by Lynn Hamilton

A sort of industrial Chinese dragon stretches its neck off the side of Peter Calandruccio¹s downtown Savannah, Georgia studio. It¹s actually a solar collector, designed by Calandruccio to trap heat between two panes of glass. On cold winter days, this heat can be forced into the studio by a fan installed in the dragon¹s jaws. Because Calandruccio has diverted his water pipes through the dragon, it also heats his water. The solar dragon is but one of many projects in an architectural career that has made energy efficiency a top priority. Calandruccio¹s portfolio is full of underground homes that use the earth¹s embrace to keep their owners warm and dry.

As for solar power, Calandruccio says it¹s hardly a new thing. People have always used the energy of the sun to grow food, to light their homes, and to keep warm. It¹s just a matter of incorporating that power into the design of a home in new, innovative ways.

³You want to use solar first,² says Calandruccio, who got interested in solar power as a graduate student in architecture at the University of Colorado. A look around the architect¹s studio‹which doubles as a bed and breakfast‹gives you an immediate feel for what his work is all about. It blends a respect for the original structure and materials of the house with off-the-shelf industrial materials. Corrugated metal exists side by side with natural wood. Industrial racks serve as kitchen shelves.

Calandruccio says using industrial materials in building is a matter of honesty. They are cost efficient, energy efficient, they reflect our industrial age, and they don¹t break down. To build as if we were still in the 19th century isn¹t responsible ³in terms of energy and the environment,² he says.

³Industrial materials are where we are at as a society,² he says. ³Let them be the aesthetic.² The architect¹s challenge is to use these cheap and efficient materials in a way that doesn¹t make people feel dehumanized.

³We need to feel we¹re valid in these things as opposed to a chicken in a coop,² says Calandruccio. There are many touches of pure whimsy. The overhead kitchen light is an upside down umbrella stripped of its fabric and lined with a tube of white Christmas lights. The burglar bars were designed to resemble the rays of the sun. In the adjoining house, the architect saved a mural that appeared on the house when he bought it. He doesn¹t know who the artist is.

Calandruccio¹s newest brainchild is a duplex which he will build on Tybee in the Fort Screven neighborhood. In an act of engineering bravery, he has designed a southern home with no air conditioning. Instead, the house is engineered to move air through the house at a brisk enough rate that residents won¹t need electrical assistance in keeping cool. Stairwells, which double as solar energy collectors, will pull hot air out of the house through a roof vent. Calandruccio also hopes to keep residents cool with two cantilevered, screened in bedrooms designed to catch night breezes.

Because Calandruccio believes in ³minimal site disruption,² he angled the duplex around several scrub oaks that will be saved as a consequence. He will also have the foundation hand dug with shovels. Machine excavation wrecks a lot of environmental havoc, he says. Additionally, he will not spread a huge foundation under the entire project, but place spot foundations only where structural supports will be.

The two units will be joined above ground only by an off-the-shelf grain silo, designed for use on a farm, which will house the bathrooms. The silo will look like a water tower, Calandruccio says. When he presented his design to Tybee¹s city council, he said the silo would be reminiscent of TV¹s ³Petticoat Junction.²

Calandruccio, who studied philosophy, psychology, and religious studies as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, says designing energy efficient, low-environmental impact homes isn¹t just a fun experiment. It¹s a moral imperative for architects‹who wield tremendous power on the shape of our world and the amount of natural resources we consume.

³Who else is making more decisions about energy depletion in our world,² he says.