BEC-Iowa Symposium 2025

SPEAKER INFORMATION

Emily Mottram is the founder and principal of Mottram Architecture, a boutique practice specializing in new homes and renovations that are beautiful, functional, comfortable, healthy, and durable.

Emily received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Penn State University and is a Registered Architect in Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Utah. Emily is a member of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the National Association of Women In Construction (NAWIC), and the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), the state’s leading organization working to protect and preserve the environment.

An educator at heart, Emily also teaches building science and sustainable design at a local community college and has served as a consultant for projects in a secondary school trade program. She hosts the monthly podcast E3: Energy and Efficiency with Emily and co-hosts the live-streamed BS* + Beer Show, a monthly building science show for professionals and “civilians” alike.

Presentation: How Control Layers Enhance Health and Safety for Clients with Chemical Sensitivity

This course is designed to help architects and building professionals understand how thoughtful design and material selection can reduce health risks for clients with chemical sensitivities. By integrating the concept of control layers—such as air control, water control, vapor control, insulation, and finishes—this session will show how effective building systems can create healthier indoor environments.

Through the lens of Pretty Good House (PGH) principles, which focus on sustainable, energy-efficient, and non-toxic building practices, the course will demonstrate how these principles contribute to occupant health and safety. We will explore how control layers work together to protect against pollutants, moisture, and temperature extremes, and how using low-VOC, non-toxic materials in these layers can significantly improve indoor air quality and overall building comfort.

Henry Gifford has 25+ years experience making buildings energy efficient, using common sense approaches. He’s worked on all kinds of buildings, but apartment  houses are his favorite. Henry Gifford has worked on and designed over 40 Energy Efficient buildings and houses.  Henry Gifford is also a well known speaker, an expert on Building Science and using real measurements not just estimates.

Presentation: Building Science Basics

The course will give participants an introduction to building science, especially as related to designing enclosures to reduce air leakage through buildings and to reduce mold from wetting. Newer materials are significantly more sensitive to water damage, and the added thermal resistance has reduced drying potentials. Materials that get wet stay wet longer. Buildings are now mechanically ventilated. All of this has resulted in health and safety issues and durability issues. In order to fix this and still be energy efficient and use the newer materials, we must manage heat, air and moisture differently.

Chris Benedict is a registered architect with over 30 years of professional experience. Her office, Chris Benedict, R.A., was founded in 1995 and specializes in the design of exceptionally energy efficient buildings. A leader of the Passive House movement in the United States, Chris has designed over 100 apartment buildings in New York City, including a new thirteen story modular Passive House and nine existing buildings that use her ground breaking strategy for meeting Passive House with tenants in place.  Chris is a graduate of the Cooper Union where she was inducted into the Cooper Union Hall of Fame.  Chris teaches internationally about her groundbreaking work and is a thought leader in the building industry.

Photo credit: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Presentation: Adventures in Passive House

Chris Benedict will present aspects of her long-term involvement with the Passive House movement in the US with the presentation geared toward the problem solving needed to implement successful outcomes.

This presentation will focus on Passive House design, which inherently addresses health, safety, and welfare in its strategies.  Passive building is a set of design principles for attaining a rigorous level of energy efficiency while also creating comfortable indoor living spaces.  By using thermal control, air control, radiation control, and moisture control, it’s a holistic approach that takes every last factor into account, down to heat emissions from appliances and occupants.  Passive building principles offer a quick path to net zero and net positive buildings.

Kristof Irwin, P.E. is Principal and Founder of Positive Energy. Based in Austin Texas, Positive Energy provides building science consulting and high performance MEP Engineering to project teams across the country. Positive Energy’s vision is that buildings can be healthy, comfortable, durable, efficient, resilient, sustainable and regenerative – while also being outstanding architecturally.  Their integrated approach to building enclosure and MEP systems design recognizes that society is due for an upgrade in the way it currently thinks about and delivers indoor space to itself. We can and should expect more from our homes.

Kristof’s background includes 12 years of experience as a custom builder (including deep energy retrofit and zero-net energy projects) and 19 years as a building science consultant and MEP engineer. Prior to his career in the AEC, Kristof  worked for 14 years as an engineer, research scientist, and high-energy physicist for government and university research labs.

Kristof is active in the local and national high-performance building community including his roles with the Austin Passive House Alliance and the AIA Austin BEC and COTE committees. Kristof is also the host of the popular Building Science Podcast, which started in 2015, and is dedicated to moving the AEC forward through an understanding of building science and human factors in architecture, engineering and construction.

Presentation: Building Science 2.0 – Next Level Systems Thinking

Building science is the application of science and systems thinking to the design and construction of buildings. Building science creates better buildings that benefit occupants by supporting healthy indoor environments, providing durable and safe structures, and reducing energy use. Better buildings are also a source of resilience for society, providing shelter that defray negative impacts of realities such as extreme weather, wildfire smoke, and grid instability.

The effectiveness of building science is undeniable. We now know how to build appropriately. We have the understanding, materials, systems and technologies we need. As an industry, we have arrived at a point where the constraint to delivering healthy, durable, sustainable, and resilient homes and buildings is not a lack of understanding.

This seminar expands the building science systems-of-systems view of buildings both outward and inward. Outwardly we look for leverage points* within the broader industry and societal contexts within which all of our decisions and actions occur, as well as the realities of living within the geobiosphere. Inwardly we recognize the impact of how we relate to and organize our businesses, our relationships, and ourselves. Now is the time to fortify and magnify the power of the Building Sciences with the Geosciences, Social Sciences and Behavioral Sciences. The goal of this seminar is to help us, together, move past knowing how to provide the best outcomes for building occupants to reach the place of causing to happen.

*Leverage points are places in societal systems where a small shift in one area causes broad system-wide change

CLICK HERE to register

This event has been approved for AIA continuing education credits. Attendees will earn up to 4.0 LU/HSW.

Please submit your AIA number during your Eventbrite Registration or email contact@bec-iowa.org.

Interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Choose one of two options:

1. Complete the Symposium Sponsorship Form and mail it with your payment.
2. Complete the Symposium Sponsorship Form and email it to contact@bec-iowa.org. Submit payment online by clicking on the sponsorship icons below:

SPONSOR BENEFITS

– Recognition as an Event Sponsor at the BEC-Iowa Symposium
– Table tent at the Symposium with your company logo
– Reserved space to set up an exhibit booth at the Symposium
– Company logo and link on our website event page
– Company logo and link in our event invitation (emailed to entire mailing list)
– Two (2) free tickets to the Symposium

Questions? Please email us at contact@bec-iowa.org.