Design as a
systemic
act.
Architecture, urban planning, landscape, and product design.
Practice
Every region, neighborhood, building, and product is an actor within a larger system: an energy flow, a financial instrument, a piece of governance, a social contract.
Design is an act that ripples into the future, across supply chains, and into the lives of others.
We work with the flows that reach beyond the edges of the work itself. We weigh ecology, physics, economics, governance, and social reality together, and determine consequence before form is decided. A scheme that resolves four dimensions and fractures the fifth will still fail.
We design for resilience and regeneration. This has been the practice since 1999.
Selected work
All projects
Urban Planning
Developed the world's first regenerative real estate framework achieving 140% net-positive carbon reduction.
Architecture
Designed a catalytic multi-tenant office that functions as a self-sufficient, circular business ecosystem.
Product & Service Design
Launched Heineken's 100% Circular program with a complete roadmap to circularity by 2030.
Landscape
Transformed a polluted industrial zone into a green, vibrant sponge city for 50,000 residents.
Urban Planning
Designed the world's largest self-sufficient greenhouse complex, saving 9.2 billion liters of aquifer water.
Product & Service Design
Built data dashboards that reduced IKEA catalogue CO2 emissions by 28% and water use by 35%.
Landscape
Inner-city parking lot redesigned as climate-adaptive biodiverse urban garden
Architecture
Conceived a regenerative spiritual center that heals its ravine ecosystem while serving the community.
Trusted by
“Except has excellent knowledge, resources, and a good work ethic. They provided realistic options for significant sustainability improvements in our region with innovative solutions. The outcome couldn’t have been better.”
“I’m impressed by the team’s energy, expertise, and commitment. It touches you on a personal level that everyone at Except recognizes the need for the transformation to a sustainable society.”
“Except’s team works extremely hard and invests unbelievable amounts of energy into solving a problem, making it their own and getting to the root causes.”
“Despite not getting our initially desired outcome, the project finished well within budget and scope, and the results are exactly what we need right now to be sustainable.”
Disciplines
The SiD framework covers energy, water, biodiversity, economy, health, and social resilience across each discipline. Every project draws from the same integrated model, at a different scale and program.
Buildings and spatial design stress-tested against ecological, regulatory, and social risk. From single structures to multi-building campuses: systemic analysis determines orientation, material choice, and energy strategy from the first sketch.
Masterplans and district-scale design. Systems-level coordination of energy, water, mobility, and governance. The projects that most require SiD: the interdependencies are too numerous and the time horizons too long for conventional methods.
Ecological systems, outdoor environments, and green infrastructure. Performance-driven: drainage capacity, biodiversity targets, and climate resilience are specified before aesthetic decisions are made.
Physical products and service blueprints where systemic sustainability is embedded in the specification, not added afterward. Material flows and lifecycle costs drive every design decision from day one.
Thinking
Every project starts
with a conversation.
Tell us about the place, the constraint, or the problem. We will tell you where the system is already trying to help.
Start a conversation →