who we are

Office of Living Things is a landscape research and design collective that uses the tools of landscape architecture to cultivate a culture of attention to the agencies, propensities, and complexities of living things. Through a methodology that intentionally muddies our own collective practices with the assemblages we find in our projects, we translate, draw, re-tell and re-invent stories at the intersections of nature and culture. Our research, fieldwork, and design emphasize direct engagement with site and community through a practice of radical listening--being outside, flexible, mobile, and open.

Works, Sharing, Teaching



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WHERE IS THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE 

Mobile Studio / Synthetic Drawing / Collective Methods / Paying Attention

Fieldwork and exhibit that explores the Dakota Access Pipeline as a social, cultural, and material agent of change
2017 - 2018
North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa

Works



NORTH BAY REGENERATION PROJECT

World-Building / Collective Methods

A community-driven design for a center for liberatory education on a low-lying formerly industrial site in Hudson, NY
2018 - ongoing
Hudson, NY

Works




REUSSBÜHL CKW PROJECT

World-Building / Living Systems

A winning competition for the transformation of a former silk weaving mill into a new development anchored by an urban forest.
2021 - ongoing
Lucerne, Switzerland

Works



EAU DE L’EAU

Living Systems / Collective Methods

A competition entry for Lausanne Jardins Festival 2024 for a parcours-powered irrigation system for a temporary tree nursery
January 2023
Lausanne, Switzerland

Works



LIMMATALER ENERGIEZENTRUM

Living Systems / Climatic Intelligence

A winning competition for the reconstruction of a combined energy and water treatment plant on the Limmat river near Zürich.
Nov 2021 - Jan 2023
Dietikon, Switzerland

Works




BERN OST

Regenerative Landscapes

A competition entry to design the landscape reclaimed by the removal of an existing highway using practices of regenerative agriculture.

2021-2022
Bern, Switzerland

Works






COLONYA CAIXA POLLENÇA

Climatic Intelligence / Living Systems

Design for the renovation of a former carpet factory in Mallorca, Spain
2019 - ongoing
Pollenca, Majorca

Works






ETH ZÜRICH - CHAIR OF BEING ALIVE

Living Systems / Regenerative Landscapes

Research and teaching for the Chair of Being Alive and the Master's of Science in Landscape Architecture program at ETH Zürich
2020 - ongoing
Zürich, Switzerland

Teaching




  

MONTJUÏC DAMM SOCCER FIELDS

Living Systems / Tree Architecture

Landscape design and grading plan for a community youth soccer club on Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain

2021
Barcelona, SP

Works





OASE JOURNAL: WE THE ROOTS AMONG YOU

Living Systems / Climatic Intelligence

Article in OASE #110 proposing a new language for the street that enables roots to create a living soil
2022


Sharing





CITATIONS - CHARTING THE ALIVE - ROMA TRE UNIVERSITY

Citations / Living Systems / Tree Architecture

A presentation at a conference of landscape architecture at Roma Tre University in which we explored what it means to draw a tree


2021
Rome, Italy

Sharing




 

LIVING THINGS NURSERY CATALOGUE

Climatic Intelligence / Living Systems 

The Living Things Nursery Catalogue explores the climatic intelligence of plants and seeks to connect that knowledge to a system of global climate data

2017-2018
Charlottesville, VA   

Works




PHILADELPHIA CONTAINER GARDEN

Climatic Intelligence / Mobile Studio / Paying Attention

An experimental container garden in a Philadelphia backyard  

2021-ongoing
Philadelphia, PA

Works





           
COMPOST!

Collective Methods / World-Building

A workshop/dinner/discussion series based in Brooklyn where people get together to have a meal, make something together, and discuss ideas and projects
2018 - 2020
Brooklyn, NY

Sharing



     

STUDIO ECOLOGIES FOR UNPREDICTABLE FUTURES

Living Systems / Drawing

A conversation between Office of Living Things and Teresa Gali-Izard about landscape architectural pedagogy and drawing languages .


2022


Sharing



           
LANDSCAPE MAPPING AT THE CABBAGE SCHOOL

Synthetic Drawing / Paying Attention

An intensive 5-day workshop in landscape mapping and drawing at The Cabbage School, “a rigorous, skill-based fool school,” in the mountains of Western North Carolina 
2019
Leicester, NC

Teaching






        
LUS PHD SEMINAR - ETH ZURICH

Synthetic Drawing

A lecture in the PhD Seminar of the Landscape and Urban Studies Institute at ETH Zurich on methodology of synthetic drawing
2021
Zurich, CH

Sharing





         
COLLECTIVE METHODS - HARVARD GSD

Collective Methods

A talk in the Design Discovery program at Harvard GSD on our DAPL project and collective practices
2019
Cambridge, MA

Sharing




AGRICULTURAL URBANISM RESEARCH

Living Systems / Regenerative Landscapes

Research on the  potential of logics grounded in regenerative agriculture to define new patterns of urbanization
2018


Works





OFFICE OF LIVING THINGS LLC