Detours in Design Community

Honest. Natural. Strong.  Julee Herdt, a professor and licensed Architect at the University of Colorado at Boulder, sits back in one of the lime green chairs at the Center of Innovation and Creativity, otherwise known as the CINC.    She smiles as she recalls her graduate student days working in the office of Frank Gehry and begins to capture us in her memories of what led her to become a professor at CU and co-founder of BioSIPs Inc.: a green building material design and architecture firm.

In the mid-90’s, after working in the profession for 15 years, Julee began to experiment with simple molded fiber products such as ordinary egg cartons, packaging materials, and floral containers and began wondering how these simple products could be elevated to something more substantial, something capable of carrying building loads.  She became  interested in the structural capacity of these simple 3D fiber products and in the fact that they were fabricated from discarded and underappreciated materials such as paper waste agricultural discards and waste woods—“bio-based” materials as she called them—alternatives to petroleum materials.  She began to examine the processes for making these humble products, visiting egg cartons and box factories.  Through her wandering’s and musing she came across an article describing the work of a fiber engineer, John Hunt, who was developing technological methods for pulverizing  and rejoining waste fibers in combinations that could be used to create simple boards with predictable strengths.  His methods were called “engineered molded fiber”; he was conducting his work at the US department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory (FPL).  Julee Contacted John Hunt and Quickly established a research relationship with him at the FPL in order to follow her own ideas of advancing the use of waste fibers to yield sophisticated and strong 3D building materials inventions.  Her first building material experiments were in collaboration with a team of researchers and entrepreneurs in California; this resulted in a commercialized product called “Gridcore”. 

Gridcore was a 100% post-consumer wastepaper panel with a honey comb core and integral smooth face on one side.  The only catch was that in 1993, when the product was launched, the collective consumer consciousness was not quite ready for “green “material and Gridcore languished in the marketplace.  However, Julee continued her research collaborations with the USDA FPL and remained solid in her belief that the need for waste fibers materials was on the horizon.  In 1999, after she had joined CU as a faculty member in the College of Architecture and Planning, Julee in partnership with Jeffrey Brown, constructed their solar-powered ground source heated and called, “petroleum alternative” home in north Boulder using Gridcore in combination with a range of other green, bio-based, off-the-shelf and newly commercialized agricultural byproduct building materials.  The “Farmhouse” project, won awards and recognitions and was the focus of a research paper co-authored by Dr. Herdt and Dr. Victor Olgay (now of the Rocky Mountain Institute).  Their paper was published by the International Solar Energy Society and the American Solar Energy Society and was the fourth most downloaded article on “Science Direct” in 2004.  Their research shows that the bio-based Farmhouse, when compared to a comparably-sized wood frame home from standard petroleum-based products, has 40% less embodied energy in its construction and is 7-% more efficient to operate.  The success of the Farmhouse project and Julee’s developing reputation at CU resulted in an invitation by CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to collaborate as Architecture Faculty Lead on CU’s 2002 Solar Decathlon project.  For this first Solar Decathlon project, and working in collaboration with CU engineering, Julee was able to offer architectural methods, materials, and systems applied in her Farmhouse project for integration with engineering’s renewable energy technologies and methods to result in CU’s first-place award winning international Solar Decathlon project.  In 2005 Julee took on the role of Principal Investigator and Architecture Faculty Lead and led the CU team to back-to-back wins in the ’05 Solar Decathlon; CU once again walked away with the first place trophy and numerous other awards and recognitions.

For the 2005 Solar Decathlon, Julee proposed a new building material invention—a completely experimental product that she had recently proposed through her research at CU and had named “BioSIPs.”  Her idea behind BioSIPs was to create a green alternative to another otherwise petroleum0based building product referred to in the industry as “SIP’s” (as a note, SIPs were originally invented by the USDA FPL in 1935).  For the 2005 CU Solar Decathlon, Julee proposed BioSIPs as a sandwich panel building system in which Grid Core would be applied as outer skins sandwiching an interior layer of high thermal value insulation—like large ice cream sandwich modules for building construction.  Perhaps an odd-sounding idea, but one that she believed would not provide a superior thermal package for CU’s solar powered house while yielding a house that could successfully compete on the National Mall against university projects from around the world in the rigorously judged Solar Decathlon energy and design events.

For those unfamiliar with architecture and building terminology SIPs, or Structurally Insulated Panels, are building panels used for roofs, floors, and walls of residential and commercial structures.  SIPs provide a strong yet lightweight structural system with super-efficient, high insulative values.  Typically, a standard SIP is comprised of a lightweight rigid foam core with engineered wood board faces on opposing sides.  These wood faces contain petroleum-based adhesives that are cited as having negative environmental and health impacts.  With BioSIPs, the SIP faces are fabricated from 100% engineered molded fiber boards and they meet flammability and water resistance without use of petroleum products.

On the National Mall during the 2005 Solar Decathlon competition, BioSIPs were used as the building envelope for the CU solar-powered home; BioSIPs proved to provide the CU home with a solid and strong insulating package.  During the competition, the CU team’s scores remained high despite the fact that there was more rain than sun during the competition and temperatures were cooler than expected.  Because of the CU home’s outstanding performance, the project came to the attention of U,.s. Housing and Development Office (HUD) “partnerships for Technologies in Housing” (PATH) representatives who invited Julee to collaborate in further studying the marketability and development of her BioSIP invention.  Since this was already part of Julee’s research and de3velopment plan at CU and in private practice, she eagerly accepted the invitation and worked with PATH in 2006 and 2007 with her former student, Kellen Schauermann as a research partner.  PATH referred to BioSIPs as “…a technology with the potential to change the way America builds” and this endorsement helped Julee and Kellen move towards development of the “ next generation BioSIPs”, which they have underway at CU today.  Their work has resulted in an improved proprietary BioSIP product; continued research collaborations with the USDA FPL’ the first architecture provisional patent filings in CU’s history, a $245, 000 research grant from the State of Colorado to develop their new product from solid waste diversion feedstock; and a spin-off company, “BioSIPs INC” which is co-owned by Julee and Kellen and which has exclusive licensing to use the BioSIP technology.

Julee and Kellen currently have the first BioSIP prototype building construction underway with a team of CU grads and students.  The “BioSIP research Structure”, as a material testing and monitoring structure and final product for the State of Colorado grant received additional grant funding from the Heimbold Foundation for design and installation of a solar tracking system to power this 18’ X 10’ test structure.  The BioSIP Research Structure is currently entering construction phase at the National Eco Wholesale/Ellie’s warehouse site in Boulder and will be opened to the public by early November.  The new generation BioSIP wall, floor, and roof panels used for the building were constructed by the BioSIP research team and were tested at the CU engineering “Smash Lab”.  The panels were shown to meet (or surpass) required International Code Council SIP structural testing criteria in axial and transverse loading.

Julee and Kellen continue to work with CU’s Technology Transfer Office on the BioSIP technology licensing agreement as they develop business strategies for BioSIP’s Inc. and plan initial product launch for 2011.  As a CU professor, Julee is finalizing an arrangement between CU and BioSIPs Inc. whereby an on-going percentage of profits from BioSIP product sales will: 1) Fund environmental architecture and renewable energy design scholarships at CU; 2) Support creation of an environmental building material with a renewable energy and design research center at CU in which Julee will direct; 3) Support the College of Architecture and Planning ; and 4) reimburse CU Tech Transfer for their support in helping to develop the BioSIP intellectual property.

Making this major leap from research and development to green building material and commercialization of a product, Julee Herdt and Kellen Schauermann are innovators in developing cleaner, stronger, healthier ways to construct buildings.  They hope these buildings will encourage much healthier lifestyles in the population that may one day occupy the spaces built from these materials. 

Currently at CU, students in Julee’s classes learn green design and construction methods while also receiving life-style methods that support environmental design.  Students learn how to design, detail, and construct green buildings; they learn how to use and specify eco products, and are also instructed in the making of natural paints, dyes, and cleaning materials for architectural and personal use.  Julee invites her students to see how buildings can be created naturally, learning from Julee’s research, practice, and mentorship.  Buildings can be clean, natural, and strong; but most importantly, they can help make the world a better place.

Meticulously and environmentally focused, Kellen’s passion for BioSIPs and architecture in general is seen through his work.  Both he and Julee are firmly committed to the BioSIP Company and to other building material inventions that they have underway along with projects in provisional patent stages.  Kellen Schauermann is now a BioSIP Senior Research Assistant at CU, where he and Julee continue their work throughout the year.  He is also a Co-Founder of BioSIPs Inc. and at just a year out of CU’s Master of Architecture program has taken on roles and responsibilities of a seasoned professional twice his age. Currently, Kellen is working as project Manager and Construction Lead for the BioSIP Research Structure and is pursuing his Architectural Internship with Julee as his sponsor.  He has also just recently obtained his LEED AP, a highly sought-after credential for green design professionals in today’s field.  As a team, Julee and Kellen have a unique and natural rapport; other CU graduates and students are coming on board with the BioSIP’s team and research and development remains exciting, fresh, inspired, and filled with potential as the team continues to explore new venues.  The future for environmental design, invention, and construction looks brighter than a clear, sunny solar collection day.