We consult with projects based on the potential for positive ecological and community impact, and the right fit between a clients desires and our design approach. We start our process with the following:
- Call or e-mail us so we can learn about your project and tell you more about our approach and services.
- Schedule a formal virtual or on-site consultation to meet each other, explore the landscape, and discuss goals and land/human capability. If the fit is right, we then discuss what level of service you need and what we can provide to move your project forward. We offer a full range of consulting services from idea generating to whole site planning.
Design Approach
We approach our projects not just for their features, but for the connections between everything, much like is seen in nature itself.
We begin by integrating ourselves into the socio-ecological landscape to gather client and site specific information so that design ideas are informed rather than imposed. Our approach recognizes everything is connected and we design from that paradigm in order to create lasting, place-appropriate impacts.
Ecological Patterning
With an understanding of how places naturally function, we are better suited to work with the nature of a project rather than against it.
Patterning is our multilayered method that blends ecosystem processes with community/human needs. This allows us to achieve ecological design as opposed to ecological compromise.
Site Mapping
Informed design solutions are meaningful design solutions.
We use site mapping to identify and illustrate the unique influences and energy flows of a project, which leads us to appropriate strategy and placement. Design can sometimes be as simple as putting things in the right place; site mapping facilitates identifying the right place for the right thing.
Use Frequency Planning
The movement patterns of people — that is the habits, behaviors, and patterns of how people use a space — are taken into great consideration in our process.
Analyzing frequency of use of all areas of a project centers the human element in our fact-finding process for further refinement of putting desired features in the right relationships.
Design Development
Expert site observation converges into the most effective design for the context.
We unite our clients goals with careful understanding of ecosystem repair to create beautiful and lasting agricultural projects, landscapes, and social ecosystems. The outcome of our work is our clients highest priority, and we believe function and form are a tandem, never sacrificing one over the other.
Management Protocols
Where designs lose their impact and resiliency over time is in the follow-through. To resolve this, we help our clients develop management protocols.
These can include social structures, such as educational events and community volunteer activities that build cultural resilience into a system over time, personal practice development for site managers to increase their effectiveness, coaching with experts, or simple schedules of management tasks that ensure the path forward is clear.