Inviting engagement for the greater good.

Passion for the intersection of connection, ecology, design, and organization compels me to support others in creating and maintaining environments that are harmonious, beautiful, simple, and sustainable.

For simplicity sake, one could say that professionally I am a designer or a builder, a community organizer or sustainability consultant, a guerilla coach or perpetual possibility-seeker. Naming any one of these things, or all of them together, still fails to convey who I am fully.

Sound familiar?

How does one explain themselves? By what they do? Think about?  Immerse themselves in? Are influenced by? Have origins from?  Get jazzed about? Yes, yes, and YES! It’s a start, even though in doing so we can’t begin to capture our full essence.

In our quest for understanding, we tend to label, define, and dissect.

I invite a different approach – one that recognizes the whole is more than a sum of its parts.  Doing so invites the opportunity for a deeper and grander knowing. I invite us to integrate the various elements of who we are, and explore meaningful connections between one another.

The magic elixir is not in a single ingredient, but the combining of those ingredients to make something unique. Like you. And me. Us. We.

Let’s journey together in this process, exploring connections, intersections, and spaces in between, thereby deepening harmony within ourselves, with nature, and to our community in the process.

Sustainable Architecture

Designing and Building are not disparate acts; they are compliments to a whole, and are best achieved as a continually evolving process.

I developed that sentiment in architecture school. Frustrated by the educational palette I was offered, I dropped out and largely eschewed the built environment for 6 years until I picked up the 3 book set on Earthships by Michael Reynolds. I began a journey of learning what it means to design, build, live, and engage sustainably.

I’d found natural building, ecological design, and creative engagement. Together,  they offered an alternative way of interacting with the world.

The definition of Natural Building:

“Use materials you have locally available in abundance in a manner that is energy efficient for your climate.” Sigi Koko, Down to Earth Design

Makes sense, right? The problem is that the  design and construction industries don’t work that way. At the time, human-scale sustainable architecture was being practiced primarily at the fringes – largely in pockets of counter-culture and intentional community.

My quest to immerse myself in sustainable architecture inspired first travel throughout North America in search of alternatives to a mainstream existence, and eventually a family move to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. There I raised a family and literally helped shape and grow an Ecovillage, all the while learning, loving, playing and doing in an immersive and collaborative environment.

20 years later, I am still immersed in the evolutionary process of creating sustainable architecture.

I’ve finally given up on having “my profession” figured out. I’ve been deepening my knowledge and understanding for over 20 years, and something crucial I’ve learned is that architecture, despite all appearances, is not static. The buildings live and breathe, can get sick and die, can be brought back from the brink, and given an new life. The needs of buildings change, their uses change, and the climate and culture that surrounds and fills them changes. Buildings offer us shelter and invite our collaborative engagement. I have learned to embrace that I’m in industry of evolutionary process, at the human-scale. In 5 years time, what I know to be true now will be refined further, honed, and altered by experience, greater understanding, and the collaborations with other sustainability seekers.

What’s around the bend will be a game-changer.

These days, the industry is starting to look at the carbon impact of the built environment. As an industry, we’ve solidly been in the high-performance transition for a decade, and one unintended consequence is that we’ve burned a LOT of carbon to do it. We can’t afford to keep doing that, and we need new strategies for improving our existing structures and building new structures that actually have a positive carbon impact for the world.

Basically, as an industry, we need to power up for the post-carbon society that we are headed toward, one way or the other.

And wouldn’t you know… Natural building is the key.

Where the road ends is just the beginning…

These days, I can be found in my little natural building studio/workshop in Shelburne Falls, MA. If you’re interested in seeing natural building materials up close and personal, let’s meet up for some fun play time!

I offer presentations on sustainable living, sustainable architecture, and natural building – art + science. Reach me if you’d like me to speak at your gathering.

Serving passionate people everywhere.

Living in the beautiful town of Shelburne Falls in Western Massachusetts, I feel a strong connection to my New England friends and neighbors.

Brought up in plains states, I have a deep kinship for heartland folks with their easy smiles and long, drawn out conversations.

As a member of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, I hold a deep affinity for my intentional community friends in Missouri and throughout the world.