April 27, 2026 • Posted by Design Bay Area
In this talk, principals and landscape architects Christian Douglas and Christian Macke of Christian Douglas Design, explore food-centered design at every scale – from master plan communities and rooftop farms to hospitality experiences and the humble home garden. Drawing on Douglas’s book The Food Forward Garden and the firm’s broader design philosophy, the talk reframes food as essential infrastructure: a framework for ecological resilience, human health, and lasting environmental impact.
ABOUT:
Christian Douglas Design (CDD) is an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area-based landscape architecture firm specializing in food-focused outdoor spaces that blend ecological resiliency with exceptional beauty. From residential homes and wineries to rooftop farms and large-scale master planning. CDD’s designs are fully immersive, curated spaces for recreation and relaxation, foraging and feasting.
Christian Douglas
FOUNDING PRINCIPAL
Christian Douglas is a multi-award-winning landscape designer, creating beautiful and productive outdoor spaces for over 25 years. Combining his formal training in classical design and his passion for regenerative agriculture, he has created innovative landscapes in his native England, the Middle East and the United States, with food at the heart. Before settling in the US, Christian owned a design studio in the UK for many years, followed by extensive global travel learning strategies for farming and survival in desert environments while working and teaching for both for-profit and non-profit farms and education centers. Constantly inspired by the common connection traditional cultures have to their environment and growing food, Christian believes modern landscape design has a significant role and responsibility to play in restoring our relationship to the natural world – starting with food. Christian has been featured in Architectural Digest, WSJ, California Home & Design and Sunset Magazine, and published his first book on food-forward design philosophy in 2024.
Christian Macke
PRINCIPAL + LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Christian is a licensed Landscape Architect with a focus on agrihood design and development. His shared desire to integrate food and regenerative strategies into every project is matched by his ability to create highly detailed masterplans. From landscape analysis and design to community programming, his leadership and skills have supported large teams developing innovative lifestyle communities and fully-integrated sustainable developments. His experience includes working with large-scale estate owners, developers and operators with a focus on land and farm-based hospitality, master-planned communities, multi-family and mixed-use developments. He collaborates with a wide variety of disciplines to find solutions to today’s issues – economic, social and environmental – creating the foundation for design that is at its core; resilient, and truly authentic.