David E. Sellers

Sellers' interest in everyday design lead him to found a museum in 2011, the Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design, "to celebrate the great designs and encourage a civil society to understand that the future of a material world depends on permanence, and that depends on artistic infusement into everything we do". While living through long Vermont winters covered in snow, Sellers realized a need for a sled that could maneuver through trees safely, as opposed to the existing sleds available at the time which did not have steering capabilities. He and friends developed a sled which would not sink in deep powder and was able to easily be carried up the mountains without trouble. In 1987, he created the Mad River Rocket Company and began selling sleds. The company is still in operation and is run by his son, Parker Sellers.

Two of these experiments led to inventions that were used to start successful businesses. In 1974, he co-founded with Don Mayer, Northwind Power (now Northern Power Systems). The company is now a successful developer of wind turbines. In 1976 he co-founded the Vermont Iron Stove Works which created new designs in iron stoves for the domestic market. In 1978, he co-founded 4 Elements Corporation with architect John Todd, to develop solar aquatic waste treatment systems.

Starting in the mid-1970s, Sellers experimented in the integration of sustainable energy and waste systems into homes by featuring various green technologies. Between 1974 and 1980 during the oil embargo, Sellers designed five residences (in Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Vermont and New Jersey) featuring passive and active solar, wood backup, super-insulation, water storage for recirculating heat, composting toilets, windmills.

Sellers received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1960. He received his Masters in Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture in 1965, studying under dean Paul Rudolph, and noted architects James Stirling, Shadrach Woods and Henning Larsen, and Robert Engman (at the Yale School of Art who was a student of Josef Albers). Also an influence was Louis Kahn who served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. The Yale Building Project was initiated during his graduate studies. "The design-build culture was largely initiated by two members of the class of 1965, David E. Sellers and Peter Gluck. The two friends helped one another on building projects, one for Sellers' brother, and one for Gluck's parents. In 1963, Sellers and Gluck built a vacation house for Gluck's parents in Westhampton, New York. A cedar-clad house which was supported on telephone poles took two summers to build and was featured in a 1967 article in Progressive Architecture which described the young Sellers as "plunging headlong into architecture—designing, building and developing."

David E. Sellers (born David Edward Sellers, September 7, 1938) is an American architect based in Vermont known for using an improvisational approach to modern architecture which eventually led to what is known as design/build.