Settlement Patterns is a response to an artist-run-exhibition bringing together artists and designers whose work proposes, in function or content, alternative solutions for developing greener, more sustainable urban ecologies. Responding to the conventional American suburban landscape that privileges human occupancy in buildings fetishized as a marketable product, this project seeks alternative solutions to unproductive landscapes that absorb time and money, and that also fail to support the broader ecosystems that create habitat for animals and insects, foster larger ecosystems, or allow for the production of local food.

This speculative design project proposes new patterns of settlement that erase typical lot lines and fences that artificially subdivide the landscape and inhibit natural ecosystems and animal migration. Six housing developments are proposed, each imagining a different residential architecture with varied relationships to, and uses of the surrounding landscape. The buildings wrap, go under, go above, go around, and encircle natural resources and productive landscapes with the goal of creating a more balanced relationship between people, plants, and animals.