Northeastern University
BLU HOMES | Sarah Jazmine Bluhomes: Founded in 2007, Blu’s mission is to provide American home buyers and institutions with buildings that are healthful, economical, and beautifully designed, and to do so in a convenient, predictable and customer-centered way. Blu Homes, Inc. is a privately owned business that uses quality design, sustainable materials and leading technology. The designs reflect the unique building surroundings, and contain only healthful construction materials and treat the natural world with care. Blu’s building process not only respects the land but also the client’s time and budget. Blu builds highquality homes faster, in a controlled factory environment that minimizes waste. Blu Homes are currently being built in the Colorado Rockies, California woodlands, Carolina coast and towns throughout New England and for corporations from coast to coast. Sarah Jazmine Fugate has been put in charge of integrating energy modeling and ecological thinking at Blu. Working within the tight constraints imposed by Blu’s folding technology and reasonable price point, she works in the product development team to create increasingly simple, clean, and energy efficient designs. She is currently leading the charge on increasingly detailed thermal analysis of Blu’s steel frames using REM Design and THERM. In the long term, she hopes to lead Blu to carbon neutrality while finding creative ways to turn Blu’s innovative domestic equipment package into a tactile, thermal landscape—to be explored virtually prior to purchase as well as after purchase. Sarah recieved a Bachelor of Design in Architecture with a French minor from the University of Florida in 2005 and a Masters of Architecture from Princeton in 2009. She left Princeton with a passion for exploring unseen thermal domestic landscapes and the “equipment” (to borrow Reyner Banham’s term) that creates them. She continues to engage the recent trend toward the unseen in architecture through her work at Blu and through independent research, and recently had her translation of Aaron Plewke’s interview with Philippe Rahm published on Archinect.
George Thrush George Thrush is Director of the School of Architecture at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. His articles include “Ring City: Civic Liberalism and Urban Design” and “Boston’s New Urban Ring: An Antidote to Fragmentation”. His work seeks to connect transportation, urban design, and civic image in an increasingly privatized economic arena. He received his B.Arch. from the University of Tennessee in 1984, and his M. Arch. from Harvard University in 1988. In 2005, his work was celebrated with his entry into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. His research, practice, writing, and teaching all revolve around contemporary urban issues in architecture. The School he heads focuses on design solutions for Boston’s “postindustrial landscape” of former transportation infrastructure and other difficult sites. He is among the primary authors of a comprehensive regional transportation and development proposal for the Boston metropolitan area called The New Urban Ring.
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