How Do We Simplify The City?
The Simple City is a place in which the complexities of the urban environment are opportunities for growth and investigation, and never barriers to our happiness nor the fulfillment of our basic needs
Simple City Studio strives to foster resilience by designing places that facilitate integration. Resilience occurs when networks are allowed to thrive, when parts of a whole support and fortify each other rather than competing for scarce resources.
The core of our design strategy is creating beneficial relationships between spaces, people, and systems through a holistic design approach. We work particularly hard to emphasize strong connections between buildings, ecology and socially just urbanism.
Contact us at:
studio@simplecitystudio.com
We work with individuals, communities and organizations headed toward a Simple City. We would love to hear from you about any projects or pursuits on which we might collaborate.
Architecture
& Interiors
We approach design as a response to the needs of an integrated system. We strive to balance and create beneficial relationships between the needs of our clients, the communities within which they live, and the environment.
Planning
& Urban Design
We increase the resilience of communities through placemaking that emphasizes self-sufficiency, resiliency and the empowerment of local people, culture and economy.
Consulting
& Sustainability
We assist in the establishment of benchmarks and performance requirements, development of design strategies, and assessment of those strategies in pursuit of well-defined goals.
Community Dev.
& Activism
We assist communities and organizations in planning initiatives and events, providing spatial and installation design services. We activate public space and bring ownership back to the community.
BRIEN W. TAL-BAKER
Registered Architect
brien@simplecitystudio.com
Brien Baker studied creative writing, mathematics and art at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA before heading to Japan to teach English to children throughout the greater Nagano region (aka the “Japanese Alps”). Upon his return, he embraced the epiphany that architecture might be at the junction of his varied interests, and relocated to study at the Boston Architectural College, where he received his M.Arch. He has worked in a number of architecture firms in the greater Boston area, including Machado and Silvetti Associates. He co-founded Simple City Studio LLC in order to create places that empower people and enrich their experiences.
