About the Authors

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George Swanson received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology from Western Washington University in June 1975.  Since that time he has worked throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, and Southeastern United States, designing, building, and managing construction of homes and commercial buildings.  His popular Dome Scrap Book, inspired by the works of Buckminster Fuller and published in 1981, distills George’s experiences designing and participating in building more than 300 geodesic dome structures in the Pacific Northwest from 1974 to 1981. 

Since the 1980’s George’s firm, Swanson Associates, now based in Austin, Texas, has completed nearly one hundred low-toxic and fully nontoxic "breathing" natural building projects in eleven states and several foreign countries.  Some of the building systems used were traditional straw-clay, rammed earth, Faswall¨ cement-bonded wood fiber wall forms, autoclaved aerated concrete block, and most recently magnesia-based (MgO) natural ceramic cement.  Several of these projects have included single-family wetland septic systems, rooftop water collection systems, pervious concrete landscape features and solar voltaic energy systems.

George graduated in 1992 from the International Institute for Bau-biologie¨ and Ecology (IBE) as a Building Biology¨ Practitioner and is listed in Who's Who in America in 1996 for his contributions to Sustainable Technology.  Currently he offers natural home and commercial building consulting, design and construction oversee services throughout the states and abroad.

In recent years Swanson Associates have been lead design/build consultants for numerous commercial projects, including several churches, a monastery and a twenty-one-building natural medicine complex in Austin, Texas.  Ongoing long-term international projects include a waterfront eco-resort in Kauai, restoration of an ancient hacienda in Mexico, and an eco-village complex in Trinidad.  Recently George returned from his fourth trip to China where on an ongoing basis he is conducting product development for DragonBoard¨, including all-natural fiber/MgO cement-based wall, roof and floor prefabricated structural insulative panels (SIP’s).  He is also a partner in the Substance Distributing Company of Austin which distributes several brands of MgO-based building materials.

Since 1975 George has conducted hundreds of seminars across the country and abroad on the benefits of natural building design.  He can be contacted at 512-653-8624 or gps@flash.net, or via his website, www.geoswan.com.

 

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Oram Miller is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he provides healthy home and office evaluations to clients on site throughout the upper Midwest and nationwide by telephone, fax and email through his company, Environmental Design and Inspection Services.

Following his education at Colby College (Bachelor of Arts in Biology, 1971) and a 23-year career as a health care practitioner, in December 2003 Oram received his certification as a Building Biology¨ Environmental Inspector (BBEI) from the International Institute for Bau-biologie and Ecology.  His training included assessment and mitigation of unhealthy electric and magnetic field exposure, indoor air quality, mold, and chemical outgassing.   

In addition to helping clients with health challenges in their existing homes, Oram consults on the design, building and remodeling of healthy new homes and offices in Minnesota and throughout the country.  Besides wall and foundation materials as taught by George Swanson, Oram recommends a healthy electrical wiring protocol to create reduced EMF (electromagnetic field) exposure developed by fellow building biologists, Spark Burmaster and Larry Gust.

Oram writes and lectures on health and the built environment.  He has presented lectures to the University of Minnesota College of Design, the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), the Living Green Expo and the Eco-Experience at the Minnesota State Fair, and the annual conference of the International Institute for Bau-biologie and Ecology.  He has also spoken at numerous healthy living expos and green building meetings. To see a listing of Oram's speaking engagements, go to the Lecture Schedule page on his website.

Oram is active in several organizations dedicated to green construction.  These include the Mississippi Headwaters Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council , the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE), and the Minnesota ASHRAE Sustainable Buildings Committee.  He also moderates a monthly study group called the Midwest Building Ecology Coalition.

Lastly, Oram was asked to submit a healthy electrical wiring protocol to the Minnesota GreenStar Program, and he is now a member of their Technical Committee.  The protocol was co-written by Oram and his colleague and mentor, Spark Burmaster, EE, BBEI of Chaseburg, Wisconsin.

Please contact Oram at Environmental Design and Inspection Services (952‑412‑0781 or info@createhealthyhomes.com) and visit his website, www.createhealthyhomes.com.

 

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Wayne Federer is based in rural northwestern Wisconsin, on the outskirts of Minnesota’s Twin Cites metro area.  In 1977 he received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry from Bucknell University and went on to the University of Illinois to complete a Ph.D. program in Inorganic Chemistry in 1984. 

While still in school, Wayne was inspired to became an environmentalist by his love of the outdoors and his reading of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.  However because he has always enjoyed research, Wayne joined the corporate world as a scientist, taking every opportunity he could to foster an environmental ethic.  In his 14-year industrial career investigating advanced magnetic and ceramic materials, he gravitated towards projects addressing environmental concerns, including catalytic purification and filtration of indoor air and diesel emissions.  In 1989 Wayne was a leader in the organization of a company-wide conference and movement to motivate employees to integrate consideration of environmental concerns into product and process design from the moment of each product’s conception.   In his community he has advocated for intelligent land-use planning and conservation design of subdivisions.

After striking out on his own, Wayne proceeded to study Building Biology‰ with the IBE class of 1998.  He has attended green building workshops and independently researched many health and environmental issues since then.  For this manual, his first foray into the world of editing, he has contributed his scientific and critical thinking skills.  The latter are most evident in his writing of chapter 6, for which he gathered input about “breathing walls” from our international colleagues.

Although Wayne’s favorite abode is a tent in the wilderness, most of the time he lives in a conventionally-built 1973 rambler.  He welcomes your email to editor@breathingwalls.com.

 

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