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OVERVIEW

Over the past decade, we’ve investigated the role of design in shaping regenerative landscapes. Our studio emphasizes hands-on projects and collaborations with universities, nonprofits, and communities to test real-world alternatives to extractive material systems.

This work emerged from observing how industrial reforestation models—such as non-native teak plantations in Central America—offer economic returns but little ecological value. Modest’s approach responds by asking how design can bridge economic viability and ecological relevance, building models that integrate biodiversity, livelihoods, and cultural exchange.

Projects range from cultivating a 10-acre ‘material forest’ in Colombia as a demonstrative alternative to monoculture forestry, to collaborative initiatives with Honduran communities exploring design as a tool for forest conservation, to research in the U.S. investigating how overlooked landscapes—such as utility corridors or superfund sites—might host fiber crops like milkweed that support both biodiversity and low-carbon material alternatives. Many of these projects actively engage product and industrial design students, including BFA and MFA students at Parsons School of Design in New York, whose diverse international perspectives enrich the development of design-driven, regenerative approaches.