Walking through my nephew’s elementary school last Tuesday, I couldn’t help but notice how the hallways felt more like sterile hospital corridors than spaces designed for growing minds. Fluorescent lights…
Walking through the Singapore Botanic Gardens last month during a consulting trip, I found myself completely mesmerized by how the city had woven nature into its urban fabric. But it…
Yesterday I walked into a corporate lobby that felt like stepping inside a terrarium, and honestly? It caught me completely off guard. The reception area incorporated live moss walls, cascading…
The phone call came at 7:23 AM on a Tuesday. I remember the exact time because I was standing in my kitchen, coffee mug in hand, watching steam rise from…
Walking through Manchester’s Northern Quarter last Tuesday, I couldn’t help but notice how dramatically the area’s architectural character has shifted over the past five years. What used to be a…
Three months ago, I found myself standing in what used to be a 1920s bank lobby in downtown Portland, watching a team carefully remove layers of dropped ceiling tiles to…
You know what really bugs me about the whole “green building” movement? Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate the effort, I really do. But sometimes when I’m sitting in…
Three months ago, I was sitting in a research library at UC Berkeley, surrounded by towers of academic journals and feeling slightly overwhelmed. I’d promised to compile evidence for a…
Last Tuesday, I found myself standing in the bowels of a paper mill in Wisconsin, sweating through my safety gear while staring at what looked like a massive metal hamster…
Three months ago, my friend Marcus called me completely frazzled. His startup had just moved into this sterile glass box downtown – you know the type, all concrete and fluorescent…
Walking through the Amazon Spheres in Seattle last Tuesday, I couldn’t help but think about my own journey with nature-integrated design. Here I was, standing inside what’s essentially a giant…
Walking through my current apartment, I can’t help but smile at what visitors sometimes call my “indoor jungle.” What started as a desperate pandemic renovation has become a living laboratory…
Walking through Southwark last Tuesday, I stumbled across something that made me stop dead in my tracks. There, wedged between a Costa and a mobile phone repair shop, was this…
Three weeks ago, I found myself standing in what used to be a concrete parking lot behind a community center in Oakland, watching a group of teenagers install their first…
Last Tuesday, I found myself in the basement of a plastics manufacturing facility outside Detroit, staring at what looked like a massive metal labyrinth. The plant manager, Dave, was explaining…