Connecting with Context

We begin by orienting ourselves within the larger story of this moment — examining the three converging narratives shaping our world today and the role the built environment plays in each. From there we look honestly at the economic logic driving our current reality, a system built on expectations of endless growth, and what science tells us is actually possible within real planetary boundaries.

This first week builds the foundation for everything that follows — because before we can imagine a different way of designing and building, we have to understand the world we're designing within.

Recognizing Dissonance & Tuning into Intuition

Before we can design differently for others, we have to reconnect with ourselves. This week turns inward, exploring how intuition and embodied knowledge are legitimate — and essential — ways of understanding the world, and how the dominant cultural narrative of separation between mind, body, nature, and each other has narrowed our thinking and our practice. We examine the cognitive dissonance that arises when what we know to be true conflicts with how we've been trained to work, and how reintegrating emotional and somatic awareness can expand our capacity as designers. We also look at the science of how buildings profoundly affect the psychological and physiological wellbeing of their occupants, and how balancing analytical and intuitive modes of thinking — the dynamic interplay of left and right brain — opens up richer, more responsive approaches to design.

Kinship Worldview, Language, and Storytelling

The stories we tell — and the words we use to tell them — shape what we're able to imagine and build. This week explores how a kinship worldview, one that understands humans as embedded in and responsible to the broader web of life rather than separate from or dominant over it, offers a fundamentally different foundation for design practice. We dig into the etymology of words like "sustainability," "ecology," and "environment" to uncover the assumptions baked into our everyday language and how subtly those assumptions constrain our thinking. From there we examine the power of storytelling as a design tool — not just for communicating ideas, but for shifting the cultural narratives that determine what kinds of built environments we collectively believe are possible.

Frameworks to Facilitate Change

With a clearer understanding of the world we're designing within and the stories shaping our practice, we turn to the question of direction — what are we actually trying to achieve? This week explores frameworks that help us locate our work within larger systems and find a more meaningful end goal than mere sustainability. We examine regenerative economics as a design philosophy, one that moves beyond minimizing harm toward actively restoring the conditions for life to thrive, and look to biomimicry as a practical methodology for learning from 3.8 billion years of nature's design intelligence. Together these frameworks offer a compelling and coherent vision for what architecture can be when it's oriented not just toward human utility, but toward life itself.

Life Cycle Impacts of Buildings and Materials

With a regenerative vision in place, we turn to the practical question of how the industry currently measures and recognizes sustainable performance. This week surveys the major North American green building rating systems (LEED, WELL, and the Living Building Challenge) examining what each prioritizes, where they overlap, and how they have contributed to market development in recent decades.

We zoom out to understand how building impacts are measured holistically across a structure's full lifecycle, and then zoom in to one of the most consequential and often overlooked dimensions of that impact: the materials we build with. From embodied carbon to human health to sourcing ethics, we examine the full spectrum of considerations that make material selection one of the highest-leverage decisions an architect can make.

Materials Embodied Impacts - Part 1: Earth First

Materials don't begin at the job site — they carry the weight of every extraction, process, and mile traveled before a single wall goes up. This week focuses on the environmental dimension of material impacts, starting with a grounded understanding of the carbon cycle and how the built environment's material choices contribute to — or can help mitigate — climate change. We examine practical strategies for embodied carbon reduction across the full material lifecycle, then broaden the lens to ecosystem health, exploring how material extraction and production affect biodiversity, land, and water systems beyond carbon alone. The week closes with a look at pollution reduction and mitigation, equipping architects with the knowledge to make material decisions that protect not just the climate, but the broader web of living systems our buildings are always, whether we acknowledge it or not, embedded within.

Materials Embodied Impacts - Part 2: Human and Social

The impacts of our material choices don't stop at the ecosystem — they run through human bodies and communities as well. This week examines the social dimension of embodied impacts, beginning with the often invisible world of material toxicity: how chemicals and compounds in everyday building materials affect the health of occupants, installers, and the communities living near extraction and manufacturing sites. We then turn to the design strategies that can actively support human health rather than compromise it. The second half of the week widens the lens to social health and equity, exploring how material supply chains are entangled with labor practices, environmental justice, and the disproportionate burdens borne by marginalized communities — and what it looks like to design with those realities in conscious view.

Circularity & Reuse of Existing Materials

The most sustainable material is often one that already exists. This week closes the loop on our exploration of materials by shifting from a linear take-make-dispose model toward one designed for circularity from the start. We trace material lifecycles from cradle to cradle — examining how the decisions made at the very beginning of a project determine what's possible at the end — and explore practical strategies for extending material life through reuse, adaptability, and designing for disassembly. We also examine the infrastructure question that often goes unaddressed: even the best-intentioned circular design intentions fall short without the supply chains, salvage networks, and policy frameworks to support them. The week closes with a practical toolkit of resources and strategies architects can begin applying in their practice today.

➡️ Utilize storytelling techniques to advocate for healthier design decisions

➡️ Map your personal position within systems of transformation to identify strategic leverage points for change

➡️ Identify chemical classes of concern and their health impacts, and specify safer alternatives

➡️ Implement embodied carbon reduction strategies to reduce climate impacts of material selections

➡️ Integrate circular materials strategies into your overall design process

➡️ Evaluate the holistic life cycle impacts of building materials using the impact areas of the AIA Materials Pledge and Common Materials Framework

➡️ Navigate transparency tools and certifications for both buildings and products to make informed material selections

Anticipate around 4-5 hours of learning time per week including:

Pre-work (1-2 hours): Reviewing course material and reflecting on prompts that prep you for the live session. If CEUs are offered, complete associated quiz

Live Session (90 minutes, via zoom): Review resources and course content from the week with your cohort; Q&A with guest speakers; facilitated discussion in small groups

The fee for Rooted: Design Practice Reimagined is $1,800 per person. This includes over 30 modules of curated content, (8) weekly live calls (with an option to participate in an introductory call before and an integration call following the formal course schedule), and ongoing access to the course platform through the end of the year.

Discounts are offered for emerging professionals, practitioners at small firms, and firms with cohorts of 5 or more participants. We don’t want the cost to deter participants from enrolling; email laurel@loomandlever.com to inquire. Payment plans available.

This course is ideal for licensed and unlicensed practitioners, including both Architects and Interior Designers.

A certificate of completion will be provided to all participants at the end of the course.

*professional LUs including AIA and GBCI are being evaluated - please let us know when completing the interest form whether continuing education credits would be required for your participation.

Community Forum:
Take advantage of ongoing asynchronous conversations and share relevant events and resources with peers in your cohort.

The course is hosted on Circle in partnership with (re)Biz,so you’ll have access to all course content and resources, a member directory, and message boards both on the web and on the go via a free mobile app.