Regenerating Life and Culture
autopoiesis means "self-organizing living systems"
Autopoiesis LLC applies a living systems approach to the regeneration of communities, ecosystems, and economies. Principals Kathryn Langstaff and Dr. Stuart Cowan each bring 25+ years of experience in sustainable, resilient, and regenerative design, planning, finance, and systems. Our firm has worked with clients including GE Capital, Vulcan Inc., International Living Future Institute, Ecotrust, the US Forest Service, Stand.Earth, Conservation Biology Institute, Earth Economics, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. We have raised over $100 million in blended finance for clients; co-led the global Economics of Change initiative to value the ecological and social layers of the built environment; and developed a range of innovative whole systems design approaches.
We work in three related areas:
We work in three related areas:
- Design for life from building to landscape scales
- Integrated, community-driven territorial planning from bioregional to national scales
- Systems transformation through process design, convening, mapping, modeling, and trans-disciplinary research.
View of Valle Sagrado near Machu Picchu, Peru. Yanapakusunchis, E.I.R.L, "We help each other" in Quechua, was recently established by Kathryn Langstaff as the autopoieis llc affiliate in Peru to support the indigenous communities in the Valle Sagrado de Los Inkas to regenerate their culture and ecosystems from glacier to Wilkamayu, "sacred river". We are currently supporting the Andean Pastoral Livelihood Initiative to restore high elevation grasslands and peatlands while strengthening rural livelihoods.