Acceptance: A Transformational Space
Centralia, Washington

​This project was initiated by Asperger Experts, the world’s largest community and training platform for parents and people on the autistic spectrum, which was formed by a community of people diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome with revolutionary ideas about treatment and compassion. It serves as a peer based program that supports people living with this condition in their efforts to learn how to accept and adapt to their own challenges. The twenty five acre site has been obtained, and fund raising is now underway for the development of a village-based approach, with a dedicated stewardship culture planned as a key aspect of their programming. Collaboration through planting, tending, and harvesting are seen as integral aspects of helping people on the neuro-diversity spectrum to obtain a sense of calm and to develop new life skills. Our work has been to design the extensive landscape of the village center, its two main strawbale community commons buildings and associated infrastructure of gardens, courtyards, pathways, greenhouses, roads, and paths connecting to the rest of the site. There are also numerous strawbale cottages for families or multiple individuals. The rest of the landscape is envisioned as one whole diverse water catchment system that will support extensive on-contour food forests, perennial vegetables, and extensive pollinator habitat.