The Lee Porter Butler Papers, 1973-2019, contain 13.75 linear feet of art and architectural drawings, conceptual sketches, writings, poetry, letters, correspondence, photographs, news clippings, notebooks, design contracts and patent applications. Most of these materials document Butler's research on ekotecture, sustainable ...
MoreThe Lee Porter Butler Papers, 1973-2019, contain 13.75 linear feet of art and architectural drawings, conceptual sketches, writings, poetry, letters, correspondence, photographs, news clippings, notebooks, design contracts and patent applications. Most of these materials document Butler's research on ekotecture, sustainable construction based on the environmental design science, and Ekose'a homes' designs. This collection also includes a vast array of writings and poems by Butler. A small number of drawings and writings belong to Butler's wife, Jill Karlin. The Lee Porter Butler Papers contain a few scrapbooks and photomontages that are only open to students and researchers above the age of 18. Lee Porter Butler (1940-2005) was a sustainability-minded architect and inventor from Tennessee who was concerned with the ecological and environmental aspects of architectural design. He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee again, and lastly the North Carolina State University School of Design. In 1965, Butler started to research the concept of energy conservation in architectural design, and in late 1966, he began to build and sell homes in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1975, Butler developed the concept of “the gravity geo-thermal envelope,” a passive solar design to heat and cool living spaces without fossil fuels. He eventually moved to California and founded the architectural company Ekose'a in San Francisco with William Randolph Pearson in 1978. Following his success in developing solar passive designs, he began teaching at the University of California Berkeley and was featured in numerous design and energy magazines and newspapers including Time, Popular Science, and Better Homes and Gardens. In the early 1980s, Butler relocated to south Florida and conceptualized "ekotecture," sustainable construction based on environmental design science with his wife Jill Karlin. During the 1990s, he expanded on the ekotecture concept and developed Ekopods, self-sustaining floating home infrastructures.
Less