Spotlight on Sustainable Landscape Architecture With AutoCAD: Munden Fry Landscape Associates

For years, Munden Fry Landscape Associates (MFLA) has been at the forefront of sustainable landscape architecture. One recent project truly exemplifies not only their commitment, but also innovative approaches.

With AutoCAD, they embarked on an ambitious landscape design and infrastructure project for one of the first International Living Building Challenge Certified residences in California. The certification itself is a performance-based standard of regenerative design that creates positive impact on human and natural systems.

This new home and landscape nestled in the Santa Lucia Mountains just outside Carmel-by-the-Sea, California will work in tandem to protect surrounding ecologies as well as implement net-positive energy systems, water harvesting, and responsible materials in the project’s design.

Front of two story wooden home with gray pavers and plants — Rendering of Santa Lucia Preserve project. Courtesy of Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Collaboration Between Architecture and Landscape Architecture Firms

With the Santa Lucia Preserve home designed by Feldman Architecture, MFLA is providing the entire landscape design—from sustainable recommendations for the ideal site location to grading, a greywater system, indigenous plants, and more.

Determining the site location wasn’t a siloed experience. Open collaboration between the two firms enabled exploration and finalizing the ideal location for the building in the surrounding landscape. Having previously completed work on a Living Building Challenge for Silver Oak Winery, MFLA provided important insights to the project. While Feldman Architecture modeled and generated drawings in Autodesk Revit, CAD files were easily exported for MFLA to pick up and work on the design in AutoCAD.

“We had a really great process sketching and developing ideas together and exchanging them in AutoCAD,” says James Munden, Partner, MFLA. “As things progressed, we got more and more excited about the idea of really pushing the boundaries of what this project could be.”

Visual Tour of Landscape Architecture Planning and Design

Screenshot of landscape planting plan in AutoCAD — Planting plan in AutoCAD for Santa Lucia Preserve project. Courtesy of Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Site visit at the Santa Lucia Preserve project. Courtesy Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Screenshot of tree protection plan in AutoCAD. — Site information was overlayed in AutoCAD for a full view to identify and preserve as many trees as possible for the Santa Lucia Preserve project. With information from the arborist and surveyor in AutoCAD, they could look at the at the site in depth and used the offset tool in AutoCAD to draw the boundaries and identify tree protection zones. Courtesy of Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Terrace section in AutoCAD, detailing wood deck, concrete steps, retaining wall, and more.. Courtesy of Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Rendering of Santa Lucia Preserve project with protected trees and view of deck, steps, and terrace. Courtesy of Munden Fry Landscape Associates.

Putting Sustainable Landscape Architecture First

For Munden, thinking sustainably for landscape architecture comes down to “good design sense.” Every aspect of the design, materials, and energy should be put into consideration. For example, keeping the soil on site for restoration instead of hauling it away reduces embodied carbon in that one change alone.

The Santa Lucia Preserve project is one of many landscape architecture projects currently underway for MFLA. With AutoCAD as their main design tool, they can dream and deliver a wide range of upcoming projects—from personal residences to an urban housing project in the Western Edition of San Francisco with just over 2.5 acres of open space and the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, led by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.