03/26/2025
2025 Southwest Alternative Building Conference Presents: Candace Gossen
Candace Gossen has a PhD in Env. Science and is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, however her early life includes a Bachelor of Architecture from Univ of Southwestern Louisiana and a Masters in Architecture and Ecological Design from Arizona State. Learning from the old adoberos, and the early straw bale scene, she began teaching and moved to Portland, Oregon in 1996. Starting a Design/Build School
it was a time for green pioneers. Setting precedents for alternative building, she used her house as the model changing out systems of solar
for hot water and pv, veggie oil for diesel, straw bale and eco roofs just for example. The solar 783 design school was open from 1996 - 2011 teaching hundreds of students, writing code for alternatives and building many new designs on the west coast. Candace has been in and out of Arizona since 1996 and currently works for the National Park Service and has an acupuncture clinic in Bisbee, Az.
Topic Presentation: Ecological Design and Passive Solar Principles
This presentation will be an introduction to design principles of thermal mass, design orientation, and alternative choices. Including earth shelters, straw bale, adobe, rammed earth, cob, rainwater catchment, recycled greywater, green architecture using living systems os plant walls, roofs, and and good design to give back more than we use. Presentation loaded with lots of photos and stories of what worked and didn’t and living what you create.
