Ken Haggard

Kenneth L. Haggard (b. 1935) is a passive solar architect and educator based in California. He is not the NMSEA co-founder — that was Keith Haggard, a distinct New Mexico solar designer; see the correction note below.

Education and academic career

BS in chemical engineering (Texas A&M), then a career change into architecture: BA in architecture with honors (North Carolina State University) and an MS in Urban Design (University of Pennsylvania). Taught at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo from 1967 to 1988; from 1972–1975 he was Principal Investigator on HUD-funded natural air-conditioning research — the Atascadero, California Skytherm/roof-pond project, listed as “Hay / Edminster / Haggard” in Baer’s 2009 AIA passive solar slideshow, and confirmed by a co-authored 1976 ASHRAE Transactions paper with Phil Niles and Harold Hay (“Nocturnal cooling and solar heating with water ponds and movable insulation”). He later founded and directed Cal Poly’s Renewable Energy Institute.

Practice

In 1970, taught architecture in Bangladesh — an experience he describes as transformative. In 1972, served as architect/researcher for what he calls the “first passive solar house in California.” From 1972-75, Principal Investigator on HUD-funded natural air-conditioning research producing the “first 100% naturally heated and cooled home” — the Atascadero, California Skytherm/roof-pond project, listed as “Hay / Edminster / Haggard” in Baer’s 2009 AIA passive solar slideshow. Met architect Polly Cooper at Cal Poly in 1975; the two founded a firm together in 1976, later known as the San Luis Sustainability Group. Licensed in California and Florida. 200+ passive solar residences on the Central Coast over three decades.

Built works include the 1972-75 Prototype Roof Pond House; Congregation Beth David Synagogue (completed November 2006, 16,190 sq ft, straw bale construction — described as the “first LEED-certified synagogue in the world”); the SLO Botanic Garden Education Center; and (reportedly California’s first permitted straw-bale building) the Noland House in Lone Pine, CA. In 1993, his office and home were destroyed in a wildfire; he and Cooper rebuilt with straw bale construction. In 2006, shifted from active practice to education and writing. Named one of “Top 10 Green Architects” by Natural Home magazine (2005).

Publications

Co-authored Passive Solar Architecture: Heating, Cooling, Ventilation, Daylighting and More Using Natural Flows with David Bainbridge, and the Passive Solar Architecture Pocket Reference with Bainbridge and Rachel Aljilani. Also wrote a Passive Solar Handbook for California, chapters in The Passive Solar Energy Book, Fractal Architecture (2006, with Polly Cooper), A Brief Architectural History of SLO County (2008), CASBA Straw Bale Construction Sourcebook (1999), and (with Polly Cooper) “Leading by design,” Solar Today, 2004.

Bainbridge’s own water-wall history credits Haggard and Polly Cooper as having likely “designed more water wall homes than anyone else in the world,” citing both their own retrofit/straw-bale home and 30+ years of practice.

Recognition

ASES Passive Solar Pioneer Award, 1996 (with Polly Cooper); 1st place, AIA/UIA International Competition on Sustainable Communities, 1993; Best Paper Award, World Solar Congress, 1989.

Quoted on Harold Hay in the Vindy Archives (2007): “He’s a caricature of the mad inventor. He’s a genius. But he’s also impossible. And he has not mellowed one iota.”

Uncertain / corrected

NMSEA founding claim retracted (2026-08-01). Earlier versions of this article credited Ken Haggard with co-founding the New Mexico Solar Energy Association at Ghost Ranch in 1972, treating the Corrales Comment obituary’s “Keith Haggard” as a misspelling. A dedicated research pass found the obituary was right: NMSEA’s own history pages, the ASES regional history (Bruce D. Hunn, 2022), and a contemporaneous July 1977 High Country News article all name Keith Haggard — NMSEA’s principal founder and executive director, active in the Santa Fe/Ghost Ranch Sun-dwellings scene from 1972 through the mid-1970s. During those exact years, Ken Haggard was a full-time Cal Poly faculty member and PI on the HUD-funded Atascadero roof-pond research in California; his documented biography (including Wikipedia) contains no New Mexico, NMSEA, Ghost Ranch, Baer, or van Dresser connection. The two are different people who share a surname and a field.

A prior version also stated Haggard co-founded a “Passive Solar Institute.” A 2026-08-10 research pass resolved this: David Bainbridge founded the Passive Solar Institute, not Haggard. Haggard founded the Renewable Energy Institute at Cal Poly (1984-88) — a distinct organization. The confusion likely arose because both men worked together in the Living Systems group and co-authored books.

Status (2026-08-10): Most likely alive at approximately 91. No obituary found. Wikipedia lists him under “Living people.” Appeared at a 2024 book signing.