Editor’s Letter – Winter 2020

How technology and design interact — with an emphasis on sustainability.

DENVER | MARCH 2020
Greetings. Readers of TD Magazine and our monthly newsletter know we are proponents of conservation and always looking at how technology and design interact. Healthy environments are vital to working and living spaces. Obviously, light commercial properties play a role in sustainable, resilient design. I came down for breakfast at Grow + Gather, a farmer’s market and restaurant with their own indoor hydroponic garden fueled by solar capture, rain collection and reusable irrigation water. I see it as a cog in the wheel of how localization will impact far larger, regional design initiatives.

As we enter year two for TD Magazine, we continue to increase the diversity of voices and topics in our publication to bring ever more awareness to the performance home and the amazing technologies that permeate the world of design-build. If change is inevitable, then we accept it. In fact, we embrace it. Change is good.

We begin year two with a high-altitude look at where we’re headed in this new decade. How smart cities are being planned and how that planning will eventually impact your designs at the local level. We welcome back architect Nathan Kipnis, who updates us on the AIA’s 2030 Commitment and the changes and evolution of that extraordinary vision. Joining us for our second year are two keen observers and thought leaders who share their wealth of knowledge – Bill Hensley weighs in on sustainable building materials and the hottest material capturing builder’s attention. And lighting designer David Warfel takes over the reins of our on-going series, Designing with Light.

We’ve lined up a series of articles that we hope will give you an inkling of how divergent technologies impact just one elegant space in the modern home. Her bathroom. And how the coordination between the architect, builder, bathroom designer and technology specialist is critical in getting this space to be everything one can imagine when you think of an oasis.

It is our pleasure to have our bathroom series open with an introduction to the great work the National Kitchen & Bath Association is doing from NKBA’s CSO and EVP of Industry Relations, Suzie Williford. In our series of bathroom-related articles, we’ll be exploring state-of-the-art mirror TVs, clean air strategies, acoustics, lighting design and what we’re calling the Luxe Loo.

We also have part two of Stephanie Casimiro’s interview with interior designer Marc Thee, as well as a great overview of outdoor music entertainment from Senior Editor George McClure.

Finally, we profile a most unique design-build group. Using coding, proto-typing and quarter-inch scale modeling, this amazing group of forward thinkers are tackling sustainable design with energy capture, water conservation and other issues that permeate performance home design. If anyone questions sustainable design, please share this engaging article with them, and let them know the future is in good hands.

Let’s go see where technology meets design.

Technology Designer