Consulting
From property evaluation to site consultation and project development, we help clients - and their land base - move toward greater health, resilience, and regeneration.
On-Site Consultation
The Site Consultation is one of our foundational services. We visit your site or prospective site and review challenges and opportunities with you. In and of itself, the Site Consultation is invaluable and often all a landowner or property-buyer needs to make key decisions. When site developments or planning requirements are significant, this visit serves as the springboard for further design services. If you do not yet have property, please see Property Selection & Evaluation.
Online Site/Project Consultation
The Remote Site/Project Consultation is an hour-long online consultation designed to aid those managing a site in site & project planning, to review and get expert third-party input key decisions, opportunities, and challenges. This consultation gives clients tools they need to move forward with confidence towards their property goals. If you do not yet have property, please see Property Selection & Evaluation.
Property Selection & Evaluation
For Prospective Landowners | The optimal time to start land planning property developments is, of course, before purchase. We provide guidance in developing property selection goals and criteria and apply this information to properties in the region of interest. We perform an entire range of site selection services from regional property identification using GIS, to site inspections of prospective parcels for Vermont relocation projects to rural New England land procurement in general.
Speaking Engagements & Custom Workshops
Ben has presented for a variety of audiences in-person and online on topics ranging from permaculture and homestead design to post-peak-oil living, underutilized crops, land planning, and landscape design. To request a speaking engagement or a custom workshop, please get in touch.
Land Planning and design
Strategic land development begins with a thorough working master plan that activates goals and examines land use from multiple perspectives.
With our studio, Whole Systems Design brings together a farm, homestead, perennial plant nursery, and professional landscape architecture practice. We offer our clients a unique, working knowledge of regenerative food and shelter systems, applicable at every scale, and built on establishing and managing two of the most remarkable cold climate permaculture homesteads and research farms in North America.
Our multidisciplinary approach integrates ecology, agriculture, horticulture, architecture, and multiple craft through implementation and management. We focus on providing an in-depth, iterative design process wedded to an intuitive sense of place. As with our results, our process is tactile, facilitating a client relationship that is transparent, engaging, and in preparation for living within the systems we've co-created.
Land planning services include:
Master Planning
Site Analysis
Site Design
Site Development
Management Planning