Ecological Master Planning + Design

Balancing strategies include energy generated by renewable sources, water requirements fulfilled by on-site rain and wastewater harvesting, wastewater processing by on-site treatment systems, minimally processed, carbon sequestring materials selected from indigenous and by-product stock, and native ecosystem services.

We provide design services for private and public sector clients whose projects expand the boundaries of progressive environmental design, particularly in the realms of resource balance, environmental and human health, and democratized access to healthy, affordable shelter.

The Center’s master planning approach is based on ecoBalance: the sourcing of any commodity must account for its sustainable re-sourcing. For example, air, water, food, energy and materials that are spatially allocated for their use phase (e.g., flora for oxygen, surfaces for water harvesting) must also have spatial allocations for their replenishment (e.g., vegetative area for the conversion of CO2 back to oxygen, contaminated water harvested to be treated by ecological treatment methods to make clean water again). The result is an integrated land use master planning process that provides the land’s baseline holding capacity relative to the number of people the land is able to support. We often couple our master planning projects with architectural design, enabling the planning phase to inform architectural decisions.