About Us

Our skilled artisans, talented in-house architects, and interior designers, with their deep commitment to environmental stewardship, offer a uniquely creative viewpoint. Our integrated approach to custom interiors, home furnishings, and construction means top-quality, personalized service with an abiding passion for sustainability.

Our Services

Our Team

Building a new house, or remodeling an existing one, requires an engaged, collaborative process. Our in-house licensed architects, with their deep knowledge of sustainable design, provide crucial insights and expertise through every step - from initial feasibility studies to permitting, design, and construction.

With a combined nearly 100 years of professional expertise, our interior design team approaches each project with a keen commitment to high-quality, personalized service. Working with local impact-conscious artisans, we infuse our work with a unique focus on earth-friendly, wellness-forward design.

Stephen Pallrand

Stephen Pallrand's background in construction, architecture, architectural history, painting, and set design has aided him in pulling together the diverse group of artists, craftsmen, architectsFind out more and designers who work on the CarbonShack projects. His father was a scientist/educator and his mother an educator andpatron of the arts. This exposure to art, science and education led him to realize that building in an environmentally conscious manner is unimportant if you do not communicate the need and educate the consumer, for there are no green buildings, only green users. Our understanding of the environment is changing radically and so is the fate of the earth based on our actions as a civilization. Art and architecture have always played a critical role in representing the knowledge and culture of a period and Pallrand's use of the CarbonShack projects is to transform our shelters, our homes, into vehicles of change.

Derek Ryder

Derek Ryder is the lead architect at Home Front Build, a design-build firm in Los Angeles which specializes in the use of innovative green building techniques. Since graduating from architectureFind out more school, Derek has explored how to design and build in a way that minimizes our footprint on the environment. From the passive solarbenefit of earth construction in the Southwest to the Platinum level LEED certified CarbonShack project, Derek has always pursued projects that reduce the carbon emissions associated with our built environment. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University, Derek Ryder graduated from the Yale School of Architecture with a Master of Architecture degree in 1999. Derek became a licensed architect in California in 2011, and a LEED Accredited Professional in 2007. With a long-standing commitment and passion for green building, Derek has been a member of the USGBC-LA Chapter since 2010, attending the GreenBuild Conferences in 2007 and 2012. Additionally, Derek has been active with the American Institute of Architecture's Los Angeles Chapter on their Committee on the Environment and the Urban Design Committee, participating in charrettes and organizing presentations.

Rachel Mayeri

Rachel Mayeri, an LA-based artist working at the intersection of art and science, is the lead designer for CarbonShack. Her videos, installations, and writing projects explore topicsFind out more ranging from the history of special effects to the human animal. The multi-year project "Primate Cinema" investigates the boundary between humanand non-human primates in a series of video experiments. This work has shown at Sundance , Berlinale, Ars Electronica, and dOCUMENTA (13). Recent commissions include the environmental art project "Critters Speak" about the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem seven years after Deepwater Horizon, with Brandon Ballengée, funded by National Academy of Sciences Keck Futures Institute; the animated opera "Ofeo Nel Canale Alimentare" about the digestive tract, supported by Imagine Science Films. As professor of media studies at Harvey Mudd College, she teaches courses such as Animal Media Studies, Art & Science, and Stories from the Anthropocene. Rachel's goal with the CarbonShack project is to make visible the invisible natural processes that are a part of our homes and communicate the critical interlinkage between ourselves and the natural environment.

Greg Roth

Greg Roth brings more than 20 years of experience in the worlds of architectural, graphic and interior design to his role as Senior Interior Designer at Home Front Build. AfterFind out more earning a Master of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Greg spent several years in commercial and hospitality architectural design before segueing to residential interiors. Greg focuses his talents, passions and energies on creating vibrant, inviting spaces for contemporary living. He approaches each project with an earnest curiosity and diligence, always seeking design solutions that enhance and optimize the client’s experience of their home. From Spanish Revival to Contemporary, from Modern Mediterranean to traditional bungalow, Greg’s level of knowledge, commitment and expertise consistently brings added value to each and every Home Front Build design project. As a co-founder and Director of Design for LA-based baked goods emporium, Modern Bite, Greg spent 6 years creating custom-designed cakes and cookies emblazoned with his unique brand of colorful, edible graphics. Outside of work, Greg enjoys spending time gardening, exploring museums and art exhibits, hiking, and traveling with family and friends.

Alfonso Garcia

Alfonso Garcia grew up in small town Mexico, he learned construction helping the family build the original adobe structure and later "modern" additions in brick.Find out moreGenerational necessity led to the transmission of building techniques, but Alfonso's green building approach is significantly influenced by exposure to historic processes.As a construction coordinator for Home Front Build and CarbonShack, he reintroduced straw plaster due to its historic roots in adobe construction from his childhood and its dual benefits of acting as a carbon sequester and replacing industrially produced materials. Alfonso approaches green construction through the lens of his heritage drawing on the strength that before industrialization many building techniques were low impact out of necessity.

Goli Karimi

Goli Karimi has been designing and remodeling residential projects in Southern California for 35 years. Her love of design and construction from a very young age led her to study Interior Find out moreArchitecture and Landscape Architecture.
As Director of Design at Home Front Build, Goli approaches design from a perspective that combines history and modernity in equal measures. She believes in partnering with clients to create luxurious yet functional, unique and personal spaces. By working closely with the construction crew on all aspects of a project, Goli strives to ensure that quality and accuracy prevail.
Over the years, Goli has participated in 12 Pasadena Showcase House projects, ranging from kitchen/great rooms, to primary suites and more. She is a longtime volunteer at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. When she is not working, Goli attends art shows, home tours, and exploring the outdoors with her family, including 2 rescue dogs whom she adores.

Crafted from the Ground Up

When a home design calls for high-quality work and a commitment to excellence, there is no substitute for a collaborative process centered on skilled artisans. We go to great lengths to build strong relationships with local, talented crafters who bring passion, expertise, and pride to their work. From the plasterers who learned their craft at the feet of their grandfather, to the wood carver who takes time to attend to the details, we make sure that the team we gather to help create the home of your dreams is deeply skilled, focused on a quality product, and ideally suited to create exacting, personalized works of art.

Featured Project: Casa Zero

Featured Project

Casa Zero

Our first CarbonShack. This house serves as a case study, a comprehensive prototype for a new definition of green building. By integrating principles of high efficiency, low-impact materials, and natural aesthetics, this house provides environmental solutions for the variety of issues that remain unresolved by conventional green design.

See project See all projects See all projects

Affiliations & Awards

Home is about community, as well as place. It is not just how we live in the spaces within, but how our home relates to the community outside. We are conscious of our responsibility to integrate our projects into the existing community. As such, we are proud to be affiliated with – and to have had our projects recognized by - a number of local and regional organizations whose work we honor and respect.

The Story of Carbonshack

An 8-part documentary series about the building of our model home, the CarbonShack.

Watch all episodes

Schedule a consultation!

Whether you are a seasoned remodeler or a tentative home design neophyte, we are here to help! Call or contact us today for a no-commitment consultation. We love few things more than hearing about your dreams for the design of your home, and helping you get things started.