BREATHE.DESIGN.LOVE. Design 101, The Analytical Artist
BREATHE.DESIGN.LOVE.
Start Today, $55 USD

DESIGN 101 AWAITS

Create your design brief and your vision. Your own pattern language. Your own bubble diagrams. Your own space, measured and understood. No technical background required, just the creativity you already found in Breathe 101.

Enroll in Design 101, $55 USD
What's Inside

One Continuous Arc, Not a Technical Checklist

"Most architecture courses stop at the floor plan, teaching you where to put the walls. This one begins with your own breath and carries all the way through to a home that breathes back: creative unblocking, biophilic design, permaculture, passive solar, natural materials, and the systems that let you live gently on your land."

Design 101 Course Contents

Four lessons, seven assignments, one continuous arc from your first sketch to your own bubble diagram. Here's the whole curriculum, lesson by lesson.

Lesson 1: The Kindergarten Time Traveler

  • Lesson 1a: The Kindergarten Time Traveler
  • Assignment 1a: Pass-the-Sketch
  • Assignment 1b: "3-Stage Alter Ego" Sprint
  • Assignment 1c: Clay / Plasticine Sculpting

Lesson 2: Developing Your Own Pattern Language

  • Lesson 2a: Left and Right Brain
  • Lesson 2b: Developing Your Own Pattern Language
  • Assignment 2: Creating Your Own Pattern Language

Lesson 3: Defining Space Sizes and Functional Wants/Needs

  • Assignment 3: Collecting Space Sizes and Volumes

Lesson 4: Understanding Bubble Diagrams

  • Assignment 4: Creating Your Own Bubble Diagram

All the Modules

Light-filled interior, calm breathing space

Breathe 101

Supercharge your creativity. The entry point; breathwork foundation before any design work begins.

Straw bale home, SG design
A hand-drawn bubble diagram, part of the pattern-language exercise

Design 101

Creative design techniques: build your own pattern language, define space and volume goals, bubble diagrams.

+ course-shop tools available, starting with plasticine for the DA1c exercise
A curved-roof hillside home, early biophilic design

Design 102

Biophilic and bioharmonic design: golden section and music proportions in architecture.

Adobe home, Anthropomorphic + SG design
A home entrance with garden planters and food-growing beds

Design 103

Permaculture principles, site planning, food forests.

Straw bale home
Solar panels on a roof, reflected in a still pond

Design 104

Passive and active solar energy design, and Passive Haus.

Timbercrete block home
A rammed-earth interior corridor

Design 105

Materials: straw bale, earth building, hemp, and other bio materials.

Timbercrete block home and a smiling wall
A stone and timber home entrance

Design 106

Plumbing for rain water harvesting, grey water, and compost toilets.

Feng Shui + SG designed home
A bioharmonic, EMF-free bedroom inside the Infinity House

Design 107

Electrical wiring and electro-pollution solutions.

bioharmonic EMF-free bedroom, the Infinity House
Students celebrating together at the end of a live workshop, holding their finished sketches

LOVE 101

Celebration session: present the Sanctuary you love. Closes the loop on Breathe. Design. Love.

students celebrating at the end of a live workshop
The Two-Stage Journey

Brief First, Then Concept Design Plan

Design 101 develops your design brief. This is where your vision gets developed, defining how you and your family actually operate. Your home becomes the exoskeleton that supports that life, not the other way around.

Stage 1

Design 101

Pricing
3 Live Tutor Sessions with a Registered Architect, 35+ Years' Experience $1,000 USD
Architect Developing Your Design Brief Minimum $1,000 USD
Full Design 101 Self-Study Curriculum Included
Analytical Guru Specification Workbook Included
Lifetime Pattern Language Lab Access Included
Your Price Today $55 USD
Now Through World Habitat Day, Oct 5: Seed Price
$55 USD
  • Design 101, individually
  • 3 live tutor sessions over 21 days
  • Lifetime Pattern Language Lab access
  • Bundle: $233 USD for all 8 modules
Enroll Now
Oct 6 Through Dec 21: Seedling Price
$89 USD / module
  • Design 101, individually
  • 3 live tutor sessions over 21 days
  • Lifetime Pattern Language Lab access
  • Bundle: still $233 USD, unchanged
After December 21st: Canopy Price
$144 USD / module
  • Bundle moves to $377 USD
  • No countdown clock, just the honest, dated cutoffs
  • Same course, same access, later price

Right now, Design 101 is live and ready to start. Modules 102 through 107 and the LOVE 101 (free) celebration session join the arc on October 24th, International Day of Climate Action.

Want more focused time? 1-on-1 private sessions, $377 USD for 89 minutes. Small group, 5 students, $144 USD per student for 144 minutes.

Stage 2

Concept Design Plan

Design 102 through Design 107 take that brief and develop it into a concept design plan, carrying your pattern language, space and volume goals, and bubble diagram all the way through to a concept you can hand to your designer and construction team to further develop into a build ready package.

Design 102 Through Design 107

Pricing
18 Live Tutor Sessions with a Registered Architect, 35+ Years' Experience $6,000 USD
Architect Concept Design First Draft Minimum $3,000 USD
Full Design Self-Study Curriculum Included
Lifetime Pattern Language Lab Access Included
Your Cost From Oct 24 $233 USD

Design 102 through 107 join the arc on October 24th, International Day of Climate Action. This is the price you'll lock in.

Michael's home, built through the workshop, Whangarei
"Doing the 'design language' exercise helped us get unstuck in our design process. It showed us how to pick out the elements and ideas that mattered most to us, and see which ones worked together." Michael, Whangarei, New Zealand
Hans, standing in his home built through the workshop, Hawke's Bay
"The workshop gave Gabi and I exactly the house we needed. Warm in winter, cool in summer, the sun and the eaves, straw bale walls and underfloor heating all doing their quiet work together. At 78, comfort matters to me more than anything, and this house holds us like a little paradise." Hans, Hawke's Bay
"Best value for money course that I have taken." Builder, Te Anau
Questions

Before You Begin

01Do I need design experience?
No. That's the whole point of this course. It starts with your breath and your own creativity, not technical training you're assumed to already have.
02Is this only for New Zealand, or can I take it from anywhere?
Not at all. Everything is taught with a global audience in mind, and all pricing is in USD. Wherever you are, the creative and design principles apply directly; where local building codes or terminology matter most, plumbing, electrical, materials, those modules note where things vary by region.
03Will I get construction-ready drawings?
No. You'll walk away with a clear, confident concept direction, one your design team can carry forward until you move in. This course covers the concept and creative stage, not construction documentation.
04What is the Analytical Guru Specification Workbook?
It's the core student-facing workbook for Design 101, built as a living document you return to across the whole course rather than filling in once. It's used for defining room inventory, adjacency, and services, and by the end it functions as a near-complete selections catalogue for your project, one that can be handed straight to your design and construction team.
05What if I'm in a different time zone from the live sessions?
Live sessions run in early morning and evening slots to cover more time zones as enrollment grows, and every session is recorded for anyone who can't make it live.
06Does the price change over time?
Yes, in three honest steps. Design 101 is $55 USD through October 5th, then $89 USD through December 21st, then $144 USD after that. No countdown clock, just dated cutoffs tied to World Habitat Day and the solstice.
07How long do I get live tutor session access?
Each module purchase includes 3 live sessions over 21 days. After that, you can keep attending live sessions by purchasing another module, or with a standalone $21 USD for 21 days subscription. Those attending with projects and stricter timelines may require more focused time? You can book 1-on-1 and small group sessions of up to 5 students, at extra cost. The Pattern Language Lab community itself, though, is yours for life once you join.
08Can I design a more biophilic, regenerative home in this course?
Yes, and I encourage it. Just know going in: building codes across much of the Anglosphere aren't fully set up to support the purist version yet, and the wider economy doesn't always make it easy either. None of that means you shouldn't aim high, just that it's worth knowing the terrain before you start. Working toward those principles is very much the goal.
09What's your refund policy?
Yes, a full refund, anytime during the course, if you've genuinely worked through the techniques and they haven't worked for you. I ask for a little evidence of that effort, not because I doubt you, but because I want to actually help you get unstuck first, and because it helps me keep improving the course for everyone who comes after you.
The Merch Shop

Tools for Designing Your Own Sanctuary

Scale rulers, for measuring your dreams before you measure your walls.

Never-dries plasticine, for shape-shifting your sanctuary into being, one squash and re-squash at a time.

Twenty happy pens with matching lids, because your left brain deserves a day off too.

Tracing paper, for layering version four over version three over version one, guilt-free.

And when you need a break from your own genius: kids' books on Hundertwasser, the architect who believed straight lines were the ruin of humanity and trees deserved their own rooms. Turns out five-year-olds already know what this whole course is trying to teach the rest of us!

A warm timber sanctuary home, built through the workshop

"You've felt the pull already, or you wouldn't have read this far. Design 101 is where the breath you've found turns into your own pattern language, real space and volume goals, and a direction you can trust. Start now, bring your project to the live sessions, and let the Pattern Language Lab hold you steady the rest of the way."