Sustainability + Regenerative Design

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“Sustainability can’t just be about individual buildings. It needs to be about the collection of buildings and the synergy that all the people occupying those buildings bring to the community.”
— Mike Mariano

Schemata Workshop's vision of sustainability is viewed under the umbrella of community and ecological regeneration. While our team members are accustomed to working with LEED, Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards, and the Living Building Challenge Program, our intention is to first and foremost deliver projects that propose an all-encompassing sustainable design solution, which balance the intertwining aspects of the environment, economy, and social equity.  Whether our clients are seeking green certification or not, our team can propose multiple sustainable solutions to meet project goals. Our design team has been progressive on this topic, inspired by the architect’s ability to introduce clients to the concepts, with an understanding of the value of pursuit. As one of the earliest and first cohousing projects, we used Living Building Challenge (LBC) 1.0 as a guideline for our Daybreak Cohousing, and subsequently applied the City of Seattle’s Deep Green Pilot using LBC 3.0 to the home of Schemata Workshop and the community upstairs, ultimately performing a cost-benefit analysis that helped us achieve one of the lowest energy use mixed-use buildings in the region with and EUI=17. Our local Capitol Hill TOD Community is a LEED Platinum project, reflecting client and community priorities.

Project Regeneration

We aim for a holistic, regenerative solution to each project that comes through our office. Each project employs different strategies, and has different strengths as a result. For each project we consider:

site - restoring a healthy relationship with nature
water - harvesting rainwater and conserving our resources
energy - moving toward a reliance on current solar income    
material - products and processes that are safe for all species    
transportation - creation of walkable, pedestrian-oriented communities    
health - physical and psychological health of the building occupants    
innovation - developing sustainable technologies and design methods    
inspiration - design that inspires positive change    
equity - projects that create robust communities and support social justice

 

Capitol Hill EcoDistrict

The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict concept brings together place, sustainability and community - three aspects of architecture that are deep values of the Schemata Workshop Team. Sustainability is achieved over time and most critical to our collective success is engaging the residents of our communities. Schemata Workshop and the Capitol Hill community are embarking on a long-term mission to build and steward commitments to sustainability and the regeneration of the local ecology.  Mike has been a member of this community since its inception and was the co-chair for several years, and still maintains involvement as a member of the executive committee.

The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict is now certified as one of the first in the nation under the rigorous EcoDistricts protocol. We participated in crafting goals and metrics for this neighborhood of 30,000 residents and are continuing to monitor as we strive for a more positive future for all.

Visit the Capitol Hill Ecodistrict Website and read the "Goal of Capitol Hill EcoDistrict is to make neighborhood green" article Mike authored in the DJC for more information.