Who Creates

Ben Uyeda is a designer, lecturer, and entrepreneur focusing on the field of affordable and sustainable design. Ben is the co-founder and design director of FreeGreen.com, as well as a visiting Lecturer at Northeastern University.

Ben received both his B.Arch. and his Master of Architecture from Cornell University. After graduating in 2005, Ben was hired as a visiting lecturer at Cornell where he created an original curriculum for teaching sustainable design, emphasizing the importance of critically understanding contemporary media and popular culture when trying to implement environmentally progressive technologies.

In 2006 Ben co-founded ZeroEnergy Design (ZED), a multi-disciplinary firm specializing in ecologically conscious housing. ZED’s award-winning architectural designs have been featured in Architectural Record, Popular Mechanics, Design New England and Boston Home.

In 2008 Ben launched FreeGreen.com, a web-based media company that distributes green home designs over the Internet. By 2009 FreeGreen became the largest supplier of house plans in the world and was recognized by I.D. Magazine in its annual I.D. 40 issue as one of the 40 projects/people that is transforming the world. FreeGreen's innovative business model has been discussed in numerous publications including The New York Times, Architectural Record and Fast Company.

In 2010 Ben won the U.S. Green Building Council’s Natural Talent Design Competition by creating affordable green home designs for the New Orleans' Broadmoor neighborhood as part of the rebuilding effort following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In his free time, Ben writes for the Huffington Post.