Handcrafting A Net-Zero Renovation – GreenBuildingAdvisor

By Brendan Rose | September 15, 2025

As my family was outgrowing our apartment in Providence, RI, we searched for a place within our community that we could transform into a sustainable home, with enough yard space for food gardening and a chicken coop. My wife, being an environmental educator, is passionate about combining land restoration and food cultivation. I’m an architect that can’t sit still, always compelled by hands-on opportunities to sculpt the environment around me, particularly public and community spaces. The neglected 1910s worker cottage we found, with a small but promising side lot, became a multi-year project to construct a net-zero home infused with hand-crafted architectural metalwork.

Rebuilding with an intention toward place

The house we purchased was a fascinating artifact of time. The existing structure had a single, small bathroom off the kitchen with a clawfoot tub propped up in one corner by two-by-fours due to a missing foot. The three upstairs bedrooms had no electrical outlets, only a couple of plugs integrated into the wall sconces. Dirt floors surrounded the only fireplace, located in the basement and long ago abandoned. And there were layers of finishes, including: brick pattern wallpaper over different brick pattern wallpaper, shag carpet over wood, linoleum over vinyl tiles, acoustic ceiling tiles over crumbling plaster, and three layers of siding on the exterior. Despite the archeological value of these features, it was time for the place to get stripped to its bones.

As we began planning for a complete upgrade of the mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) systems, finishes, and insulation, we grew to deeply value the original cottage structure, its character being integral to the neighborhood. The community’s late 19th and early 20th century development remains much intact and has a distinctive, irreplaceable old New England quality. We determined early on that the preservation of this neighborhood fabric…