and the case for why retrofitting existing buildings is more cost effective than tearing them down.

Connect with Tim McDonald and Onion Flats Architecture:
https://onionflatsarchitecture.com

Thank you to our production partner Benjamin Obdyke. Build Better™ with samples of their roof and wall products:
https://benjaminobdyke.com/get-a-sample-build-forward-podcast

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

00:31 Growing up inside a house being built
02:01 Why architects should never hand off their ideas
02:53 Japan and the design-build studio that changed everything
05:13 The turn toward passive house
09:32 Trial by fire and vertical integration
16:03 The New Gravity concept and affordable housing policy
25:39 Climate change as the new gravity
28:17 Passive house as the answer to resilience
32:26 Why existing buildings are the real opportunity
33:47 Panelized retrofits and the Dutch model

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0J8B8c2DKgBKOopmjXK3E8

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #OnionFlats #VerticalIntegration #DeepEnergyRetrofit #BenjaminObdyke #BuildBetter

NESEA just turned 50. And according to Florence McGregor, that's not a moment to celebrate and coast. It's a moment to ask what's next.

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, Nick Falkoff sits down with Flo, Executive Director of NESEA, in the middle of the conference floor for a wide-ranging conversation about what the organization has become, where it still needs to go, and what it means to build a community that can hold both technical excellence and genuine human vulnerability at the same time.

They get into NESEA's incoming strategic plan and the priorities Flo hopes carry forward, including the organization's commitment to becoming more just, more sustainable, and actively anti-racist. The conversation also covers what this year's record student attendance means for the future of the industry, why the skills you can only learn in a room with other people matter as much as anything in a technical session, and how the Dumpster Fire Patriarchy workshop changed the way Nick thinks about his role as a builder and a leader.

The conversation ends a little abruptly -- conference duties called -- but not before covering a lot of ground worth watching.

For resources on ICE preparedness and know your rights guidance, visit:
studiohpdc.org/more/know-your-rights-immigration-enforcement-preparedness

00:42 Construction as a patriarchal industry
01:26 What patriarchy costs the people who practice it
02:40 Sharing mistakes and the NESEA culture of vulnerability
03:24 NESEA's next five year strategic plan
04:16 Climate justice, anti-racism, and the technical work
05:00 Welcoming a record number of students this year
06:02 What the keynote opened up
07:20 The skills you can only learn in a room
08:20 Orienting students to a professional community
10:33 NESEA as an incubator -- growing your team

Connect with Florence McGregor and NESEA:
nesea.org | IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #NESEA #BuildingCommunity #BuildingCulture #ClimateJustice

The building industry has always demanded a wide range of skills. Ace McArleton thinks it's time to widen the circle a little further.

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, Nick Falkoff is joined by Ace McArleton, co-founder of New Frameworks, a Vermont-based natural building and high-performance construction company approaching its 20th year. Also at the table is Amy Lieb, Executive Director of Studio HPDC, a nonprofit working to connect emerging building science and technology with the businesses and workers who need to use it.

That includes the NESEA community itself, how it functions as an incubator for both technical and cultural ideas, and how it has shaped both New Frameworks and Studio HPDC over the years. It also includes something newer: what happens when ICE shows up at a job site, and how builders can prepare their teams practically, legally, and emotionally. Ace draws a direct line between embodied training in carpentry and embodied training for high-stakes encounters with law enforcement. Practice until it's in your body. Know your role before the moment arrives.

The conversation also gets into what technology really is, who it serves, praxis as a framework for building better, and why the NESEA community keeps pulling people back year after year.

For resources on ICE preparedness and know your rights guidance, visit: studiohpdc.org/more/know-your-rights-immigration-enforcement-preparedness

00:37 What is NESEA and how long have you been part of it
02:40 New Frameworks turns 20
02:58 Amy Lieb origin story -- a business card in the lunch line
05:30 What makes the NESEA community different
06:25 How NESEA has shaped New Frameworks
07:06 Technology, praxis, and what we make with our hands
08:04 What embodied training means in the building trades
10:06 When ICE shows up at your job site
13:49 Building a safe community to practice hard things
15:20 Empowerment, disempowerment, and drawing the circle
16:45 What high performance means now

Connect with Ace McArleton:
newframeworks.com

Learn more about New Frameworks:
newframeworks.com | IG: @newframeworks

Connect with Amy Lieb and Studio HPDC:
studiohpdc.org | IG: @studiohpdc

Learn more about NESEA:
nesea.org | IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #WorkforceDevelopment #NewFrameworks #StudioHPDC #NESEA #StrawBaleBuilding

Most kids never get the chance to hold a tool before someone tells them it's not for them. Mason Lord is trying to change that.

Mason is the founder of TradesUp and owner of Hudson Valley Preservation, a design-build company in Kent, Connecticut with 35 years of preservation and high-performance remodeling work behind it. His path into the trades started at age seven, in a neighbor's basement workshop, after losing his father in first grade. That early spark is the entire philosophy behind what he's building next with TradesUp.

The conversation moves through how a small idea, inviting local kids to a job site for a day, became an annual event drawing 500 people, where tradespeople set up hands-on experiences for kids ages 5 to 12. Why that age range matters. Why middle schoolers hesitate and little kids jump right in. Why the tradespeople keep showing up, year after year, without being asked twice. And what Mason sees as the real opportunity: not just recruiting for the trades, but putting kids at the top of a funnel so that even the ones who don't become carpenters grow up knowing how to walk into a lumberyard without flinching.

This conversation on Build It Forward, recorded at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, also gets into the trades training center Mason is developing on the campus of the Eric Sloan Museum in Kent, the idea of building as something close to human instinct, and why the desire to work with your hands hasn't gone away just because shop class has.

00:44 Hudson Valley Preservation and how NESEA changed things
02:31 Starting a workforce development initiative
03:24 The Spark event -- 500 people, ages 5 to 12
05:09 Where Mason's spark started
05:43 TradesUp as the top of the funnel
06:42 Workshops, community events, and what's next
07:06 Building a trades training center at the Eric Sloan Museum
08:30 The desire to build hasn't gone away
15:11 What builders remember first
16:01 Planning for Play and the case for raw materials
17:57 What shop class took with it -- and what it didn't

Connect with Mason Lord:
IG: @masontheelder

Learn more about Hudson Valley Preservation:
hvpcorp.com | IG: @hudsonvalleypreservation

Get involved with TradesUp:
tradesup.org | IG: @tradesuporg

Learn more about NESEA:
nesea.org | IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #WorkforceDevelopment #Trades #TradesUp #HudsonValleyPreservation #NESEA

Katrin Klingenberg didn't set out to build a movement. She was finishing her own home in Champaign-Urbana when a persistent phone call pulled her into a room full of building science legends and nothing was the same after that.

Recorded live at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, this conversation on Build It Forward has Nick and Katrin tracing the origin of Phius, the early debates about whether European passive house standards could work in American climates, and the long road to developing a climate-specific standard that actually fits how we build here. They get into workforce development, the role of training and credentials, and what it looks like to think about passive house not just as a building standard but as a market transformation tool, one that Katrin believes should eventually make itself obsolete.

This is a conversation about what it takes to shift an industry and what comes next.

00:00:55 One Phone Call That Changed Everything
00:01:18 Building America's First Passive House
00:03:26 How Phius Came to Be
00:06:05 Finding the Community Already Cooking
00:07:06 Why the European Standard Didn't Translate
00:11:00 Turning a Building Method into a Movement
00:19:00 The Workforce Gap Holding the Industry Back
00:27:00 What a National Training Strategy Actually Looks Like
00:34:14 When Passive House Becomes Second Nature

Connect with Katrin Klingenberg and Phius:
phius.org | IG: @phius_official

Learn more about NESEA:
nesea.org |IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #Phius #NESEA #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #WorkforceDevelopment #BuildingEnergy #PassiveBuilding #KatrinKlingenberg

In this conversation on Build It Forward, Nick Falkoff of Auburndale Builders sits down with Ross Trethewey of TE2 Engineering and This Old House to talk about where HVAC systems are heading, and why that future looks different from what most builders are used to today.

They start with the Studio HPDC barn as a real-world testing lab and how it can function as a community mechanical room, then get into what's driving change in the industry. From rising energy costs to the limits of traditional systems, they discuss why air-to-water heat pumps are gaining traction in the US and what still stands in the way.

Ross explains why lab data and energy models only tell part of the story, and why measuring real-world performance is important to fill in the gaps. That leads into predictive controls, system behavior over time, and how thermal storage and phase change materials could reshape how buildings use energy.

The back half focuses on what this means in practice. Where do these systems make sense today? How do trades adapt? And how do we move from "high-performance" as a concept to something we can actually implement?

Chapters
00:21 – The Studio HPDC barn as a high-performance learning lab
02:53 – Air-to-water heat pumps and the U.S. market shift
04:33 – How energy costs and market forces drive adoption
09:39 – Why real-world data matters more than lab data
15:50 – Predictive controls and system behavior over time
17:10 – Thermal storage and phase change materials explained
26:20 – Where air-to-water systems fit today
32:15 – Retrofit strategies and hybrid system approaches
36:18 – Measuring performance and where the industry is heading

Connect with:
Ross Trethewey, TE2 Engineering
IG: @rosstrethewey
https://www.te2engineering.com

Studio HPDC
IG: @studiohpdc
www.studiohpdc.org

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music
"Welcome to the Johnsons" from the album Bird Mode
by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with PRMEABL_

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #HVACDesign #HeatPumps #AirToWater #Electrification #HomePerformance #MechanicalSystems #PassiveHouse #ThisOldHouse #BostonMA #CambridgeMA

In this conversation on Build It Forward, Nick Falkoff of Auburndale Builders sits down with Steven Baczek, Architect, and Amy Lieb, Executive Director of Studio HPDC, to talk about carpentry training, learning culture, and how people actually grow in the trades over the course of a career.

The conversation explores how carpenters and builders learn on the job, why mentorship and asking good questions matter more than memorizing answers, and how training programs can help accelerate learning without replacing real-world experience. Steve draws on his background in the trades, architecture, and building science to explain why teaching the right questions is often more important than providing solutions.

This episode also looks at the cultural side of construction, from how builders and architects communicate to how crews develop confidence, discipline, and responsibility over time. It's a real, practical conversation about what it takes to keep learning in an industry that should never stop changing. #LongLiveOurBuildings

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Steve's path from the trades to architecture
04:00 – Teaching trades and teaching culture
07:30 – Learning by asking better questions
11:00 – Why information is not the same as training
15:00 – Creating safe spaces to learn and ask questions
18:30 – Architects, builders, and responsibility
23:00 – Training as an investment, not a cost
27:30 – Learning never stops
32:00 – Closing thoughts

This episode was filmed at Studio HPDC's 200-year-old Passive House teaching barn.
www.studiohpdc.org

Connect with:
Steven Baczek, Architect
Instagram: @stevenbazcekarchitect
www.stevenbaczekarchitect.com

Amy Lieb
Studio for High Performance Design and Construction
Instagram: @studiohpdc
www.studiohpdc.org

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
"Welcome to the Johnsons" from the album Bird Mode
by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
distrokid.com/hyperfollow/elightning/bird-mode-2

Made with PRMEABL_

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #TradesEducation #CarpentryTraining #StudioHPDC #PassiveHouse #StevenBaczek

In this first episode of Build It Forward, Nick Falkoff, General Manager of Auburndale Builders, sits down with Ben Bogie, Director of Building Science at Building Performance Cooperative, and Amy Lieb, Executive Director of the Studio for High Performance Design and Construction, to talk about why community plays such a critical role in advancing high-performance building.

Rather than focusing on a single product or system, this conversation zooms out to look at how builders, designers, educators, and tradespeople actually learn, grow, and improve over time. From local meetups and trade school partnerships to national networks like BS*+beer, the group explores how shared knowledge, hands-on learning, and personal relationships help people navigate an increasingly complex building industry.

The discussion also touches on workforce development, the gap between online information and real-world experience, and why creating welcoming, in-person spaces matters just as much as technical expertise.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Inside the Studio HPDC High-Performance Barn
03:00 – Why Community Matters in High-Performance Building
05:00 – Making Building Science Approachable
08:30 – Learning Through Hands-On Experience
11:00 – The Origins of BS*+beer
14:30 – Scaling Community Without Losing What Works
18:00 – Workforce Development and Trade Schools
22:00 – Teaching Core Concepts Without Overwhelm
27:00 – Where High-Performance Communities Go Next
33:30 – Monitoring, data, and making the invisible visible
38:00 – Closing thoughts

This episode was filmed at Studio HPDC's 200-year-old Passive House teaching barn in Newton, MA.
www.studiohpdc.org

Connect with:
Ben Bogie, Building Performance Cooperative
IG: @benbogie
https://www.bpcgreenbuilders.com

Amy Lieb, Studio HPDC
IG: @studiohpdc
www.studiohpdc.org

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
[email protected]

Music:
"Welcome to the Johnsons" from the album Bird Mode
by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB, CPHC, CPHV
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with PRMEABL_