One example of that leadership is HOME nz, a three-bedroom sustainable residence designed by the Phoenix architecture firm of Marlene Imirzian & Associates. The project won the Sustainable Home Design, a 2017 competition by the City of Phoenix and AIA Arizona that called on architects to develop a design for a “near net-zero energy” single family home that has the best potential for widespread adoption in the region. To encourage the construction of affordable ultra-low energy use homes, the City has made the plans for HOME nz available online for the public to download—for free, with no permit fees. “The City of Phoenix is quite visionary in its sustainability office,” says Marlene Imirzian, the architect behind HOME nz. “It’s been a privilege to work with them to implement this initiative.” For Imirzian, sustainability in design is simply “part of doing good architecture.” What’s changing she says, is that now sustainability can be measured in a quantifiable way. “Once LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) became acceptable and desirable, and in some cases mandated as a minimum performance measure, that was important, because it’s a third-party way to show performance for clients.” Imirzian says that at Gunner Birkerts, the Detroit firm where she got her start, she watched as team members “punched a big hole in the side of their wall and installed a prototype of this thing they were building for the IBM headquarters.” The thing was a slanted piece with a reflection element, designed to transmit daylight into a space; the team used the prototype to measure actual data through different seasons, to make sure their design was successful. “I was extremely fortunate that that was my initial training,” Imirzian says. “I thought all architects did that. For me, it’s part of what I think about with all my work: How can we do it better? How can we evaluate?” In designing the Life Sciences building at Paradise Valley Community College, Imirzian and her team devised innovative approaches to reducing waste and maximizing energy efficiency, including putting the mechanical equipment for the labs right above the lab area rather than on the building’s roof. “You have to have a really great team of curious team members around you who are interested in finding great solutions,” she says. “This is not sexy stuff, but to do responsible building. there has to be a depth of thinking involved. It’s not just what you see.” Imirzian points to Tucson’s Line and Space as an example of a firm that has long had a focus on finding environmentally responsible
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