Design
Statement
To live connected to our surroundings, to know the rhythms of the earth and its inhabitants, to feel deeply integrated and anchored to our particular place, and in this place our home, to be at ease and alive - facilitating this connection is the goal of our work.
Our designs create a fluid continuum from the greater landscape to the immediate surrounds, and into the built structure. Views, gardens, and outside living spaces give way gently to well lit spaces, natural materials, heat from the sun, and intimate nooks. By creating places where interior design, structure, and landscape are experienced as a single whole, our understanding and sense of pleasure in being in that place can be radically enhanced.
The design process aims to respond to the particular needs and lives of the future inhabitants while integrating the existing and potential ecological richness of their site. Organic forms, straw-bale walls, earth finishes, adobe floors, recycled and nontoxic materials, passive solar design, and native and edible landscaping are some of the possible alternatives used to create a built environment that enriches and enlivens while merging with the locale.
In responding to the larger needs of our times, structures designed by w/Gaia aim to be resource and energy efficient, non-toxic and healing, and affordable. We can create buildings that are more satisfying through superior craftsmanship, careful material selection, efficient use of space and a meticulous understanding of individual needs.
To live connected to our surroundings, to know the rhythms of the earth and its inhabitants, to feel deeply integrated and anchored to our particular place, and in this place our home, to be at ease and alive - facilitating this connection is the goal of our work.
Our designs create a fluid continuum from the greater landscape to the immediate surrounds, and into the built structure. Views, gardens, and outside living spaces give way gently to well lit spaces, natural materials, heat from the sun, and intimate nooks. By creating places where interior design, structure, and landscape are experienced as a single whole, our understanding and sense of pleasure in being in that place can be radically enhanced.
The design process aims to respond to the particular needs and lives of the future inhabitants while integrating the existing and potential ecological richness of their site. Organic forms, straw-bale walls, earth finishes, adobe floors, recycled and nontoxic materials, passive solar design, and native and edible landscaping are some of the possible alternatives used to create a built environment that enriches and enlivens while merging with the locale.
In responding to the larger needs of our times, structures designed by w/Gaia aim to be resource and energy efficient, non-toxic and healing, and affordable. We can create buildings that are more satisfying through superior craftsmanship, careful material selection, efficient use of space and a meticulous understanding of individual needs.
Gaia
n.
1. Greek Mythology. The goddess of the earth. 2. The
planet earth's
biosphere, viewed as a single, coherent, living
entity.