Welcome to the Kaplan-Thompson Story! Please choose from the options below to learn about Kaplan-Thompson.
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Attainable
Attainability. That is what BrightBuilt Home strives for above all else. What do we mean? It’s simple: that the elusive affordable low-energy high-performance home is possible. The truth is out there…
…Let us show you where. BrightBuilt Home offers a line of architect-designed, high-performance homes that are priced to offer substantial savings off the lifetime cost of a typical home and can be delivered in less time. Sustainable is now attainable. This is the BrightBuilt Home mission.
Sustainable
Just as we strive to make as small an impact on our homeowners’ wallets as possible, we also aim to make as small an impact on the environment as we can. BrightBuilt Home is committed to designing and facilitating the construction of homes that are efficient, comfortable, healthy, and environmentally-conscious. These Net Zero Energy homes are capable of producing as much energy as they consume annually. We carefully analyze each home site and utilize the advantages of natural day lighting, warmth from the sun and natural ventilation to minimize your reliance on energy-sucking light fixtures and completely eliminate that fossil-fuel gobbling furnace. We use non-toxic finishes and adhesives, Energy Star appliances and water-saving fixtures in every home.
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Building the Dream | Building the Team
On the leading edge of sustainability and design, award-winning firm Kaplan Thompson Architects founded BrightBuilt Home with the goal of providing more beautiful, healthy and low-energy homes for the American homebuyer. To optimize affordability, we rely heavily on supreme geekery married with years of custom design experience and construction knowledge. Sketches and cost spreadsheets are used hand-in-hand with energy models in order to optimize each home and reduce its carbon footprint.
How do we do it? Certainly not alone. As a partnership between design professionals, modular builders, and site contractors, we can keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry at large. As a team, we stay current on all aspects of home-building, from design innovations to pricing projections to best construction practices to more!
Masters of Modular
Keiser Homes, Maine’s leading prefabricated homebuilder, has known for years how to produce cost-effective homes that balance the logistics of off-site construction with resource-saving efficiency. With their list of New England’s top modular building partners, they have produced LEED-quality homes for years, and were one of the first modular homebuilders to offer non-toxic, higher performance, dense-pack cellulose insulation. Together with Kaplan Thompson Architects, a system was developed that locates that elusive sweet spot in new construction – the intersection of low energy and low cost.
Gurus on Site
Whether you choose to go with modular construction or site building, we can help recommend a solid group of experienced professionals to help prep and finish your home. Drawing from the deep bench of Keiser’s preferred builders, Kaplan Thompson’s project builders, and an extensive Rolodex of talented subcontractors and specialists, we want to help give you the resources you need to build the team you want to put out on the field.
Energy Buffs
Where would we be without nerds? BrightBuilt Home owes its exceptional performance standards to the (said in nerdy voice): “tweaks”, “analysis”, “data entry”, “calculations”, and “statistical conclusions” of our extensive energy models. The nerd squad is here to serve. We want to create for you the best “metrics-focused hemispherically-oriented energy-optimized maximally-pristine high-performance domicile” – aka home – that we possibly can.
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Energy Independence
In this age of soaring fuel costs, energy independence is not just about being an environmentalist anymore. It just makes good sense. With net-zero pricing rolled into our baselines, we can give you a good sense of what to expect when looking at the cost of alternate energy. If it’s just not possible for you to swing the solar panels now, all of our homes are ready-and-able to tie-in with a photovoltaic grid when the time is right.
Attainability
BrightBuilt Home offers a line of architect-designed, high-performance homes that are priced to offer substantial savings off the lifetime cost of a typical home and can be delivered in less time. Sustainable is now attainable – for everyone. This is the BrightBuilt Home mission.
Beauty
What exactly do we mean by “beauty”? Well, it has to do with a measured approach, carefully coordinated with the builder’s needs and today’s clients’ desires. To elegantly balance thoughtful spaces, accessible materials, and evocative details into a coherent and balanced whole is, to us, beautiful.
Durability
It’s simple: homes that last a long time make less of an impact and, ultimately, cost less to own and operate. A well-built structure, carefully assembled, conscientiously sealed, protected, and insulated, is how BrightBuilt Home does it.
Comfort
Remember that drafty house that you grew up in? Well, you finally have the opportunity to forget those drafts, and get used to a consistently comfortable home that doesn’t chill you when you look out the window in the middle of winter. Likewise, with thoughtful solar orientation and the implementation of shading, your home will be equally wonderful on those hot summer days.
Security
On so many levels, our homes are secure. They are financially secure, as they are not at the mercy of fluctuating, ever-inflating fuel costs. They are fiscally secure, as their durable construction lends itself to longer-lasting, time-tested components and less wear-and-tear. They are physically secure, as their firm foundations and stout walls provide a safe, pleasant, and snug haven for you and your family. We are confident that you will feel that reassuring – and lasting – sense of security in your comfortable, affordable, solid, dependable BrightBuilt Home.
Health
If your body is a temple, your home should be its sanctuary. We strive to create the healthiest home possible, by providing for year-round fresh-air circulation, and minimization of toxins in the air. All BrightBuilt Home specifications require that paints, flooring, and finishes comply with green Low-VOC standards.
Site Specificity
Every BrightBuilt Home is high performance. Therefore, every BrightBuilt Home must be carefully placed within its site to optimize solar orientation, views, glazed openings, shading, visibility, and more! Every home is analyzed within is proposed site, and metrics are adjusted until the optimal performance can be attained.
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