studio M MERGE

Residential design done right.
Room to grow on.

At studio M thoughtful residential design begins with you. Your home, your needs, your goals. We work with homeowners as part of a team. Once we understand your goals, we determine a budget, and then provide clear, strong design options.

studio M provides residential design services that are modern at their core. Our work takes into account the specifics of your property, your home, and your preferences. To create homes that reflect your personality, we collaborate. We listen. Our approach begins with an understanding that the spaces we design will shape the activity of our clients’ lives. So we take the opportunity seriously and design with great care. And we approach each project, from small bathroom remodels to new homes, with the same attention. The result is as unique as you are.

At the end of the day, your new residential design from studio M will reflect who you are and support how you want to live.

studio M Focus on Residential Design

• New Construction
• Residential Remodels
• Urban Farm Design: chicken coops, rabbit warrens, edible garden architecture

studio M Residential Services

• Property Analysis
• Master Planning
• Design
• Homeowner Workshops
• Permitting
• Construction Documents
• Construction Administration
• Post-Occupancy Evaluation
  

Urban Farm Design: Growth Industry
studio M plants the seeds of growth.

From beekeepers in Brooklyn to growing tomatoes in West Oakland, the Urban Farm is a grass roots movement that combines an increasing realization of the importance of eating healthy food, a drive toward sustainable self-sufficiency along with a desire to connect to the natural world.

When you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, studio M is ready to help. We design urban farms and city gardens that turn vacant lots or your back yard into growth opportunities. Studio M combines residential landscape design, landscape architecture and playground design to bring the farm-to-table movement home.

We have defined our work within the movement into two types: Urban Farms and Edible Gardens.

studio M Urban Farms: a plot to take over food production

Studio M works with cities, local planning boards, and neighborhoods to transform unused properties into thriving sites for food production. Studio M designs farms that combine, vegetables, fruit and herbs as well as chickens, bees, rabbits, and in some cases, goats, ducks and turkeys. 

Before studio M designs an urban farm, we consider its implications on the neighborhood. We plan for issues such as noise, smell, water quality and drainage. Because planning and zoning regulations for urban farms differ from city to city and are constantly in flux, studio M provides research services to determine the rules and regulations and best practices for the client’s urban farm goals.

studio M Edible Gardens: connect to your roots

A studio M edible garden becomes an integral part of your home landscape design, producing beauty along with a steady supply of fruits, vegetables and herbs.

Edible gardens typically include raised or in-ground vegetable and herb beds, berry patches, and fruit trees. In addition to designing your edible garden, studio M will provide you with the resources and education to ensure that you will produce healthy food for seasons to come.

See Research Section for information about Studio Farm

studio M Focus on Edible Gardens

• Residential Edible Gardens and Urban Farms
• Community Edible Garden Design
• Non-Profit Edible Garden Design
• Preschool and K-12 Edible Gardens

studio M Edible Garden Design Services 

• Property Analysis
• Master Planning
• Design
• Homeowner, Student and Teacher Workshops
• Permitting
• Construction Documents
• Construction Administration
• Seasonal Planting Plans
  

Feeding the Poor: Loaves and Fishes, Newman Hallhttp://calnewman.org/social-justice/loaves-and-fishes/

Loaves and Fishes is an outreach program to the poor and homeless in the Berkeley-Oakland area. Their monthly activities include a community dinner on the first Saturday of each month and food programs at the Men’s and Women’s Shelters in Berkeley. Throughout the year they conduct special drives for canned food, school supplies, baby items, and sundries.

Principal Andrea Sessa: Volunteer Preparing for the Monthly Community Dinner, serving over 100 people. Andrea has been providing food preparation and hospitality for over 5 years.

Creek to Bay Day, Oaklandhttp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/o/FE/s/ID/OAK024743

Creek to Bay Day is part of California and International Coastal Cleanup Day, which engages thousands of volunteers in trash removal and beautification of waterways and shorelines across California, the nation, and in about 100 participating countries. Volunteers in Oakland joined these efforts by acting locally to clean trash from and beautify Lake Merritt, the Oakland Estuary and 33 creek locations. Principal Andrea Sessa and her son have participated in Dimond Park’s Sausal Creek, Creek Bay Day since 2004. Andrea is also providing pro bono design services for the replacement of a hiking trail accessed pedestrian bridge within the Sausal Creek Water Shed.

Parklets + International Park + ing Day | http://parkingday.org

PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world. The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!

Project Manager Rachel McQueen led and designed Parklets in Oakland, 2012-2013, hosted by studio M.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Oaklandhttp://www.svdp-alameda.org/how-we-help/job-training/kitchen-of-champions.html

Since 1976, SVdP’s Free Dining Room has provided a hot meal to the hungry and homeless in one of the deepest pockets of poverty in Northern California. The Dining Room is the largest dining facility in Alameda County providing meals to the hungry five days a week. Located at the edge of Downtown Oakland and West Oakland, the Dining Room provides a critical community service:

• Serving up to 700 hot meals per day to people in need
• Offering community service opportunities to over 2,000 volunteers who provide over 25,000 hours of support annually

The Dining Room is a vital doorway to other social services for those whose lives are often at a standstill.

Principal Andrea Sessa and Project Manager Rachel McQueen volunteer to design and select the vegetables and herbs for the SVDP Kitchen Garden. Andrea taught Chef Robert Dorsey’s students from the Kitchen of Champions program how to prepare planting beds, plant plants and care for future plant growth.