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The Future of Architecture Is Carbon-Negative ft. Kevin Kennon | Coffeez with Joe Shalaby · Coffeez with Joe Shalaby

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We lived, you know, we still did actually, you know, a few blocks from ground zero that World Trade Center.
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then about a week, my wife and I decided we would go down and take a look at the site and what we saw was just complete bedlam, you know, people climbing fences and guys hawking World Trade Center souvenirs and, you know, I just thought there had to be a better
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: way more dignified way so I developed a design and pitched it to the mayor and they thought it was great and they said with one condition you got to find a money you're building and so we did and we built the temporary viewing platform at Ground Zero.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to another episode of coffees you know it is truly you know beyond innovative but please explain to the audience what is carbon
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what do you do at, you know, just give us a $10,000 foot overview.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think a lot of people might be surprised that over 40% global greenhouse gases that those emissions come from the built environment, some from buildings and cities.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so many of us who are in the building industry have developed a sense of responsibility
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that goes beyond just making sure that we build buildings that do do their best to minimize those greenhouse emissions, but also to build safely to build lean and efficiently.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's this basically a whole movement out there of determined individuals who are changing the landscape of how we build.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: and it's exciting to be a part of you know you've been such a legend in architecture in general what really drew you to architecture in the first place what was it that really was the catalyst for well my father was in architecture so i i guess i grew up in that environment and he was a great guy very uh and also ahead of his time in terms of
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: designing buildings that were environmentally responsive.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I guess I have that in me and I grew up in just south of Los Angeles and I think one of the first things that I loved about being
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: In that environment was those crazy houses that were always built on the side of cliffs that they look like they were barely Being supported and I thought those things were so cool So there's something about living on the edge.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I guess that drew me to Explore architecture and it's just continued to be a very fulfilling career ever since Now When did you start beyond zero?
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Recently, if you're on zero, it's actually a real estate development company, and we specialize in wilderness hotels and resorts, and when you build anything in extreme environments, you have to build with nature, you can't just come in there and bold those things because conservation is a big part of what we do.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: As an, you're still, you still have your, your normal architecture firm that does the big one.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, a separate firm, I wear, I wear lots of hats and it's part of my, my daily existence.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, so I have a separate firm that just does architecture and I have another firm that just does real estate development, which is beyond zero.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, what do you think the future looks like with, with, you know,
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: with the strategy, you're building strategy now to decarbonize current builds.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does that future look like?
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: What motivated you recognize and create a healthier building?
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, so first of all, what's really exciting is there are so many incredible tech oriented, green technology oriented startups and companies out there, they're doing incredible things.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, the way the horses left the barn,
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The genius out of the bottle, you know, people are doing this, and I spend a great deal of my time connecting with all of these innovative types of companies and some of me really should get on your show because they're doing incredible things.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so our world is changing and it's going to change rapidly.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think, especially with AI, I already, but certainly with robotics in terms of how we build and how we build our extreme environments.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned something, and that's obviously a very hot topic.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will robotics completely change the way you're building right now?
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when do you think robotics will be implemented in decarbonization building strategies?
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, robots aren't just simply, you know, the little animated men, you know, they're everywhere.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're already in all of our machinery and manufacturing.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, the trend that we're going to see more and more is that,
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buildings are going to be built almost like Legos.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're individual pieces that are manufactured in controlled environments, in factories, and they're standardized and then shipped to the site and assembled.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them, you know, entire components, like if you're doing hotels, you might have an entire room that's actually ship on a flatbed and then kind of plugged in to those environments.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's already happening and it's only going to continue to accelerate because the cost to build is still prohibitively high, and you know, that's something that all of us are concerned about.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, in residential housing, that's considered manufactured housing.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I mean, the people call it manufactured housing.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm simply saying that less in terms of prefabricated homes and take more in terms of,
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: standardized components of buildings that are, you know, built off site and then delivered to the site and installed.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the less time that you have.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: on-site itself, that's where a lot of the expense comes in, that's where a lot of the headaches come in.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Also, it's a safety issue as well.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: We want to design safely.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: That type of production is going to change and I think rapidly change what we do.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's so many theories about mitigating the cost to build one of them.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I saw this and I don't know how viable it is.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: 3D printing building soon or 3D printing houses that come up.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: That that as an option and it's been done.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't know what kind of standards they are.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, people are looking for so many solutions to solve.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: the housing crisis because cost of building is astronomical, labor wages have also like tripled and, you know, imports are just getting more expensive, lumber is just through the roof.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, everything just tripled and there's just not enough houses for people.
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The housing dilemma, or it's just purely out, you know, a commercial endeavor.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, specifically, we're trying to push the envelope on how you build in extreme environments.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, wilderness environments, you're talking about, you know, edges of cliffs and rocky beaches and, you know, in far-flung places all over the world.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the...
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: the way in which we do it has a lot of real-world applications to helping solve what is a huge problem which is housing and the affordability of housing.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, anything that we can do to start to revisit, you know, how we make things and how we can do things more efficiently and safely.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think all of that goes into ultimately how we're actually going to solve a problem of, you know, how do we take care of ourselves.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, is there one project or a moment that truly puts you on the map where you're at now?
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Something that really catapulted you to this level of notoriety that you have now in this space?
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've been fortunate to design very complex buildings all over the world, you know, skyscrapers, etc.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: was right after 9.11, we lived, you know, we still did actually, you know, a few blocks from ground zero that will trade center.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and within about a week, my wife and I decided we would go down and take a look at the site and what we saw was just complete bedlam, you know, people climbing fences and guys hawking, uh, well, train center of souvenirs and, you know, I just thought that there had to be a better way, more dignified way.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I developed a design and pitched it to the mayor and they thought it was great.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, um, they said, with one condition, you've got to find the money you're building.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: We did, and we built the temporary viewing platform at Ground Zero, you know, I kind of controlled a local scaffolding company to sort of put it together at costs, and it was all made of plywood and prosaic New York City scaffolding components.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was an amazing experience,
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: more than likely we'll ever do.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, so that's so that was one of the original viewing sites of Ground Zero, huh?
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Before you built the buildings there.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was actually a deputy mayor had the idea of like we're to locate it, which was really terrific.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was right next to a St. Paul's Chapel, which is a corner of the World Trade Center complex that was remarkably unscathed.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: and behind it was a cemetery with about 300 foot tall sick mortars there and we locate it adjacent to that and so it was an elevated platform so you kind of ascended up to the 25 feet up in the air and you couldn't hear a thing it was
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: incredibly and almost eerily silent, you could just look over and see the devastation.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, you heard the kind of rustling of the trees adjacent to you.
• 12:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it was very profound thing to do, and it was remarkable.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think, in terms of having that emotional impact,
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: and being able to understand the power of humility and humanity in the face of horror.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: What a remarkable experience and that really transcends way beyond your architecture fulfillment, right?
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the irony is I'm doing exactly the same thing and in terms of how we're building these hotels it's very similar in terms of you know how it's put together and we're using a lot of wood.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: mass timber and cross-line many of timber to build these.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everything I found in my life, everything I've done, to some degree I've already done and just kind of redo it over again and it changes in different environments, so it's
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: enterprise.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I have to ask, you know, you're in one of the most competitive industries.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a very brutal industry.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pretty cut throughout.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, being in an industry,
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: that's so hyper competitive and only if there's only a few renowned architects and there's so many people trying to be a brand in architecture.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's a myth or what's something they don't tell you about the climb in that industry?
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: about the client.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't have a healthy relationship with your client, you're not going to get anything done and you're not going to succeed.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to be able to, you know, the way I like to talk about it is that, you know, I feel like what I am able to do,
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: is tell a client's story in terms of building.
• 14:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes that means a lot of listening, which architects don't do very well, frankly.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, a lot of recalibrated, you know, you have to be able to sometimes tell your client that that particular idea, you know, if we really pursued it, it may not work.
• 15:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you have to do it in a way that's, you know, generally a part of a great conversation and and ideally it's a great experience for everybody.
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's difficult to do.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a, it's a perilous journey for a lot of people, a lot of money and steak and it's extremely risky at the beginning you're starting with nothing.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you hope you're going to be able to get to, you know, someplace where everybody satisfied.
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't pay attention, um, and bring the client into the process, you know, you're making a big mistake.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, how did you rise to that level of notoriety in your space?
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what was it that, you know, Elijah to rise to, you know, above everybody else?
• 16:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, one of the things, and this is another myth, you know, if people, well, a lot of people get their ideas about architects from reading the fountain head or seeing movies like the brutalist, and typically the image of the architect is a kind of loner who doesn't listen to people and goes off and does their thing and it's their way or the highway.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in reality, architecture is a very social activity, it is you collaborate a lot with and you put together team of experts.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I work with the best engineers in the world and other architects in interior architects, landscape architects.
• 16:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's really what we do.
• 16:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I guess I'm particularly good at working well with others and and guiding them and leading them and you know, I like to say I'm a conductor of a symphony of experts.
• 17:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Masterpiece.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bill.
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Didn't look at it like that, but this is why I love this show.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I always learn a lot.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, let's talk about your pivot to beyond zero because that's obviously your focus now.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where your passion lies.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And frankly, that's kind of like the hottest thing in building right now anyways is building the way you're doing it now.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: What was the turning point that made you say,
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta do this business.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, I think the pandemic was a big part of it.
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you're under lockdown and in New York, we got hit pretty bad with that.
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you're you're still working remotely, but you know, you have a little bit more time just to think.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I kept going back to my youth, you know, I grew up in pal's worries and to South of LA.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: we lived right on the ocean, you know, kind of a cliff, and I think, you know, the thing about living on in California in particular, you know, you're always faced with the power of nature if you live on that sort of edge there, you know, either its floods or fire or landslides or, you know,
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: of nature and I grew up in that milieu and I spent a lot of time outdoors and I hiking and surfing and skiing and going all over California, which itself is just incredible and I'm very fortunate to have done that.
• 19:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I guess it just kind of came back as I
• 19:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: a major country in Middle East to evaluate a hotel in an area that was not dissimilar to Monument Valley in the U.S., and they wanted to put a 500 room hotel on the top of a beautiful mesa with nothing else around it, just a credible landscape.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I mastered out for them and did a feasibility study, and then I told them they were crazy.
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't like that idea, but I did think it was an actually really interesting thing to pursue, but are in a much smaller scale that would be more appropriate for the beauty of the site.
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now let me ask you, there's a lot of misconceptions about this decarbonization movement in our picture now.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you think the biggest misconception is with decarbonization in architecture right now?
• 20:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think there's a lot of what we call green washing, you know, where or or or kind of being counting where you're there or something called lead and it's an organization that essentially assigns points for if you do x will and see you get so many points and we add up all those points here there get a lead silver gold or platinum.
• 20:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think that's really enough.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think people should really look at everything they do in terms of the best of facility of that site and what its impact is going to be.
• 21:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just in terms of, can I, you know, lower my greenhouse emissions, but also what am I doing with the local community, how are you giving back to it, how am I impacting
• 21:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: the land itself and am I conserving?
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, you know, what are, so taking them a sort of longer view about the impact of what we do.
• 21:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, and then in viewing that sense of responsibility on everyone.
• 21:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I found in my career when, you know, everybody has a stake in the enterprise of putting something together and developing pride in what they do, you just get a better outcome.
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I really want everyone to feel like they built the building, not me, you know.
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So.
• 21:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're hearing so much right now about sustainable buildings and eco designs but beyond zero takes it further than that how are you actually making buildings carbon negative.
• 22:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I would say we start from a conservation at first, you know, a sort of nature first approach.
• 22:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, we right now, all the different hats that I have to put on, you know, one of them is evaluating land.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And most of the land we're looking at is our ranchers and South West.
• 22:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about the 50, 100 acres plus, so they're big sites.
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we try to create a small footprint.
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: of the building is possible.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: So letting the rest of the site just be conserved the way it is.
• 23:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's, I think that's a big part of the approach.
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then in terms of how we build, we wanna make sure we build with renewable materials and that we do as little as we can to disturb the conditions of our environment.
• 23:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not easy.
• 23:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not easy.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not here to proclaim that we're going to be masters of everything we do, but at least going into it, that's our proposition.
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you're for seeing like this process is going to get much easier with AI, robotics.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Also with, I mean, just, you know,
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, the current political party is also trying to really expand on building guidelines.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the mitigating a lot of the red tape that you're dealing with in construction, right, solve for, oh my gosh, the endless issues.
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: that the red tape is causing, you know, that the ad at bureaucracy has made it a nightmare to build driving costs up.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: How have you been dealing with that in your industry now?
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what are your hopes for the future under the current political party?
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, as a real estate developer, you take on a lot of risk and risk is inherent in time, you know, so the more time,
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: that it takes to do anything, you know, the riskier gets and the unfortunate part is that what we call the entitlement process and other people call it regulatory, but that entitlement process is managing that is probably one of the scariest things that you have to do because it's
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's strategies for how to do that.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And fortunately, I've been involved in a lot of projects that people have done that very well.
• 25:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's investment in that process.
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So anything that we can do.
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I've been hearing a lot of this from both sides of the aisle, so to speak, that regulatory part of it,
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think it was originally paved and good intentions, but has really unfortunately become an impediment to building anything that that has got to change.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, all legislation and, you know, all all these regulators are all paid with good intentions, but they're just government workers that have no idea of what the heck you do.
• 25:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: and they add red tape without the proper research and then they make your job a nightmare.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then they now we have to get new political influence just to reverse what they just did.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, New York is notorious for that as well.
• 26:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's gotten better.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's, there's, but Scooby some streamlining.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, you're still dealing with human beings
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And bureaucracy, and that's where a lot of that red tape can kind of fall out.
• 26:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So ideally, we start to understand that there, and this is where I think architects can play a huge role, because we have the training, a lot of training.
• 26:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we have a lot of the liability on these projects.
• 26:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We should be able to self-surify that we're in compliance with the code and not have to go through panels of architecture or viewboards.
• 27:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a, which I find a lot of it has kind of pointless huge waste of time and money
• 27:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that if you were able to basically come in and say, you know, here I am, I'm licensed here, or I can, I do this, I've followed the rules of regulations and I certify that we're compliant.
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We would save a lot of time.
• 27:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, what do you think are the real blockers for you right now with scaling?
• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And being able to, you know, kind of grow this negative
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, we certainly, you know, we're losing some incentives that we're there before, but again, I don't see that as a huge impediment to what we're doing because we're really partnering with innovative companies to do that.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're just driven mainly by tech.
• 28:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: frankly, and accessing tech and using, these are luxury resorts and they're sort of all built around regeneration and wellness, they're
• 28:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're really about, you know, people coming to our, our, one of our hotels and, you know, regenerating resetting in an incredible environment of pristine beauty.
• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's really what we're trying to achieve, and, you know, how you, how you get there,
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think is really as all part of what we do, and it seems to me that once you start to focus on that, everything else sort of falls in place, and so what had been looking at, well, we're
• 29:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: There might be some of the incentives, the economic incentives that were there before say installing solar and or in geothermal, which is something we're very interested in.
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It kind of goes by the wayside because people are already doing it and there's terrific companies out there that have invested in it and they're not got stopped.
• 29:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, what do you think you're most excited about right now about the intersection of design, tech, and climate?
• 30:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what excites you most about this huge intersection?
• 30:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that it's becoming just part of, and not the overuse of term, but part of our whole ecosystem, it's embedded into what we do.
• 30:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think the,
• 30:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think what's interesting for me, and I use AI a lot in what I do, and I find it to be very liberating.
• 30:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now I have the benefit of almost 40 years of experience where I understand is producing BS, and I can interrogate it and get it back on track, but I think
• 30:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: more and more people are going to start to use it.
• 30:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in that way, it's going to be extremely liberating for what we're able to do.
• 30:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's going to create efficiencies.
• 30:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: that we're only now just beginning to realize in efficiencies and a lot of innovation.
• 31:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the part of the story that people miss.
• 31:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: The negative side is all we're going to lose on all jobs, et cetera.
• 31:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're going to create a lot of new jobs and new,
• 31:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, markets and new types of companies that, you know, we can't even begin to imagine right now.
• 31:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm very, so far, you know, with, you know, with certain guardrails put into AI, but I'm very pro, AI.
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, what you, what you described is basically everyone's hesitation with the reality is, you know, markets will find a way that we're going to expand and use these tools to benefit mankind.
• 31:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 31:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it is exciting to see all these changes happen so rapidly and how fast our society is going to progress.
• 31:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's with, you know, with the big concerns with like, well, we're a main, all the issues, environmental issues, and all these things that now we're solving for on the developmental, on the real estate developmental side that never were factored in, ever.
• 32:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: ever.
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the thing.
• 32:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's so easy to do.
• 32:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can keep inputting more and more parameters and it just gets better.
• 32:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and for me, as somebody who's always been acutely aware of the practical side of what we do, you know, making sure that we can design really cutting in a, as architecture, but get a built, you know, realize that
• 32:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in order to do that, you have to be able to think about every aspect of that design, all the way through construction realization, all the way to, you know, when the first guest opens the door,
• 33:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, a couple of last questions I have for you, this one's about, you know, your legacy.
• 33:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: What legacy do you want to leave behind with your company beyond zero?
• 33:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just as a designer, but as the actual founder.
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: some architects.
• 33:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know, go into architecture because, oh, I'm going to build something it's going to be there forever.
• 33:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, that's, that's going to be my, my legacy.
• 33:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think of architecture that way.
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, my legacy I hope is that is somebody who's more interested in humanity and making the world just a little bit better than when I left it.
• 34:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think if that's what
• 34:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: people remember me my that's for me that's would be extremely satisfying now what's a personal goal that you have for yourself a business goal that you have for your business and a family goal you have for your family no I get a reverse that I you know I'm a dad for a so I my
• 34:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have two great kids, and they're both in college right now, and so I'm very excited for their next chapter in their life.
• 34:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any next?
• 34:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's that?
• 34:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any third-generation architects?
• 35:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so, I don't think so, we'll see, you know, they kind of strike me as being more academics, but we'll see, you never know, and if they do, that's great, you know,
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then in terms of my business goals right now, I really am excited about this journey that I'm on.
• 35:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I talk to my investors, I talk to the real estate is a different kind of investment.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because you're investing typically for the long term, it's not like buying stocks.
• 35:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I always tell people who are investing with us that, you know, for real estate, you have to imagine yourself living there, or,
• 36:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: staying there or going to work there.
• 36:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you can't do that, just walk away.
• 36:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you can't project, you know, that's something you want to do.
• 36:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for Beyond Zero, you know, we're really looking for our future guests, you know, people who really would want that kind of experience, who want to be in the wilderness, who
• 36:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: love nature and love nature when it's great and you want to be outdoors but also love it when you know you want to hunker down and sip by fire and talk to your friends and so you know so that's uh
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is, for me, the goal of the business.
• 36:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't, I'm not really doing it to make money.
• 36:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm really doing it because I think that type of experience is something that I would want very much in my life.
• 37:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think there are other people out there who share that sense of adventure and want to dream big.
• 37:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And my personal goal is every day to hopefully make someone in my very much day-to-day thing and every day I woke up and I said, you know, I hope I make somebody I encounter in my daily going about their lives a little bit better.
• 37:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's it, you know.
• 37:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what it's about my last question for you, you're doing so much in terms of really creating your business to be of service to mankind.
• 37:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's a lot of honor in that.
• 37:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I am a deep belief that, you know, you do God's work, you know, it does your work.
• 37:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I really feel like what you're doing with with with with your passion project.
• 38:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: not having to probably even work at this stage in your life, but being so concerned about the future, it's gonna have such a prolific impact for generations.
• 38:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: With that said, when you're in front of the early gates, what do you think God's gonna tell you?
• 38:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I hope it's God, and I hope that he looks at the, you know, nobody's perfect.
• 38:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would be the first to admit it, but you know, he looks at, or she, you know, looks at the, you know, my overall life and says, you know, you did okay.
• 38:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Kevin, you've been a blessing to have on the show.
• 38:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have everything on your goals.
• 38:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keep crushing.
• 38:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to build so many skyscrapers in the future and help so many people just get out of this crazy carbon buildings that we have now.
• 38:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: People want to connect with you.
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can they find you?
• 39:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the easiest way is you Google me.
• 39:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's only one Kevin Cutton K-E-V-I-N-K-E-N-N-O-N. And from there, you know, you can find me all over the place.
• 39:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The other easy place to get me is on LinkedIn.
• 39:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Kevin, it's been a pleasure.
• 39:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll drop some stuff here in the nose.
• 39:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 39:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keep doing what you're doing.
• 39:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's been an absolute blessing.