We have yet another new person who has joined our BrightBuilt Home gang of designers and high-performance fanatics, and we couldn't be more thrilled for our rapidly growing team. Meet Quinn Wilcox, who hails from southern Maine and brings his design chops and enthusiasm for high-performance housing along. As a way to get to know him better, and to introduce him to our BrightBuilt family, we thought we'd ask Quinn some of our signature pointed questions.
Tell us a little about yourself! Where are you from, where have you been, and how did you get here?
Hello! I am originally from Kennebunk and most all of my family lives in southern Maine. I pursued ecological design and green building studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington where I became LEED accredited and fell in love with rock climbing and hiking in the Greens, Whites, and Adirondack Mountain ranges close by. Following my degree program, I flew to Alaska where I guided tours on a valley glacier and lived in a tent until the winter weather told me otherwise. I was fortunate enough to have lived in Colorado for a brief period following that before restoring a 23’ sailboat that I lived in on mooring while building homes on Martha’s Vineyard. Most recently, I finished a Masters of Architecture Degree program at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence where I was able to pursue an independent project on architecture and cartography in Paris, and received an award for my thesis on restructuring the Vacationland-scape of Maine.
Why is Net Zero building important to you?
Net zero first became important to me when I was builder on the southern Maine coastline after high school. Early on I understood contemporary construction practices at the residential scale as being wasteful with materials and with little attention to creating regionalism in the design of second homes. Net Zero, and furthermore modular home construction, is an opportunity to create embedded stewardship models and offset carbon released in the construction process through the promise of sustainable energy generation on site.
If given the option, which BrightBuilt design would you build and move into tomorrow?
The BBH design that most resonates with me at the moment would be a three-bedroom Appledore. I love the more modest proportions of the model, and paired with a wraparound porch and breezeway that connects to a detached garage, possibly framing an east coast ocean vista would be a dream!
If the BrightBuilt Home team were to become stranded on a remote island, what role would you take on to ensure everyone’s survival?
If stranded on a remote Casco Bay Island I think my role would an island scout that surveys the island for resources and for siting for a shelter. I think this role would be important to ensure survival because it is vital to find the best passive solar potential for warmth, the most idyllic views for visibility of passing rescue boats, and high ground for drainage during rainy weather.
A new sitcom about the daily antics of the BrightBuilt team has been picked up by all of the major networks. Who is cast as you?
I think because television reenactments are often portrayed by hotter versions of the real people, I would go big and say a young Johnny Depp, think 21 Jump Street. If I am being honest with myself however I think I would be more in the range of Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds, which is still a pretty big compliment for me.
You have figured out how to place a BrightBuilt home anywhere; not just in terms of geographic location, but rather, on, under, over, inside, on top of, or beside anything. Where is the first place you set one?
The first place I would set a Bright Built Home would be on the ice of a glacier to test what living would be like on such a remote or harsh landscape, possibly on skis to maximize modularity, of course!
And most importantly: What fashion trend did you use to rock that you now wish you could delete from your past?
Jorts…Not to delete all instances I wore them in my past, only the times when I realized that I was WAY too casually dressed for the occasion and should have changed before I left the house.
