Innovation at Caplow Manzano

Innovation
Written By Ted Caplow
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
— John F. Kennedy, September 1962

This much beloved quote, from America’s most popular president since Lincoln, may, from time to time, resonate with the team at Caplow Manzano… but in reality, we do not embrace difficult work just for the sheer challenge of it.

We should reflect on the history of innovation. Without the printing press, there would have been no Enlightenment. Without the airplane and the telegraph, no Globalization. Without the microchip, no Digital Age. And before the advent of vaccines, surviving childhood was not taken for granted.

We innovate, not because it is hard, but because it is necessary. Innovation drives progress.

1st in health – We designed CM1 (an elevated house we built in Miami’s Silver Bluff neighborhood) to become the first freestanding house in the world certified by WELL, the leading healthy building standard. Equally unique, CM1 is also built entirely without gypsum wallboard (drywall), without air conditioning ducts, and without sealed cavities in the walls.

1st in sustainability – Once built, CM2 (our project in Miami’s Belle Meade neighborhood), will become the first fiberglass-reinforced concrete house in Miami. From foundation to roof, the house contains no steel rebar at all, a response to the Surfside tragedy. CM2 is also 100% drywall-free and 100% wood-free and 100% free of synthetic insulation in the walls – made possible by the use of aerated autoclaved concrete block.

1st in creative engineering – CM3 (a project in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood) is designed to be the first multistory house in Miami with fully accessible plumbing risers and fully accessible AC ducts, where all risers are outside the walls, reducing the possibility of interior leaks.

At Caplow Manzano, we push the envelope of what buildings can do.

In some cases, it’s immediately clear what needs to be done - adaptation to the threat of global warming requires us to raise our homes and reduce our carbon footprint. In other cases, innovation is a process of discovery: How can we make a house last longer? Which forms of illness will respond to improvements in indoor air quality? Can we fix the food system by growing vegetables at home?

Our leadership team at Caplow Manzano has a history of innovation:

  • In 2015, Nathalie Manzano and Ted Caplow won the inaugural Knight Cities Challenge, earning a “Civic Innovator” award for their work on the Miami Science Barge, a floating marine science education center moored downtown. Later, they created the Inventors-in-Residence program at the nearby Frost Science Museum.

  • In 2006, Caplow created the original Science Barge in New York City, fueling a surge of interest in urban hydroponic food production.

  • In 2004, Caplow founded New York Sun Works to promote the integration of hydroponic vegetable cultivation into school buildings. Today, the company has built over 300 hydroponic science classrooms inside New York City public schools, educating students about climate change, ecology, and the global food system.

  • Caplow Manzano holds a small patent portfolio in vertical farming, air conditioning technology, and other building technologies.

Just after uttering that famous line (see above), Kennedy had more to say about why the United States should try to land a man on the moon:

“Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…”

At Caplow Manzano, we agree that innovation - finding a way to do what hasn’t been done before - makes us all better.

Ted Caplow
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