What We Do
A 7 minute video overview of our work by Andrew Millison.
Whole Systems Design identifies, designs, develops, and manages resilient human habitats that yield perennial abundance and enduring value. We also teach land-based living courses that help people connect with, read and improve their habitats.
We design landscape and infrastructure systems that become adaptive, resilient, and relatively secure in a future of climate instability, failing bureaucratic systems, and deepening economic insolvency. We help people invest resources today to build abundance and beauty, generate land-based stability, and reduce their vulnerability in the future. This short interview with Ben Falk on Canadian Public Radio's Spark with Nora Young is a concise 9 minute overview of what we do and why.
Regenerative land management requires a multi-disciplinary approach.
Developing this solar infrastructure requires a holistic approach that integrates ecology, agriculture, architecture, construction, and education. Our process and results are scalable from residential properties, to neighborhoods and regions. With our planning and design partner, Whole Systems Design Collective, we design and implement regenerative food, fuel, learning, community, and shelter systems that operate on current solar energy. These are homesteads, farms, and schools more fit for a future of increasing disruption and vitality challenges.
See our services page to learn how our process begins. To learn more about our approach, listen to this short interview with Ben Falk on Canadian Public Radio's Spark with Nora Young.
The Resilient Farm and Homestead is available for purchase through Chelsea Green Publishing.
Who We Are
Ben Falk, M.A.L.D.
Design, Planning, Systems Optimization
Ben developed Whole Systems Design, LLC 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 regenerative land developments featured in the projects of Whole Systems Design. Ben studied architecture and landscape architecture at the graduate level and holds a master’s degree in land-use planning and design. He has conducted more than 750 site development and land inspection consultations across the US and abroad, and has facilitated dozens of courses on property selection, permaculture design, and resilient systems. He has given keynote addresses and presented dozens of workshops at venues ranging from Bioneers to the Omega Institute. Ben is the author of the award-winning book The Resilient Farm and Homestead (Chelsea Green, 2013, 2024) and serves as an Advisory Council for the international regeneration group Ecosystem Restoration Camps.
Erica Koch Falk, ND, MEd
Whole Systems Skills Instructor, Medicinal Crops, Herbalist
Erica is a Vermont licensed Naturopathic Physician, health educator, gardener, and medicine-maker. She earned her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from the National College of Natural Medicine and a Master of Education from Rutgers University. She has practiced in diverse settings including corporate wellness at Nike, integrative oncology hospitals, and private clinics. She enjoys teaching people about nutrition, herbs, growing food/medicine and integrating practical measures into daily life to promote resilience and health.
Where We Work
Rooted in the Northeast
Whole Systems Design began in the Mad River Valley in Vermont and has since expanded to include partners in the coast of New Hampshire and Maine, as well as the Hudson Valley of New York. We also work with a range of clients nationally and internationally with the aid of a team of consultants in other bioregions.
Press
CBC Radio
Spark with Nora Young “Rural Futures”
Ben Falk on modern-day homesteading: planning self-sustaining plots of land to both live and work on.
Landscape Architecture Magazine “Post-Oil Groceries”
A look at WSD’s landscape design philosophy through several case studies: a nonprofit farm research site, a semester school campus, and a town common of the future.
Fast Company
“Promised Land”
Whole Systems Design transforms landscapes into low-cost, productive spaces. Will your corporate campus be next?
New York Times “Beyond Fossil Fuels | Can we build a brighter shade of green?”
Regenerative landscapes by WSD pair well with energy-efficient buildings: in this case, a passivehaus being built in Vermont.
TedxSIT
“Homestead Resiliency, Food Systems Regeneration”
WSD’s research farm is focused on a resilient lifestyle approach starting at the home base, and the most adaptive strategies for dealing with the Current Situation.
Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective
Inhabit is a feature-length documentary introducing permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics, and governance.
Resilience “Becoming resilient in an ever-changing world”
An excerpt from The Resilient Farm and Homestead, this article highlights five focal points, plus key planning and questions to ask when developing resilience.
UTNE Reader “Future Farmers: Preparing the land for a post-peak oil society”
Ben Falk discussing the “window” of time we have to utilize abundant resources to install sustainable systems for the future.
How This Works Podcast by Skipper Chong Wilson
Ben Falk chats with Skipper on this episode of How This Works about the difference between design focused on sustainability and regeneration, how important context is to solving design problems, backcountry trips as a foundational relationship with his work, and more.