In 2006, Ottawa architect Linda Chapman delivered a lecture on building eco-friendly homes at a conference of custom home builders. Tucked into her Power-Point presentation on mechanical systems, building envelopes and the like are the words, "Remember poetry."

Rhythm, economy, evocative grace: Chapman's best architecture, which has netted her more than a few awards, embodies her own advice.

"A house or a building is a functional thing, but it's also a work of art," says Chapman, sipping on a mug of green tea during an early morning conversation at her office in Hintonburg. "Sometimes artistry gets lost because of speed and the cost of projects, but there's no reason there can't be poetry in details and proportion, in the spaces themselves."

Add an unswerving commitment to green building and a love of natural light, and you've got an idea of how Chapman approaches her profession.

One of her projects — a red-brick, Georgian-style stunner built by RND Construction in an upscale Ottawa neighbourhood — won the green custom home award at the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association's (GOHBA) recent Housing Design Awards. It was one of three trophies she nabbed this year.

"The proportions are elegant, but not overwhelming," says Chapman. "It's classical but there's still a coziness because of the proportions of the rooms."

Like a writer delighting in a clever bit of wordplay, she also mentions the trompe-l'oeil that distinguishes the generous foyer. The flooring seems to undulate thanks to the chevron-patterned mix of polished and honed marble, while the ceiling, actually flat, appears to be domed. "It's fun to play with that sort of Georgian detailing."

The home, especially the glorious stairwell and upper hallway, "harvests light. Most good architects are in love with sunlight. It's big for me because we have so little here and it's so important to our well-being. There's no such thing as too many windows."

Thanks to clients who are as green-minded as Chapman (she served as inaugural chair of GOHBA's green building committee), the home is also a candidate for platinum certification under the stringent Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

"There's absolutely no discontinuity (between esthetics and sustainability)," says the architect. "Green building techniques are getting better and better."

Chapman says she figured out she wanted to be an architect in about Grade 9. The Toronto native was naturally good at art and math, two of architecture's sine que nons, and was fascinated by historic buildings. She says she's also always had architecture's magic combination: equal facility with the big picture and with detail.

While she never pursued art — "most architects want to be sculptors, but we want to make a living, not be starving artists" — she does collect contemporary Canadian art, especially Quebec art, at her home on the Gatineau River in Chelsea.

Chapman discovered green building several decades ago. A graduate of the University of Toronto's architecture program, she'd lost her job during the early '90s economic downturn and wound up in the United States studying permaculture, the sustainable use of land in design.

At one point, she was in Colorado helping to raise a straw-bale building, and she was immediately sold on the concept.

"I had this epiphany that building could inspire us not just aesthetically, but with what materials we put in them. I decided I didn't want to be just another architect; I wanted to make a real difference."

Chapman established a reputation as a designer of eye-pleasing straw bale homes. She even incorporated a straw bale wall into one of her benchmark commercial projects: the Mountain Equipment Co-op in Westboro, built 10 years ago. Designed with her longtime office space partner architect Christopher Simmonds, the store was Canada's first retail building to comply with C2000 Green Building Standards. At the time, it consumed 50 per cent less energy than a similar building.

Although she hasn't done a straw bale project in some time, the friendly, curly-haired Chapman — an avid outdoorswoman, she kayaks, skis and cycles with her partner from their home — is as eco-minded as ever.

That's clear from her other winning entry at the recent Housing Design Awards: the Rothwell Heights Renovation. The 50-year-old house, which won for renovations/additions $350,000 to $499,999 and custom kitchens 220 square feet or more/$74,999 or less, now features walls packed with soya-based foam insulation, new windows and doors, radiant-heated floors, and energy-efficient lighting.

She also transformed the place from an "overwhelmingly dark and cramped house with a lot of interior walls and a hodgepodge of materials into something that's open and bright and very warm. We added a lot of windows across the back, and now there's light from at least two sides in every room."

As well, Chapman added a large shed dormer across the front of the house with playful porthole windows on either side: "they make fun little sun shadows inside."

Chapman echoes other Ottawa architects in sometimes feeling constrained by our love affair with Arts and Crafts design.

Although she calls herself eclectic, she admits a preference for contemporary design highlighting simple, clean details that are also in keeping with green building practices of using minimal materials.

Contemporary elements like strongly-defined windows mix with traditional aspects in the exterior of her Quain Road, Wakefield project. Massed so that it seems to cascade down a hill on its rural site, the home won the open category award at last year's Housing Design Awards.

Inside, the R2000 home is all about contemporary. Smart bamboo floors and cabinets, concrete countertops, and unadorned trim create a bright, airy feeling that suits the home's view over a valley.

It also sports a favourite Chapman element: pop-out bay windows with seats inside.

"It's a wonderful place to perch and view the world. People who have researched the psychology of homes talk about a nesting instinct: we like to have a place that's cosy but has a view of everything."

Nesting might not apply so much to a dental clinic, but Chapman extended the same consciousness of space when she designed the renovation of a clinic in Gatineau. To charge up the happiness level, she introduced more light and a relaxing palette of warm colours. "How many dentists' offices have you seen with an orange couch?" she asks, flashing a smile as cheery as that clinic.

Chapman says she's fascinated by how people occupy space. "It's an emotional thing. It can bring tears of joy or make your teeth tingle. That's what art is supposed to be."

Chapman's website, where you'll find a terrific selection of her projects, is www.smartarchitecture.com.

"Maybe I should have called it poeticarchitecture.com."