Timeless Architecture’s approach to environmental design is all about striking a balance between one’s spirit, mind, body and emotions. Being centered and clear in these core aspects of our own selves inevitably leads to a balance in the outer spheres of nature and culture and the buildings we create and inhabit.
Trained as an artist and a technician, my essential goal is to help clients identify their deepest aspirations for the spaces they are looking to build or enhance. In this effort the client and I work as a team to develop a clear focus or intention for the project so it responds to the individual site and client’s parameters. With open and clear communications skills, this process expands to engage other team members (engineers, contractors and suppliers) who help bring that intention to life as the project evolves from concept to reality.
As a LEED certified professional, (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), I work with these widely accepted standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in the established five main categories of Energy and Atmosphere, Indoor Environmental Quality, Materials and Resources, Sustainable Sites, and Water Efficiency. These five primary categories can be distilled into the four classic elements or qualities of fire (Energy and Atmosphere), air (Indoor Environmental Quality), earth (Materials and Resources), and water (Water Efficiency) with the fundamental 5th center point of place (Sustainable Sites) providing the focal point or location of the site.
One can then visualize the sustainability of the planet as simply maintaining the health and balance of fire, air, earth, and water just as we look to balance our individual components of spirit, mind, body, emotion. This approach allows our spaces (where we work, live and play) to serve their vital mediating role, as a gateway between the inner and outer environments.
Living as responsible stewards of the earth and green design, it also becomes useful to acknowledge and honor the vital chi and bloodstream of the planet, the unseen natural earth energy flows described in the timeless and ancient practices of Feng shui in the east & geomancy in the west.
Traditional tools of place-making and symbolic geometry play a vital role in green design as they fine-tune our built environment to the subtle energies of the earth’s.
As we move forward through these pivotal times, restoring our environment to health for the next generation and those to follow, we can be proud to work with these renewed subtle forces of nature herself, to enliven our environmental design and help to create architecture that is truly in balance.