Project Statement

Charbrook is located at the foothills of Mount Wachusett in central New England. What began as a homestead crafted from the land, has evolved into a working farm and a landscape architecture studio. A mosaic of gardens, fields, woodlands and wetlands bridge between the homestead and the practice, grounding the family and the profession to this place. The land is a canvas for explorations in design, farming, and environmental stewardship. It is lived in, learned from, and unfolds as an ever-evolving dialogue between the agrarian and the wild. Charbrook will remain a lifelong project that explores how a homestead and a land-based profession can inform one another, inspired by the ecologies, materials, and traditions of a rural place.

Project Narrative

HOMESTEADING AND FARMING Charbrook is located in Nipmuc territory in rural Massachusetts. We began homesteading by rebuilding stonewalls and reclaiming invasive shrubland for grazing livestock. Pastures were re-seeded and farm lanes were planted with rows of native hardwoods. Five acres of fields and edge habitat were restored. Soon after, a house, barn and coop were constructed using our own red oak. Working gardens, pasture and meadows were established for vegetables, cows, sheep and wildlife. The farm abuts Audubon and State land, with the MA Mid State Trail running through, testing the idea that agriculture is compatible with restoration ecology. We oversee a twenty-acre plant nursery, fifty acres of hayfields, and a mosaic of woods and wetlands. As landscape architects, our instincts, spontaneous trials and experiences here have taught us the most about horticulture, craft and construction. After our second child was born, we realized our practice could benefit from this unique relationship with the land, and Charbrook has evolved into a place of mentorship, beyond the traditional studio.

FIELDWORK AND PRACTICE In 2020, a trio of buildings were completed, expanding Charbrook’s role in our practice. A studio, grange hall and greenhouse were constructed on the lower pasture using passive-house standards and sustainably harvested site timber. The farm has become a series of exploratory plots where we study materials, test planting strategies and experiment with field-based design. We have the construction equipment and ability to build mock-ups and host charrettes and farm tours. Students from design programs come for nursery dig and plant days. Lectures, exhibits and events engage the broader public. Charbrook is at once a home and a place of inquiry, making, and community—where the act of designing is inspired by the rural landscape.

PHILOSOPHY We have no preconceived style—just an ongoing, passionate debate of drawing lines with plants and materials, then blurring and disrupting them in search of balance. The tension between the agrarian and the wild is repeatedly investigated. We have developed a language of testing people’s thresholds for wildness. We do this because we believe the lack of human connection to wildness is widespread and one of the greatest tragedies of our time. So much of our work as landscape architects focuses on the urban realm, but we gravitate to the rural for inspiration. There is an intimacy that unfolds when you pay attention to the wildness found in places like Charbrook. The more we feel this closeness to the land, the better prepared we are to design, advocate and care for her, regardless of context.

EPILOGUE Charbrook was conceived through a series of unwritten ideas and breakthroughs that have matured over nearly two decades: the desire to live in a home built from our own efforts, with a garden to grow our own food and woodlands to forage, and a landscape where our children respect the wild and do not fear the night. Like my husband’s father who paced fifty steps from his farmhouse to the dairy barn, we can walk down to our studio through the pasture, with the full understanding and acceptance that here, the personal and the professional are life-long dance partners. We believe this is a way of life that is being archived in the landscape. It is not for everyone, but for us, it makes sense. And our studio benefits from this closeness with the land and the immersion and exploration that it inspires.