Have you ever looked around your town and wondered why everything around you seems so deadened? All these lifeless places, devoid of people and nature, are a by-product of our cultural preoccupation with consumption. We consume land and spit it out, without realizing how alive these places once were, and how enlivening these places could be again.
I’m obsessed with exploring how the places we live - our urban and suburban homes, our neighborhoods, and our downtowns - can be purposefully designed to support the wonder and resiliency of natural ecosystems. In my work as an ecological designer, I refer to these acts of regeneration as “bringing land back to life.”
In my writing for People Ecology Place, I share insights from my work as a regenerative designer as it applies to larger communities, and I also reflect personally on raising children and growing gardens at home, joyfully and intentionally, in the midst of late-stage capitalism.
About Me
Hello! I am Kristen Ford Haaf. I am a landscape architect, gardener, designer, teacher, mother. Since I was a kid, I have been entranced with nature and curious about how people are shaped by their environment around them. My lifelong obsession has been imagining and building places that are informed by and centered around nature. I studied Environmental Science and Policy amidst wilderness backpacking trips in college. I worked in the non-profit sector in North Carolina and Ecuador doing urban gardening and community forestry. I studied permaculture at Earthaven EcoVillage and then went on to study landscape architecture and urban planning with a focus on urban ecological design.
To learn more about me and my design studio, Roots First Design, please visit rootsfirst.com.
Why People Ecology Place?
My goal for this newsletter is to create a space where you feel invited to slow down and explore for yourself how you might build a regenerative world starting right now, right where you are.
On these pages you will find wisdom and wonder, ideas and inspiration. You will find information on ecology-based design solutions, reflections on regenerative urbanism and bioregionalism, and personal practices to deepen your own place connection while bringing your land back to life.
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