Global Gardeners

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:09:45 +0000

We develop building projects in which landscape, buildings and gardens are truly adapted to support human existence.
We help clients maximize the value of land through effective ecological development.
Our work embraces innovation in water management, land restoration, and building systems.
We are guided by sensitivity to culture and climate of place.
We achieve maximum results by an effective management of resources.
We work from the scale of a watershed down to the detail of a garden.
We have applied restorative design in some of the most demanding environments.
We draw from a wide network to assemble working teams for each project.
We believe people are not the problem, people are the solution.
Ultimately, we believe the problems of the world can be solved in a garden.

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:08:29 +0000

We develop building projects in which landscape, buildings and gardens are truly adapted to support human existence.

We help clients maximize the value of land through effective ecological development.

Our work embraces innovation in water management, land restoration, and building systems.

We are guided by sensitivity to culture and climate of place.

We achieve maximum results by an effective management of resources.

We work from the scale of a watershed down to the detail of a garden.

We have applied restorative design in some of the most demanding environments.

We draw from a wide network to assemble working teams for each project.

We believe people are not the problem, people are the solution.

Ultimately, we believe the problems of the world can be solved in a garden.

Restored Wetlands and Public Park

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:20:44 +0000

AQUAPARQUE in the CITY OF MERIDA, YUCATAN, 2006-2007

This project transformed an abandoned stone quarry into a public park space, making the least change for the greatest possible effect.

This site is over 140,000 square meters, and was off limits to the established neighborhoods that surround it. It was abandoned after a hurricane flooded it eight years ago. Perceived as a health threat, the city government was under pressure to restore the site. This design for a public park with extensive water features was accepted, as it provided a high return on a relatively small investment. Aesthetically, technically, and environmentally water was made highly visible, creating a theme and an opportunity for multiple centers and activities aimed at different sectors.

Instead of a landfill, the flooded grounds were further excavated to shape water bodies, and the excavated materials were used to construct a network of access roads and paths for public access. Over 700 waterlilies of various colors and varieties were distributed in themed ponds. As part of a strategy to improve water quality, marginal aquatics were also planted, as well as oxigenating plants, and 300 two-inch koi specimens, and 30,000 Chiclasoma urophtalmus fry were released. Water was also treated with Microbelift bacteria achieving extraordinary clarity.

The work to be done in the first stage included building walkwaysl and laying large rocks to border the ponds; clearing the cattails and other reeds in water-covered areas along the walkways to accommodate the ponds and water gardens; repairing the thatched-roof constructions and sanitary installations; improvement of the main access road; repairing the bridges along the walkways and the construction of a fishing dock.

Current projects

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:00:28 +0000

Currently we are working on the following projects:

RESERVA LA COJOLITA, SELVA LACANDONA

Land planning and feasibility studies for a 60,000 hectare ecological preserve in the Lacandon Jungle, for Conservation International and Fundación Na Bolom.

HOTEL NA BOLOM

An extension for the famed Na Bolom hotel in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, which will be an innovative green building.

CENTRO PARA LA CONSERVACION YAGUL, OAXACA

Arroyuelo, Valle de Guadalupe

Actualmente elaboramos los lineamientos de construcción sostenible para un fraccionamiento de ranchos vinícolas con hotel en el Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California Norte.

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:02:43 +0000

Global Gardeners was founded in 2001 to provide architectural design and consultation services required by businesses, non-profits, and individuals seeking a different approach to the use and development of land within the context of a changing world.

Our foremost interest is to design and implement projects that create value by enhancing the environment and supporting the needs of communities. Our approach strives to achieve maximum results withing an economy of means.

We have done this in some of the most demanding environments, by integrating a broad range of disciplines. The company brings together the skills of landscape architects, regional planners, site engineers, biologists, agro-ecologists, and other professionals to create comprehensive solutions to land development and community planning.

Below is a project we are currently working on, the Centro para la Cultura de la Conservación in Yagul Natural Park, Oaxaca.

Global Gardeners Portfolio

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:56:55 +0000

Click here to download the Global Gardeners Portfolio in PDF format (5 MB).

Tree Charts

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:54:05 +0000

The charts are being finalized. Here is where we will link to tree charts to be downloaded in Winter 2008.

Community Development project

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:53:02 +0000

Playa Ventanilla is a Zapotec Indian village on the coast of Oaxaca. The people and land are beautiful and captivating. This beach was a pit stop for Guatemalan immigrants traveling to the US, and it is currently at the collision point between ancient ways of life and modern influences.

This page describes portions of a privately funded ecological design program carried on by Ecosolar (currently), and by César López Negrete (1998-2001).

The goals of the project are:

Safeguard the existing ecology and culture, including traditional systems appropriate for low population density
Encourage the development of sustainable, low-entropy systems for areas of higher population density
Fortify the villager’s resolve to resist loss of land, culture, and incursion of inappropriate development—something they have done remarkably well so far

The parts of the program where Proyecto Pacífico and Cesar Lopez Negrete have been involved include

development of sanitary local sources for drinking water
improvement in the management of feces
greywater reuse for home gardens
fruit trees to improve nutrition
enhancing local business
economic self-reliance

Other parts of the program include the construction of a health clinic and a restaurant, owned and operated by a women’s cooperative.

The cooperative continues to function, and has achieved international recognition and awards for their wetlands and turtle conservation work.

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:52:18 +0000

We have the ability to deliver effective educational programmes either in conjunction with development/restoration projects, or independently.

The problem is the solution

Transform challenges into opportunities.
Match the output of a component with the needs of another.

Capture and store energy

Use biological material to capture and store energy.
Use mass to capture and store energy.
Disperse yields over time.

Favor living technology

Substitute living elements for their abiotic counterparts.

Sustainability = most fun

The most regenerative system yields the most fun, net, over time.

Design for change

Plan for changes in physical and social conditions of site and society. A successful design is dynamic, a process without end points. Design for the endless horizon.

Design for global and local climate change.

The living world is the matrix for all design (biomimicry)

Use nature as “model, measure and mentor” (Benyus, 2001).
Learn and act from biological intelligence on site.

Experience is a yield

Design for inspiration, contact and pleasure.
Design and build to last
Quality is prioritized over quantity.

Cultivate connectivity

Components in a system are alive to the extent of their relationships.
Design for human mobility in the site and promote access between elements.
Find and encourage the relationship between ecological elements of the site.

Good human habitat = good wildlife habitat and ecosystem services

The land system should not compromise one habitat for another. Habitat is synergistic and human habitats are developed to be beneficial, not simply less destructive of wildlife habitat and ecosystem services. Inspiration, joyful human spaces can be the healthiest spaces for the more-than-human world as well.

Favor passive energy use over active

Rely on natural energy flows and harness with as little inputs as possible.

Encourage the sacred

Design spaces and transitions to enchant, promote connection to seasonality, other people, site details and expanses.

Promote participation in the site’s living systems through design. Design rituals indirectly through layout, form, connectivity, orientation, materials of the built and cultivated environment.

Disaggregate the problem

Break site challenges into pieces, address and then put them back together in the plans.

Close energy and material loops

Minimize throughput of resources in the system.
Waste equals food.

Steer succession

Align actions with local ecosystem patterns as much as possible.
Internalize the site’s natural history and manifest through site development.
Use disturbances as opportunities; gain leverage on the site’s evolution at opportune times. (See also Harness Cycles).

Capture and store water

Optimize edges and gradients

The areas between components in the landscape as well as the period between steps in the design process offers clues not present in the middle of components and steps. Transitions are fecund.

Design from context

Design from the outside in as well as the inside out
See through property boundaries and other imaginary restrictions
Connect the site to the larger landscape and insulate where necessary

Preserve biomass

Cultivate biomass

Low embodied energy

Use the most local, minimally processed materials possible.

Replace technology with technique

Wherever possibly improve and leverage skill rather than force.
Favor quality over quantity.

Optimize microclimates

Across time and space. Craft the climate to help achieve site goals.

Design for learning

Facilitate transmission of information from the site to the user wherever possible.
Promote “transparency” in the design.

Design for contact

Encourage the user’s direct experience with the site wherever possible.

Promote diversity and redundancy

Design multiple layers of genetic, energy, water, nutrient and other resources.

Garner multiple yields

Harvest numerous outputs of each component.

Favor local resources

Prioritize resources from the site outward.

Harness cycles

Each change across time in the system presents challenges as well as opportunities. Variations in time (in addition to space – the extent of most design) offer bursts of potential usually requiring living/biological elements to utilize.

Streamline actions

Obtain multiple benefits from single expenditures.
Least change for the greatest effect – landscape Aikido.

Look, Listen and Feel

Knowledge of the site is primary
Passive observation before active
Engage all the senses
Vary types of activities to more fully experience the range of site qualities and conditions
Internalize and articulate the story of the site, both cultural and natural

Principles of Ecological Design

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:50:57 +0000

The principles and strategies outlined below detail our approach to place making. They will eventually form a complete pattern language of land development. Some of these we have adapted from pioneers such as John Todd, Christopher Alexander and Bill Mollison. Many are simply the result of engaging with the living world. Such principles are inherent and ever present in an ecological design approach. Ask your designer what principles they draw from in their creation of spaces. Most of the industrial world is the product of design drawing on principles limited to visual appeal, initial cost and ease of construction. For millennia, durable and joyful places have been the result of a more deeply rooted frame of reference.