Hello, I’m Kathryn Gray, the founder and principle of urbansun. I have been designing passive solar homes since the 1970’s when, as a young city planner responsible for developing policies to achieve more sustainable community development as mandated by the then new Oregon State Land Conservation and Development Regulations, I became aware of how unsustainable our development practices had become.

The Arab Oil Embargo of the same period brought the point dramatically home. One of the key strategies that emerged to help promote long-term community energy sustainability was to encourage the use of solar energy to heat and cool buildings, both by land use development patterns and building design and construction practices.

One thing that became quickly apparent was that very little design and technical expertise was available to help developers, builders, and homeowners implement these policies and development strategies. And that inspired my life-long journey to understand and create homes that would by their design and construction provide more than half of their heating and cooling needs directly from the sun. I successfully tested my new knowledge by designing and building my first passive solar home for my own family in the mid 70’s.

Almost 30 years later, I have designed hundreds of passive solar homes that havebeen constructed throughout the country from Georgia to Alaska, from California to Massachusetts and I have personally managed the construction of several homes. And 30 years later, I am more convinced than ever that passive solar design and construction is the cornerstone to creating healthy, comfortable, sustainable living environments.