November 10, 2025 | 5:00 – 6:00pm ET

Virtual

Free

This month the Connecticut Passive House Community welcomes guest René Brakels AIA, CPHC, Senior Architect at Centerbrook Architects (a BuildGreenCT Supporter sponsor 🙌) to talk about their Phius-certified Bowdoin College​ Schiller Coastal Studies Center.

René Brakels AIA, CPHC

Centerbrook Architects

Senior Architect

The son of a clockmaker, René was schooled in fine detail and precision from an early age. He grew up in Boxmeer, a city in the southeast corner The Netherlands, earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from HAN University of Applied Sciences, and a master’s degree from Technical University Delft. He worked in Dublin, New York City, The Netherlands, and Latvia before moving to Providence, RI, then Connecticut.

In his spare time, René has a special interest in housing the homeless, a cause he picked up in Dublin and has since carried on. He once helped build mud houses in Mozambique with Samaritan’s Purse and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. René is now involved with Malta, a faith-based homeless outreach program in the Groton and New London area.