Rob Wood Design - background

* An original boomer, Rob was born in England 1945 and grew up in a beautiful village on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors with a profound love of nature which developed into a lifelong passion for mountaineering and wild landscape.

* He trained for five years as an architect at the prestigious Architectural Association School in London with a particular interest in vernacular or people's architecture. He graduated with an AA degree in 1970 with a design thesis on villages which he advocated as an ecologically sustainable alternative to cities and suburbia.

* He Immigrated into Canada in 1971 and worked in architects offices in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver for four years, contributing to planning for the Federal Neighborhood Improvement Programs in the old part of Calgary and Vancouver's Granville Island.

* He moved to Campbell River area in 1975 and with wife Laurie and daughter Kiersten built a self sufficient homestead on Maurelle Island. Their pioneering attempt at sustainable living has lasted 32 years with help from various alternative and intermediate technologies including; solar panels and pelton wheels for generating electricity; solar hot water collectors; heat exchange for domestic hot water from wood stove; infiltrator sewage disposal and grease trap for gray water recycling. Our organic garden and greenhouse provide a large part of our food supply, utilizing green manure and compost recycling for all organic waste.

* Rob's home is built largely from old grown fir from recycled bridge timbers. All external surfaces, roofs, walls and decks are built from local windfall cedar. With a fine view out to the ocean and neighboring Islands the house nestles into the rock bluffs on the edge of the 2 acre clearing for the garden orchard and barn. The woodstove in the basement convects heat to the whole house and radiates heat into a large natural stone chimney stack. This heat sink effect is augmented by the passive solar green house effect of the large south facing windows.

* He has donated considerable time, energy and expertise to local community projects, including design and supervision of the recently constructed Hoskyn Channel public dock

* Rob and Laurie have taught mountaineering and wilderness self reliance courses as part of the COLT (Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training) program at Strathcona Park Lodge for 26 years.

* Rob has owned and operated a small home based design practice on The Discovery Islands for 30 years which has been considerably enhanced by high speed satellite internet connection.

* For more info you could take a look at Rob's book Towards the Unknown Mountains an autobiography from the Canadian wilderness frontier published by Ptarmigan Press.