Shamika has recently started working for OPAL Architecture, and we wanted to hear how things are going. Highlights of our conversation are below:

Robin: Hi Shamika, can you start by telling me a little bit about yourself, what your interests were while you were at Pratt, and what you’ve been doing since?

Shamika: I’m originally from India, I pursued my undergrad at University of Pune, which is a little city near Mumbai, and after that I worked in India for a year before coming to Pratt. I came to the M.Arch program as an advanced standing student and graduated in two years. After that I was looking for companies doing sustainable architecture and focussed on Passive Houses. I had made a list of twelve firms, interviewed at eleven, and OPAL was one of them. The firm is in Maine, in Belfast, and they specialize in institutional and commercial projects and recently started doing residential projects as well. Their basic focus is creating a carbon neutral environment, and they do that through having their own energy model and creating Passive Houses. I started for them a month ago, and I’m still learning a lot of things, but it seems pretty promising. I was introduced to a new energy model that we are launching very soon,  and I got work on R-factors in that, which I think seems pretty interesting.

Robin: What projects have you been working on since you joined?

Shamika: Currently I am working on Colby Downtown Center which is an arts university in Watersville, Maine. It’s not a Passive Housing project, we are just developing an extension of the college. I’m working on getting the curtain walls and storefront details into the project, but it’s still pretty new. We also have a couple of housing projects going on in Colorado, and there’s two more residential projects ongoing in Maine. 

Robin: Can you tell me a little more about the Passive Housing model and some steps OPAL takes to make their projects more sustainable?

Shamika: Basically Passive Housing is something that reduces the ecological footprint of a particular building, so that you utilize less energy to heat or cool a place. So what OPAL does is it has a  barrier that is wrapped up around a building, and it reduces the amount of energy required for the heating or cooling system. The main philosophy behind this is to create a sustainable environment, as we know we only have seven years left to save our planet, so we're taking one step at a time by creating these houses. Hopefully, if a lot of firms start creating these sorts of environments, we might be able to get close to that goal.

Robin: So it sounds like the insulation is the key component?

Shamika: Yes, basically it’s a sandwich of two materials. So if you are using a gypsum board, it will be on the exterior faces, and the central area will be filled with insulation. Most of the time, this insulation is porous, but we have started experimenting with thicker insulations that are not porous and act as a sound barrier as well.

Robin: I also read on OPAL’s website about GO Lab, which is making wood fiber insulation?

Shamika: So GO Logic was the original parent company, and GO Lab and OPAL are sister companies. GO Logic specializes in energy modeling, GO Lab is into wood fiber insulation manufacturing, and OPAL does architecture. 

Robin: Have you used any of the knowledge you picked up at the Material Lab while working at OPAL, or is there anything that OPAL is using that we should look into at the Lab?

Shamika: Well it’s only been a few weeks, but I’ve been able to see a lot of sustainable materials in practice that I researched while at the Material Lab, like wood fiber insulation for example. We have also used some sustainable sheetrock and gypsum boards made from the Mycelium mushroom. The least used material is definitely resin, we don’t use it anywhere. I asked my boss if we would ever use it, and he was reluctant because of the large carbon footprint associated with the manufacturing process.

Robin: It seems like a lot of the Passive Housing that I’ve seen is single family residences. Have you done, or do you expect to do any larger multifamily Passive Housing? 

Shamika: We have a three story residential multifamily building in Boston which we just got the contract for. We have a lot of Passive House certified architects in our firm, which is how we got this project. We’re just beginning on it, but it’s the only multifamily project we have right now. 

Robin: Any final thoughts for your fans at the Material Lab?

Shamika: My biggest fan is the cat!

Robin: Thanks so much for speaking with us.