Ben Bookout has gained a rich varied experience during his course of study over the last 10 years. His interest in design began when he took a permaculture design course taught by Bill Melvin of Ecoscape Design. During this time he was working in landscape construction with Robert Howard Associates. He became fascinated with the possibilities of closed loop system and their design. He also came to
respect the simple pride in landscape construction, masonry, irrigation, plant selection and planting.
He has multiple experiences abroad in different capacities. He taught English in Chile and Peru. He studied landscape architecture at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand and University of Colorado. He did well in these programs but yearned for something unique in his graduate studies. Thus, he completed a Masters of Architecture in Spanish at Universidad Catolica de Chile and wrote
a lengthy thesis about Urban Agriculture and its application in the context of Santiago, Chile. His time and studies abroad make him a unique candidate for design positions. He is not the prototypical designer coming out of a masters or undergrad program and he looks at
this as an advantage. He has also gained extensive experience in permaculture design both independently and as a landscape designer for Ecoscape
Environmental Design. He has implemented multiple large scale permaculture/biodynamic farm designs as well as sub-urban and urban scale permaculture and conventional projects. He is well versed in design, project management, budget formation, construction means
and methods and employee management. Again he has a broad a-typical experience profile.
This sort of variation and originality in experience make him a person and designer that has a different point of view. Nowhere is this more valued than in the design industry, where innovative ideas are paramount. He is a firm believer in the road less travelled leading to the ideas unthought or a shortcut to solutions we have not yet considered. He has come to experience and agree with this quote from
the movie 180 degrees south. “The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn’t even think to ask.” As part of your company Ben will be an honest, straight forward person, unafraid to express his ideas and a group member ever respectful of others opinions and ideas, ready to ask deepening questions to understand. He is a native of Boulder, Colorado and studied landscape horticulture at Colorado State University. He has extensive plant knowledge medicinal and xeric understanding. He is an avid rock climber at the moment but switches hobbies often to feed the larger obsession of learning like a vacume. He currently resides in Santiago Chile where his wife is finishing up her degree in Architecture.