Michael Beattie

A Vermont architect with 40 years’ experience, Michael Beattie got into tiny houses while teaching ecological design at Green Mountain College.  Students’ enthusiasm was contagious!  These days you can find him harvesting the garden or discussing resiliency in the face of our worsening ecological catastrophe.

Panel:
Critical-Thinking with the Head and Hand: Design-Build Education
with Andy Keller (moderator) and staff + students from Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Green Mountain College, Norwich University and Middlebury College
Design/Build Stage, 1:00pm

Design-build education is a holistic act of critical-thinking for the head and for the hand supporting provocative and empowering opportunity for makers, and ultimately, the users. More simply, design-build education, intertwines designing and building, thinking with making. Yet, precisely how it is applied remains wonderfully fluid and adaptable to a broad range of social contexts. Come hear how four different schools from within Vermont's world of design-build education explore thinking and making in the built environment.

Talk:
Quick! Let's Build a Tiny House!
with Gwen Hobson, Tyler Pastorok, + Michael Beattie
Story Stage, 3:30pm

A story of taking on a tiny house build as the last group project in the REED program (Renewable Energy and Ecological Design) of Green Mountain College, as the college is dying. We'll discuss design, construction, decision-making, simplifying and group work, and maybe a little about creating a positive vision in troubled times.