Build It Forward

Summer Camp started because Joe Lstiburek wanted his young staff to learn from the mentors who taught him. In the early years, that meant three days of Gus Handegord at the front of a lecture hall, with a crowd of about 150 people trying to keep up with the equations.

In this conversation on Build It Forward, recorded in the Building Science Corporation Test Hut at Summer Camp 2026, Nick Falkoff sits down with two of BSC's earliest employees. Steve Baczek, an architect, joined in 1996 and calls himself the first employee. Kohta Ueno joined in 1998 after seeing Joe on an episode of NOVA, and today handles BSC's day-to-day consulting with Peter Baker.

They share stories from the early years: a production builder asking which ventilation system to use in the 3,000 houses he's building next year, flow hoods made from grocery store cardboard boxes, a garden hose proving that brick leaks, and Kohta's three red flags for building failures. They also get into how Joe made sure his staff understood the problem before leaving a job site, what Betsy Pettit built behind the scenes, and why so much of BSC's research is free on buildingscience.com.

Watch Can Buildings Make You Sick?, the NOVA episode that led Kohta to Building Science Corporation:
https://archive.org/details/CanBuildingsMakeYouSick?

Thank you to Betsy Pettit for graciously hosting us.

Connect with Steve Baczek:
https://stevenbaczekarchitect.com | IG: @stevenbaczekarchitect

Connect with Kohta Ueno and Building Science Corporation:
https://buildingscience.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kohta-ueno-472a4

Thank you to our production partner Benjamin Obdyke. Build Better™ with samples of their roof and wall products:
https://benjaminobdyke.com/get-a-sample-build-forward-podcast

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
vision@auburndalebuilders.com

01:06 How Summer Camp started
06:51 Theory meets builders who need real answers
13:09 Gus Handegord and the best wall to build
15:40 How Steve became BSC's first employee
18:29 Kohta, NOVA, and a cold call
20:29 Building America and production builders
24:05 Why brick always leaks
28:38 Red flags for building failures
32:40 Knowing what questions to ask
39:20 Betsy Pettit and the business behind BSC
45:31 The future of Building Science Corporation

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0J8B8c2DKgBKOopmjXK3E8

Made with @PRMEABL at the Building Science Corporation Test Hut

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #BuildingScienceCorporation #BuildingForensics #GreenBuilding #NetZero #SteveBaczek #KohtaUeno #BenjaminObdyke #BuildBetter

What is Build It Forward?

Build It Forward is about the people, ideas, and decisions shaping the future of high-performance residential construction. Hosted by Nick Falkoff, GM of Auburndale Builders, and produced by PRMEABL_, the name is a play on “pay it forward.”

Conversations range from technical decisions and process to people, culture, history, and collaboration — exploring what’s working, what isn’t, and what might be interesting to try next.

These conversations are worth having, and worth sharing, because the best buildings come from communities that share what they know and build forward together.