Off-Grid Design StudioEst. 2019

Homes that argue
with the grid.

We design structures powered by rain barrels, solar arrays, and stubborn independence. Every angle catches light. Every wall is a decision.

Design Your DepartureNo forms yet — just the click.
47
Homes Built
11
States
100%
Off-Grid Capable
Cross-section · Offgrid Home
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Origin Story

Eleven days without power.
Everything changed.

February 2011. An ice storm knocked out power to our part of rural Vermont for eleven days. No heat. No light except candles. My daughter was four months old.

I started sketching by candlelight — not out of frustration, but out of a question I couldn't stop asking: what would a house look like if it never needed the grid in the first place?

Eight years later, Offgrid Studio had designed forty-three homes that answer that question. Each one stranger and more beautiful than the last. Each one powered by rain, sun, wind, and the particular stubbornness of the person who lives there.

— Jordan Whitfield, Founder & Principal Architect

Design Your Departure
"

Not a manifesto.
Just math.

When the ice storm comes — and it comes — your home keeps humming. Eleven days off-grid is a philosophy, not an emergency.

47 homes · 0 grid failures
Four Principles

Energy as Architecture

Solar panels aren't bolted on as afterthoughts. Every roofline is an argument with the sun — angled, tessellated, and beautiful enough to stare at.

01

Water Has a Shape

Rain collection cells nest beneath foundations like honeycomb. The system teaches every person who lives there exactly where water comes from.

02

Build With, Not On

Topography is a collaborator. We read a site for three seasons before drawing a single line — catching light, tracking drainage, learning the prevailing wind.

03

The Grid Is Optional

Not a manifesto, just math. When the ice storm comes — and it comes — your home keeps humming. Eleven days off-grid is a philosophy, not an emergency.

04
Completed Work

Impossible homes
someone actually lives in.

The Whitmore Hillside

Stowe, Vermont

2023

A-Frame · Solar + Wood Gasifier

"We gave them eleven acres of Vermont hillside and a list of requirements that would have made any other firm laugh. Six months later we were watching snow fall from a house that generates more power than it uses."

Marcus Chen
Software Engineer, ex-Google · Stowe, Vermont

"The earthship design process felt like being taught a language — by the end I could read the site myself, understand why every wall faced the way it did. My kids can explain how their house works to anyone who asks."

Diane & Robert Okafor
Retired Educators · Taos, New Mexico

"I'm a structural engineer. I came in skeptical about the cantilever geometry over the ravine. The load calculations were impeccable. The aesthetics were something I couldn't have imagined."

Priya Nambiar
Structural Engineer · Olympia, Washington
VERMONT · 2023
Design Your DepartureFull consultation questionnaire → 15 min
Who We Build For

Three kinds of people
who stop asking if.

They start asking when. Here's who we've built for, and what they actually needed.

⬡

The Engineer Buyer

30 acres in Vermont. Remote work. Wants the wiring diagram.

  • 5–40 acre raw parcels
  • Budget $380K–$900K
  • Needs: solar sizing math, battery specs, water table reports
  • Timeline: 18–24 months from first sketch
This is me →
△

The Earthship Dreamer

New Mexico mesa. Retirement project. Wants the philosophy.

  • 1–10 acre high-desert sites
  • Budget $180K–$450K
  • Needs: passive solar design, thermal mass, grey water system
  • Timeline: 24–36 months, owner-builder friendly
This is me →
○

The Family Departure

Young kids. 15 acres anywhere. Wants them to know where water comes from.

  • Any region, any acreage
  • Budget $250K–$600K
  • Needs: kid-legible systems, garden integration, resilience first
  • Timeline: 12–18 months, fast-track available
This is me →
your land
The home is waiting

Ready to design
your departure?

One click. A 15-minute questionnaire about your land, your life, and what you want your kids to understand about where water comes from. We'll sketch the rest.

Design Your DepartureNo obligation · Full consultation questionnaire · Results in 48h
47
Homes designed
$2.1M
Avg. project value
11
States built in
100%
Off-grid capable