Bordertown

Ben Graham is an architectural designer by trade with a B.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is also a third generation woodworker and housebuilder, learning homebuilding first-hand from his grandfather. He is a partner in New Frameworks, the Natural Design Build company located in Burlington, Vermont. Ben has been at the front of developing the natural building movement in Vermont and the Northeast since 2000 as a professional contractor and an organizer for the Network of Natural Builders in the Northeast. His advocacy work has brought him attention in books, newspapers, TV and conferences.

Today will be an interview with Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design. Ben developed Whole Systems Design as a land-based response to biological and cultural extinction and the increasing separation between people and elemental things. Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings. His home landscape and the WSD studio site in Vermont's Mad River Valley serve as a proving ground for the innovative land developments featured in the projects of Whole Systems Design. Ben has studied architecture and landscape architecture at the graduate level and holds a master’s degree in land-use planning and design. He has taught design courses at the University of Vermont and Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum as well as on permaculture design, microclimate design, and design for climate change. He recently served on the Board of Directors at the Yestermorrow Design-Build School and teaches there from time to time. Ben