Architect Frank Harmon Discusses Lessons Learned from Vernacular Structures on "The Story" with Dick Gordon

Raleigh, NC, February 17, 2008 --(PR.com)-- When architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, joined Dick Gordon on American Public Media’s “The Story” on January 28, the conversation revolved around “the beauty and wisdom in something as simple as the design of a front porch,” as Gordon said.

Gordon invited Harmon onto his show because the award-winning architect is nationally recognized for designing innovative, environmentally sensitive structures informed by principles of sustainability that he learned by studying old, Southern farmhouses and barns, and how they addressed nature.

“Frank realized old Southern farmers - and indeed, farmers everywhere - picked up cues from the light, the landscape, and the seasons,” Gordon says, “and built structures that snugly fit the unique qualities of both the culture and the place.”

“Farmers had an instinctive way of building,” Harmon explains. “They listened to the land.” He notes that they sited their structures to capture prevailing breezes, to maximize drainage, and to leave the best of their land for their crops. They knew to face their houses south to capture the warm, low sun in the winter, he says, yet they built deep porches their to shade the interiors in the summer. They dug ponds where the wind could pass over them and be cooled before entering their houses. And because they used locally available materials, their structures were always “appropriate,” he says. “They belonged to their particular place.”

To listen to Harmon’s segment of the January 28 episode of “The Story” with Dick Gordon, go to http://thestory.org/archive/?b_start:int=5 and click on the “Listen Here” icon next to the lead story. (Harmon’s segment follows one entitled “Attachment to Oil.”) For more information on Frank Harmon and his work, visit http://www.frankharmon.com.

“The Story” is produced by North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC and distributed nationally by American Public Media. In North Carolina, the show can be heard on WUNC-FM and WRQM-FM (90.9) in Rocky Mount Monday through Friday starting at 1 p.m.

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