Talk title: "The History of the Perfect Wall……"
Joseph Lstiburek, known to symposium regulars simply as Joe, is the founder of Building Science Corporation and the host of the Westford Symposium on Building Science. In this talk, he traces the real origins of the "perfect wall" concept back to a 1964 paper by Dr. Neil Hutcheon of Canada's National Research Council, crediting his mentors Hutcheon and Gus Handegord for the underlying principles he later popularized. He works through why modern building materials like OSB and paper-faced gypsum board are more moisture-sensitive than older, more forgiving materials, and argues for design based on physics rather than energy-modeling software or activism disconnected from building science fundamentals. He covers how vented attics let wildfire embers into homes, how big overhangs and vented over-roofs protect walls from wildfire and rain, and shares career stories from Kodiak Island to Cleveland, including the attic air-sealing project that first taught him about combustion safety risk. He closes with the science of vinyl wallpaper, capillary condensation, and mold.