Masterplanning Design Builders

Halfway between the Artic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer at Latitude 47, lies a land of mountainous forest biomes and powerful weather patterns – Washington State.

Unique and incomparable. Sculpted by the Holocene Glacier – the best landscape designer. Moonshadow Ventures chooses sites that best show off such glacial sculpting.

A forest home that is contiguous and curves along the west side of the inland Salish Sea (also known as Puget Sound) and fed by the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean, Idaho to the east, Oregon south and Canada north, this productive area is where the last ice age glacier dug out and filled the Salish Sea over 13,000 years ago.

A temperate region between two mountain ranges – the Olympics and Cascades. It is in this region that Moonshadow Ventures uses low impact development techniques in the Endurance Projects.

The mountains are calling, and I must go.
- John Muir
Father of the National Parks

A Higher Purpose

Connecting dwelling habitats with the biodiversity of the land

Moonshadow Ventures builds sustainably. We are regenerative biophilic designers using an architectural approach to connect dwellers more closely to nature. What we call Endurance Dwellings.

Moonshadow Ventures acquires and builds in Salish Sea’s elder woodlands implementing Deep Green standards as our guide.

We use our senses to smell and taste the forest air. Our ears to listen to the silence. Our eyes to see the sky open at night with points of light beginning to flicker. The land advises us on how to create her for those who will inhabit this moist forest biome.

Low Impact

Creating a net-positive impact on the environment

Regenerative buildings are designed and operated to have a net-positive impact on the environment.

Landscaping is configured by hand and follows Low Impact Development to the letter.

We use Wild Sitecrafting to preserve the habitat, ecosystems and general biota on any site we work with. We believe if Wild Sitecrafting could become the norm in our forests, there would be no more forest fires.

One of Washington’s prime exports is lumber – the second largest producer of lumber in the U.S. employing many people. These ‘working forests’ stop working when harvested.

Moonshadow leaves the trees up on project lands. The trees continue working by providing oxygen, keeping the forest bed moist, providing shade and acting as a home for the biota and humans who will also occupy the space.

Development

Stewardship of the land is foremost

We find that there is more profit to be made by keeping the trees.

The standing trees give so many benefits as do the smallest dirt-dwellers have a part to play, a job to do and as a team member.

Moonshadow Ventures looks for astonishing pristine properties that are overlooked because power and water are not available. We can now acquire these acres for our embryonic Deep Green, multi-generational, rural residential dwellings.

In the end, the logic of nature endures. Knowing this and using Best Available Science, we start at the beginning in a relentlessly dogmatic habitat, with little or no carbon history.

Site forces are players in development. How will heavy rains, high winds, swirling skies, sunsets, sunrises, stormy lakes, energetic seas and fogbound forests influence development? We take that all into account.

Techniques

Ergonomic sensibilities that will last

Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
- Bruce Lee

Moonshadow Ventures recognizes, adopts and perpetuates elegant passive and active systems that deal with force (wind, sun, rain) and celebrate life. Pacific Northwest Dynastic is our singular, simple style.

We get to know the conditions, building constraints with materials and design limitations imposed by owners or the county before the site is acquired.

After acquiring land, we begin a series of observations, speculations and research to discover what the land advises. A typical Endurance Dwelling is not a formulaic residence. It is the answer for living and working in the same place – your terms, your design, your life.

Our projects are opportunities for owners to become stewards and biological expressionists guided by a Habitat Conservation Plan and ideas for their own unique dwelling.

We are heavily influenced by feminist philosophy and the balance between the built and non-built environments. The non-built carries more focus on the well-being of the woodland and all the relationships that exist there.

Our plans are interactive, bringing harmony and prosperity to owners and rural neighborhoods. The Americans with Disabilities Act compliancy is an important accessory to the ergonomic layering of the whole project, including forest trails and gardens. They are collateral to the living well legacy for generations to come.

Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult.

- Anais Nin

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
- Henry David Thoreau

Value

True, lasting, sustainable value

The value of biodiversity and nature versus its economic value.

The value of expensive building materials (like crown molding) used to hide installation lines versus architecture built with meaning and integrity.

Studies have been conducted putting a value of the world’s ecosystems around $33 Trillion dollars yearly.

Other groups quantify the non-monetary value for human health, happiness and well-being. When physical and emotional health were measured, research found that spending time in nature tended to reduce blood pressure, lower hormones related to stress and anxiety, decrease the probability of depression, improve cognitive function and certain immune functions.

Moonshadow Ventures’ designs reflect the essence of location. Value is complicated and must be thought through. Every curve, every placement, every nuanced and dedicated style shows thought and discipline to a higher purpose. Endurance Projects are inspired by a higher purpose where value must play a critical role – designs must make sense to create value.

Design

Designed for gatherings, events, expositions and mixed pursuits

Pacific Northwest Dynastic is our design style. One that reflects the essence of the location. An organic design with sustainable off-grid viability that gives us the opportunity to expose the Salish Sea’s awesome natural capital. The land advises us on how to create her. We listen and learn.

The Endurance Dwellings will last hundreds of years, with lofty ceilings, view windows, roomy galleries, open mezzanines and unique floor plans. The Type IV dwellings reveal the design efficiencies of “A Pattern Language” and the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) standards.

We are biological residents concerned about our survival and our earth home. Implementing Deep Green standards is our guide that will catapult dwellers into a special medley of social and economic engagements. A home that can be passed down through generations.

For more information, see the Resource page.

Teach your children

what we have taught our children−
that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth

befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
If men spit upon the ground,
they spit upon themselves.

This we know.
The earth does not belong to us;
we belong to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected
like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life;
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web,
we do to ourselves. . .

- Chief Seattle