Karla Dakin

I am a landscape architect and artist: a caretaker of land and relationships. I grow long-term relationships with my collaborators: architects that I partner with; contractors and maintenance people; and individuals and families who engage me to create the outdoor experience of their homes. I am frequently called onto projects and into institutions for my horticultural knowledge, spanning food gardens, green roofs and rewilded landscapes.

I help my clients tell their stories through design: a rooftop meadow can support your daily practice of watching morning pollinators; a stone labyrinth brings you out onto your land to experience life’s mysteries; the master plan for your estate can cultivate your intentions for lifestyle and legacy. Engaging with nature can happen at many scales, from listening to the sound of water in a fountain, to sitting in shady courtyard to celebrating the spring bloom of your favorite tree.

I travel the world to experience the uniqueness of each place on earth. My priority has always been to gather new ideas about how people connect with themselves and natural forces. My research focuses on the embodied experience of gardens and landscapes – from Japanese temple gardens to the rugged Rocky Mountains in my backyard. I learn about ancient and new materials that engage all five senses and help us feel we belong to the places where we dwell.

Since founding K. Dakin Design in 1997, I have completed over 100 residential landscapes, two major museum roof gardens and dozens of commercial and public projects. I co-authored The Professional Design Guide to Green Roofs (published by Timber Press in 2013) and lecture internationally on subjects ranging from the future of green roofs to food gardens and the relationship between art practice and landscape architecture. In addition to being a licensed landscape architect, I have studied permaculture and biodynamic gardening, giving me a level of horticultural knowledge that is rare in the field.

I bring over 25 years of experience in landscape architecture to each project as well as a professional background and aesthetic sensibility polished by my early years working in the international art worlds of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. My practice hinges on the understanding that each project has a unique context, both human and ecological. My design process is a collaboration between landscape architect, client and site: both a discipline and an art.