Ecological Design

For our designs to be transformative, they must be rooted in ecology. As such, there are fundamental principles that we strive to honor in our efforts to incorporate ecological design into our practice as architects. This is an integrative pursuit that begins with the words of Wendell Berry: “What is here? What will nature permit us to do here? What will nature help us to do here?” In other words, design must be grounded in the specifics of place. Ecological design minimizes environmental degradation by integrating itself with living processes – - through a sort of kinship with the natural world. The first step toward this end is, of course, site-bound. As hydrologic function of a site should not fundamentally change as a result of “development”, we must begin with the question “what are we doing with the water?” Can the improvements engage the site hydrologically such that no water leaves that shouldn’t? Can water remain on site and serve a life-giving purpose? Solving this problem is the ultimate in ‘green’ design because it is a part of the over-arching goal to create buildings that function – - ecologically speaking – - as though they had not been built in the first place.