John Bonnefond
Connell

 
  

..........................................................John completed his art training at the University of Pennsylvania in 1973, where he concentrated on two-dimensional representational work. He spent three years as a print maker and illustrator before attending Yale's School of Architecture (1978). Since then, "built form" has been his primary "palette" with a focus on solar, earth-sheltered, and environmentally-enlightened designs.
.....From 1979 to 1982 Connell provided design firms with renderings, graphics and illustration capabilities on a contract basis. In 1979 Steve Conger & Co. hired him to help design and render the earth-sheltered WindStar structure for John Denver in Aspen, Colorado. In 1981 he teamed with David Sellers to win the competition for completion of Saint John the Divine in New York City, the largest cathedral in the world.
.....In 1980 Connell founded Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont to promote the creation of sustainable vernacular (owner-built) homes. Graduating approximately 100 non-professional students each year, the Yestermorrow curriculum presents energy-conserving and environmentally-enlightened design/build methods as a standard approach to residential construction. In 1984 the school expanded its curriculum to include professional students, becoming the first and only institution in the nation where architecture students can learn about sustainable design/build technology, methods and materials through hands-on construction. Connell provided all the marketing, brochure design and advertising artwork for the Yestermorrow School from 1980 to 1988, leading to national name recognition that continues today.

EDUCATION:
BA in Art and Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, 1974
Influential teachers: Louis Kahn,Robert Engmann, Ian McHarg, Peter McCleary


www.upenn.edu
Masters in Architecture, Yale University, 1978
Influential teachers: Charles Moore, Caesar Peli, Gabor Peterdi, Peter Millard


www.yale.edu
Certificate in Classical Animation, Sheridan College, 2001
Influential teachers: Richard Williams, Kaj Pendal, Charlie Bonofacio
www.sheridaninstitute.ca
MEDIA:

.....The Inspired House. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Prod. PBS/Taunton Press/WTTW. 2003

..............Designtime

Lighthouse Productions Prod. David Hornstein 1999

 
   Professional
History:		  
 

.....Connell has been a licensed architect since 1982. 2morrow Studios, LLC., was established to practice true Design/Build and provide service to the surrounding community. The company mission is to design/build (make) art, architecture, environments and educational situations that promote higher awareness of human behavior within the natural environment. In addition to green and energy efficient private homes, recent work includes:

  • Host, author and contributing editor to the new television series, book and magazine project entitled The Inspired House; co-produced by Taunton Press in CT and the PBS station WTTW in Chicago. 2003
  • Consulting designer with David Sellers on the Gesundheit Institute, a revolutionary health care facility for Patch Adams, the subject of Universal Pictures recent release “Patch”. Ongoing.
  • Lead architect and designer for the Forever Young Tree houses organization, a group that creates A.D.A. compliant tree houses for children in wheelchairs. Each tree house is designed to be an educational facility that illuminates the physiology of the trees and makes a sustainable architectural statement. 2002
  • Host for television pilot DesignTime produced by David Hornstein of Lighthouse Design, 1998
  • Kinetic Sculpture from recycled materials for Ben & Jerry's Homemade theme park.
  • De-mountable diner with self-contained water supply and waste handling using all sustainable and green materials. Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.
  • Authored Homing Instinct:Using Your Lifestyle to Design and Build Your Own Home. Published by Time Warner Books 1993 and re-released by McGraw Hill in 1999.
  • Consultant to the HUD appropriations committee on “green” design and construction in affordable and inner city housing.
  • Design and construction of a biological waste treatment greenhouse allowing the use of an abandoned gravel pit for development of four single family homes with neighborhood common space.
  • Contributing architect to the Pitcher Inn Project; restoration of a New England hotel in a historically grand style using all local materials and artisans-Facilitator and Charrette participant:
  • Facilitator and technical advisor to Habitat for Humanity's Environmental Initiative, which seeks to teach affiliates about affordable and resource-efficient house construction practices.
  • Design member of Tree People's Water Reuse Technology Working Group, which is exploring designs for innovative water reuse and capture technology appropriate to the Los Angeles region. This effort is part of a larger program which seeks to demonstrate the environmental and economic benefits gained through a community forestry approach to resource management.

TEACHING & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS: (really, who keeps track anymore?)

  • Ongoing responsibilities as drawing instructor and architecture critic at Norwich University.
  • University of Idaho, Feb. 28, 2003
  • New School of Architecture, Design/Build Studio, 1997
  • Shenoa Retreat and Learning Center, Philo, California; instructor:Home Design/Build course, 1995 - 1996
  • Norwich University, School of Architecture, adjunct faculty; organized and initiated Design/Build Studio Program, 1995.
  • Ball State University; Design/Build; a 3 month design studio for 3rd year architecture students, 1994-95
  • Georgia Tech, School of Architecture, guest faculty; 4 day Design/Build Symposium, 1993
  • University of Oregon, School of Architecture, guest faculty; 2 week Design/Build Intensive, 1990
  • Yale University, full time adjunct faculty, speaker and juror, 1986 - 1990
  • University of Washington, School of Architecture, speaker; "Design/Build as Professional Alternative", 1989
  • Temple University, Department of Architecture, speaker, 1987 and 1986
  • Catholic University of America, School of Architecture, speaker, 1986 and 1987
  • University of Pennsylvania, guest faculty, Elective Week: "Design-Building and the Importance of Confusion", 1983
  • University of Manitoba, School of Architecture, speaker, 1984
  • Vermont Technical College; AIA Awards Ceremony Speaker, 1984
  • MIT School of Architecture, speaker, 1983
  • University of North Carolina Architecture School; speaker, 1983
  • College of the Atlantic, visiting faculty, 5 day intensive: "Design/Build Architecture in a Limited Resource World", 1982

BOOKS & ARTICLES:

  • Creating the Inspired House, Taunton Press, Newtown CT. 2004
  • Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier, pub. Knossus Project and Chelsea Green Publishers. chapter entitled: “Towards a Curriculum for the 21st Century”
  • Homing Instinct: Using Your Lifestyle to Design and Build Your Own Home, McGraw Hill Pub., New York, 1999. Developed from the core curriculum of the Yestermorrow School, this book continues the "bait and switch" strategy of presenting sustainable design/build techniques as if they were standard practice. The book contains over four-hundred illustrations drawn by the author.
  • “The Architect’s Tale”, Article, Residential Architect magazine
  • “Rubber Roofing”, Article, Journal of Light Construction
  • “Stupid Architecture”, Article, Builder Magazine
  • “Teaching First Year Architecture Students”, article, presented to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (A.C.S.A.)

ALSO FEATURED OR INTERVIEWED IN:

  • Designer/Builder Magazine
  • Friends of Kebyar
  • Architecture Boston
  • Whole Earth Review(Co Evolution Quarterly)

 
 
 

 

 
  
d, sustainable, architect, architecture, architectural, design, build, homing instinct, inspired house, tree house, illustrator, animation, yestermorrow, mad river, VT, warren