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The interactive dialogue between buildings and landscape is an art as well as an ecological imperative. The Appalachians Mountain culture is a source of valued principles and tried-and-tested techniques of passive environmental design, mixing new technologies with indigenous traditions. The use of local materials with little embodied energy has positive environmental and cultural consequences. They “place” the building in the history of the site. The architecture becomes a shelter built as an integrated system of efficient building fabric and services. Vernacular architecture recognizes the differentiation found in nature, yet inhabits a particular piece of nature in a particularly sympathetic way. The challenge is to balance environmental responsibility with aesthetic and economic goals. When this is properly done, such architecture melts to its site, both providing nurturing to and deriving nurturing from its inhabitants. This expression encompasses more than a specific location in time and place, reconciling the specific and the universal, the transitory and the enduring. It also transcends any tendencies toward a frozen regionalism while rejecting standard answers of universal design. This response to a sense of place is accomplished by a thorough understanding of the regional materials, climate and architectural and cultural history.
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