As a scientist and architect, Susan Schaefer Kliman designs with a cause—to conserve energy.

“By default, we live in a dynamic environment that is going to change, if it weren’t changing then something would be wrong,” Kliman said. “But the bottom line is that you design using sustainable elements because it makes sense.”

Kliman, a Tucson native, began her architecture firm in 1993, first naming it SSK Architecture. A few years later, she changed the name to Klimatic Architecture, 1661 N Swan Road, Ste. #138, Tucson, Ariz., forming her limited liability company (LLC) in 2000. She then merged her architectural practice with another in May 2005, becoming a part of Bright/Kliman Architects, which is currently in the process of a buyout to re-emerge as an independent firm, Kliman said.

With a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University, a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Arizona and a PhD in arid lands resource sciences from the UA, Kliman couples her scientific knowledge with her design background to aid in producing energy efficient custom homes.

“The focus of my practice is how you properly decide to design a building on a site and take into account and create indoor and outdoor spaces that make it an integrated structure,” Kliman said, “a structure that takes advantage of the landscape, the vegetation.”

Utilizing what she learned during her doctorate candidacy, Kliman’s area of study was energy-efficient architecture in an arid environment, particularly what you can do to create micro-climates and how you can integrate vegetation with the building to use the shading and transpiration of the cooling properties of plants.

“Tucson has two months out of the year that are absolutely awful … you can design a building and create a really nice outdoor environment, and then you’re not having to condition as much space,” Kliman said. “Buildings are the single largest consumer of energy, people look at cars and stuff, but in terms of how much energy it takes to build the building, and operations costs, buildings use a tremendous amount of energy.”

Not only does Kliman incorporate the outdoor environment with her designs to produce homes that conserve energy, she also specializes in building with alternative building materials.

Currently, one of Kliman’s favorite products is E-Crete, a recycled product that mixes the cleaned mine-tailings of sand with cement in Casa Grande, Ariz. to create alternative cement.

“It’s a light-weight aerated concrete…if you take a block of it and toss it in water, it will float,” Kliman said. “It’s a local product, which I love, you’re not spending a lot of money to transport the product and it has a really high energy efficiency value.”

Kliman has worked on projects in town, such as the Starbucks on E. Broadway Boulevard and N. Campbell Avenue and tenant improvement work on pieces of buildings and offices with Bright/Kliman Architects. Aside from Bright/Kliman Architects, she works on numerous projects out of town and is currently designing a home in New Mexico. She has also worked on restoration and government projects when she used to live in Washington D.C. and has worked on numerous Air Force projects when she lived in Las Vegas.

Taking cues from the client and the environment that the home or building will be in, Kliman designs with strong feelings in not wanting her homes or buildings to be recognized collectively, as though the same design is used for all her projects.

“You can’t take one building and plunk it down everywhere, a building needs to tie into the area and be appropriate,” Kliman said. “I believe that every building responds to its place and to the people who it’s designed for, so each one should be unique, and I don’t want someone to be able to identify every building that I’ve designed.”

Alongside designing homes and buildings that encompass clients’ personal touches with utilization of the environment to reduce energy use, Kliman believes that as an architect, it’s also her job to educate clients about design involving sustainable products and principles.

“A lot of building green is proper design, it’s citing it right, taking advantage of the local climate and using alternative building materials like round earth, like insulated concrete forms, structurally insulated panels,” Kliman said. “Green building is common sense design … so that you’re not putting a whole glass wall on the south and west side with no overhangs to protect you from the sun, but then it’s also looking at the materials you’re using, sustainable things, like bamboo floors, recycled carpet.”

Besides carrying a responsibility to educate her clients and the general public on energy conservation, Kliman said that architects have a real responsibility to make a difference.

“Americans live an incredibly wasteful lifestyle … and I think society, we really need to look at how we’re living, and say ‘you know, it’s just the right thing to do, we shouldn’t be consuming all the stuff that we don't need to be consuming, there’s a better way to do it,’” Kliman said. “Americans, we think we are one of the most advanced nations, so let’s show it, that we have the ability to do good things, to use technology in the right way.”