This document provides a summary of Ardilla Deneys' education, experience, skills, and interests related to regenerative design. Ardilla has a BFA in Interior Design from VCU and additional training in permaculture, natural building, and leadership. Their experience includes founding a regenerative materials company, working in renewable energy sales and sustainability consulting. Ardilla has strong computer skills and passions for natural building materials like bamboo, mycelium and passive solar design. They are seeking to empower clients and collaborate creatively on restorative, regenerative design projects.

1. 1
ardilla deneys

2. Cover image & images on pp 4-7
titled Biophilic Wallpaper

3. 3
ardilla deneys
education
experience
people skills
awards
Virginia Commonwealth University, BFA Interior Design
Danish Institute for Study Abroad, Interior Architecture
Regenerative Leadership Inst, Permaculture Design Cert.
Pollima :: 2018-Current
Founder and Regenerative Materials Consultant
Created brand and organized international design challenge
3Degrees :: 2014-Current
Renewable Energy Outreach Coordinator
Leader in commercial and residential sales, trainer, manager
Sustainable Design Consulting :: 2017
Intern
Compiled LEED client information
Tricycle Gardens :: 2013-2016
Garden Educator and Volunteer Coordinator
Designed SOL curriculum and garden, managed volunteers
Feral Feet Community :: 2009-2010
Co-founder
Constructed cob house and garden, managed interns
VCUQatar Tasmeem Exhibition + Conference :: 2015 + 17
Selected for Biophilic Wallpaper
IFDA Leaders Commemorative Scholarship :: 2016
Awarded for work with community non-profits
VCUarts Dean’s International Study Grant :: 2015
Visited Danish forest kindergartens as studies for interior design
VCUarts Roger Baugh Interior Design Scholarship :: 2015
Awarded for enthusiasm in interior design
VCU Community Engagement Fellowship :: 2014
Permaculture Instructor for African American Burial Ground
Design
Knowledge and love for engaging
clients. Empowering others to act
on their values. Work well in creative
collaboration with morale boosting
and compassionate leadership.
Successful with grant proposals and
innovative brainstorming, problem-
solving, and logistics.
computer skills
sustainability passions
Natural building with cob, straw
bales, recycled bottles, bamboo,
whole timber, repurposed wood, and
driftwood. New material sciences
with mycelium, bacteria, and biology.
Passive solar usage, and energy
saving techniques.
*References available upon request
Confluence, Pipedrive, Paycom,
Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Revit,
Autocad, and SketchUp. Microsoft
Office, Squarespace, Google Docs.
Able (and willing) to learn computer
programs quickly.
219B Villa Garden Drive
Mill Valley, CA 94941
hello@ardilladeneys.com
804.274.0243

4. Unfurl House
30
Temple Yoga
22
Mycelium Factory
8

5. 5
Rhize Park
51
Hue & Cry
40
Natural Building
61

6. 1. We need to think beyond sustainable. We
need restorative, regenerative design now
that we are living in a post-normal world.
Consumption of 60% of the world’s energy
by buildings is no longer acceptable. Yet
the ingenuity all around us makes sacrifice
unnecessary.
2. No matter the circumstances, I believe there
are ways to design for graceful, efficient, living
that gives us abundance - whether you live in
public housing, the suburbs, a tiny home, New
York City, or off the grid.
3. We can thrive in this closed-cycle world by
understanding symbiotic living systems that
give us more resources than we started with.
Humans are smart and adapatable - we can
thrive within our constraints.

7. 7
4. Each building site should transform waste
or excess into valuable elements. Like growing
food for humans or non-humans, creating
its own energy, collecting its own water, and
producing its own oxygen.
5. Each place requires site specific solutions
with vernacular and local materials. We need to
listen first, to the community, to the site, before
we assume solutions.
6. Profit doesn’t need to be the only motivation
because profit can be found in new ways.
When we use our waste it creates added value
opportunities. Waste for one, nutrients for
another.
7. The use of non-recycled, non-creative,
pollutive materials is no longer necessary
when there is a profitable market for innovative
upcycled products. In fact, we have so much
waste, the majority of our buildings can be
upcycled from discarded products.
8. Fear not and take chances on new ideas.
We have ventured into a new frontier full of
exciting growth.
9. By looking to time-tested, non-human
patterns and strategies we can solve our
human challenges. After billions of years of
evolution, the secret to survival is all around
us – from fossils to termite mounds. We are not
the first ones to build.
10. In these patterns we find beauty.

8. A Better Factory
design: ardilla deneys
Site: 550 Tredegar St, Richmond VA
Area: 14,445 sf
Year Built: 1856
Occupancy Type: F1 Moderate Hazard
A place to transform waste and biology into
new materials

9. 9
bamboo veneer
production
storm water
management
educational
factory
R+D lab
bamboo grove
meditation

10. What if we could
grow materials on a
site that once built
weapons?
HISTORY + LOCATION
The Tredegar Ironworks produced a large
amount of products for railways and was
the primary source of armaments for the
Confederacy during the Civil War. The
Pattern Building, designed here as a
sustainable material factory, once made
cannon molds. The location of Tredegar
brings it to the intersection of downtown
offices and businesses, festivals on Brown’s
Island, and the nature of the James River
Park System. Combined with it’s history,
THE PATTERN BUILDING (1856) 14,445 SQ FT
RETAIL
+DISPLAY
INOCULATION
+GROWTH
BAKING
+FINISHING
Tredegar is the perfect place for human-
made and natural beauty to come together
with serenity, production, and commerce.

11. 11
Better Factory invites the public into a
factory that makes a sustainable building
product from on-site bamboo and mycelium,
the root structure of mushrooms. The
mycelium grows in the Pattern Building
from an agricultural by-product or the
bamboo sawdust created by the production
of the bamboo veneers. Health of the
environment as well as the mental health of
the employees and visitors is considered.
The meditation center and bamboo grove
are open to the public and employees. R&D
of mycelium and bamboo happens on site,
PRODUCT
INTERVENTION
MASTER PLAN
as does the bamboo harvesting, veneer
production, and the growth of the mycelium
substrate.

12. How do we include
visitors in a factory?
like fungus
intersecting
with food?
fungus observing
food from outside?
visitors
can intersect with
production
CONCEPT
Like a spore being released from gills or
polypores, the visitors are held and released,
allowed to float through the factory, through
the bamboo grove, and land where they may.
Each floor’s partition concepts evolve from
most natural to man-made, like the proces that
happens in the factory.
On the north side of the building increased
apertures create uncharacteristic transparency
for a factory, inviting in visitors, and connecting
employees with the natural world.

13. 13
How do we separate
visitors and employees?
voids to
go through
obstacles to
go around
hold and
release
An interior trickle
gutter brings sound
element and rain
water exits through
inlaid floor filters.

14. WHAT CAN WE MAKE WITH
MYCELIUM AND BAMBOO?
3-D printed mushroom
chairs like this one
from Studio Klarenbeek
Lamps like this
one from Maurizio
Montalti
A plywood alternative + helmets
Stools and table
bases like these from
Ecovative

15. 15
Mycelium can make wood-like products and any
color or texture of alternative leather
Bamboo fibers
can make soft
fabric
These materials, like 160 year old bricks, are
ways to use what nature provides for the built
environment.
1ST FLOOR 2ND FLOOR 3RD FLOOR

16. 1.DISPLAY + RETAIL
a entrance/POS d furniture/experiments g office
b product storage e lounge h elevator
c retail f rain element i rain exit
0’ 8’ 16’
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
RCP FIRST FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
0’ 8’ 16’

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From the partially subterranean first
floor we have walls inspired by the
gills of mushrooms. Here we display
art, experimental products, building
material, and ready to use products
made from the root structure of
mushrooms and agricultural waste. The
ceiling is made of mycelium panels
with small holes that allow light though,
inspired by being under soil.

18. The second floor is also level with the bamboo grove
on the north side of the building. These partitions
are inspired by the linear shape of bamboo to direct
visitors. The holes in the ceiling panels allow filtered
light to pass through, as if in a bamboo grove.
Here bamboo sawdust is sterilized, inoculated with
mycelium, and put in bamboo or other forms.

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2.INOCULATION
j door to bamboo grove m sterilization p lounge + dining
k loading dock n inoculation + forming q kitchen
l sawdust drop o growing shelves
j
klmn
o
p
q
44’4”
106’10”
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
RCP SECOND FLOOR
0’ 8’ 16’
0’ 8’ 16’

20. THIRD FLOOR PLAN
r bathrooms u large experimentation area
s low heat ovens v connection to outside (porch)
t storage shelves
t
3.BAKING + FINISHING
t
r
rs
suv
0’ 8’ 16’
0’ 8’ 16’
RCP THIRD FLOOR

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The third floor is inspired by the geometry of
our human-made product once we combine
mycelium and bamboo. Here the product is low
heat baked, and then stored until exported. The
mycelium acoustic tiles are the same geometry
as provided by the existing rafters.

22. Temple Hot Yoga Studio
A place that uses local stones, plants, water and heat to revitalize

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Site: 1301 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
Area: 7,700 sf
Year Built: 1917
Occupancy Type: A3

24. Project Introduction
In the heart of Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle,
this office building has a unique footprint and
large windows. At the corner of a three-way
intersection, one block from the metro station,
and close to hotels, dining, and shopping, this
location has high visibility. Temple yoga will
be catering to city yogis who keep a regular
plractice but who are seeking an all around
relaxing and rejuvinating experience. Starting
with the heated yoga studio, then moving on
to saunas and mineral baths, clients will reach
purification. For nourishment, juice near the
entrance and herbal teas in the private lounge
are available for purchase.
Problem Statement
Current yoga studios are minimal at best, and
dingy at worst. However, there is an increasing
amount of money spent on yoga. Last year,
there was more than $27 billion spent on
yoga products in the US. There is a niche for
a city spa and studio that is reminiscent of an
exclusive spa retreat that women and men
travel hours away to enjoy.

25. 25DC map existing building
lobby and juice bar

26. Concept
Peter Zumpthor’s Therme Vals, embedded
into a steep slope inspired me with its horizon-
tal stones, low lighting, and sense of perma-
nence. The smooth bands of coursework of
the locally quarried Valserstein, representing
stability, honesty, and integrity inspired the
balanced floor plan and natural materials of
the yoga studio. Zumpthor’s use of excava-
tion and influences from Roman baths evoke a
sense of stillness. In Temple Yoga, each ele-
ment and material, from water, stone, heat,
plants, and bamboo combines for a healing
environment. Monthly subscibers can enjoy
tea, baths, sauna, and yoga classes as often
as they like. This yoga spa club is a calm hide-
away from city stresses.
Zumpthor’s Therme Vals

27. 27
rentable juice lobby lounge sauna spa services
living wallwet rock walllockerslaundryofficemech.
mineral
baths
hot yoga
studio

28. salvaged marble Virginia stone
siding
upcycled stone
tile
plyboo locally harvest
whole bamboo
locker room sauna mineral baths
high tower access
//carvaggio
eureka//kizis high tower access
//happy
high tower access
//juicy

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My materials play with light, dark, and shadows. I
wanted the atmosphere to feel cozy and protected in
the lounges, and open up to be free and expansive
in the hot yoga studio. Accented with gold, many
of the natural materials feel luxurious. The above
custom acoustic panel voids create a mottled light,
as if under tree leaves. The water wall to the left gives
a naturally mottled auditory effect as well.
tea lounge with viesso
bamboo sectionals

30. Unfurl Strawbale House
Site: Buffalo Addition “Telescope” House
Address: 623 Tatonka St Buffalo, NY
Area: 3,012 sf indoors, 349 sf outdoors
Year Built: 1933
Occupancy Type: R-2

31. 31

32. Project introduction
A growing family, two
parents, two children, and
one grandparent, have
transplanted to Buffalo,
NY from NYC. Their 1930s
home has been transformed
into a passive solar, locally
sourced reclaimed wood and
strawbale home. The addition
of two small greenhouses, a
sauna, rocket mass heater
seating, wood-fired heated
floors, and built-in storage
allows the family to take care
of their mind, body and spitit.
The use of reclaimed wood
walls as more than partitions,
but as sources of heat gain,
heat capture, and storage
makes for a more livable
and valuable home. The
dining room has an efficient
fireplace with a flu that winds
under the dining room floor,
providing radiant heat.
Passive solar design allows
the family to use less
energyfor conventional
heating and makes use
of the material and site
orientation of the home. As
the sun’s rays come through
the greenhouse, the heat is
retained in the thermal mass,
straw wall.

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Concept
The concept was inspired by telescope homes
in Buffalo, NY that arose out of a combination
of narrow lots, growing families, and limited
resources. The result: houses with rear addi-
tions that incrementally reduced in scale. They
could seemingly collapse into themselves, like
a telescope. For this addition, the home ex-
pands as part of a spiral, unfurling both on the
exterior, and interior, like a fernhead.

34. north section

35. 35
east section 1
east section 2
The first east facing section highlights, from
right to left; the vaulted ceiling in the entry-
way, under stair storage for entertaining,
the dining room fireplace with underfloor
flue to create radiant heat, the elevator with
special access to the grandfather’s suite,
and throughout the home, the large amount
of bult-in wall storage, leaving the family’s
space feeling clutter free.
The second east facing section highlights,
from right to left; the upstairs sauna, green-
house (and bathroom) suite that heat the up-
stairs office and kid’s room, the grandfather’s
greenhouse that heats his bedroom, and the
back patio for entertaining, close to the guest
bathroom.

36. Modern fixtures and modern farmhouse furnish-
ings were paired with the natural fibers and ma-
terials to give the family their desired city feeling,
while remaining true to their more rural location.

37. 37
local NY strawbales
local blue limestone
reclaimed barn wood

38. Texture is important both on an architectural and interior
level. Smooth wooden floors and fine linen combined with
antique tapered legs, accent textured textiles and Baux
recycled wood wool acoustic panels.

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Walls being either for temperature regulation
or storage, they are always more than simple
partitions. These walls stagger the storage
between both sides. If one side is solid wood
panel with insulation, the other side is storage.
A family of five needs many places for storage.
Besides the personal lockers by the back door,
there are even under-sofa drawers. Four per
section of this custom sofa made of reclaimed
wood and Knoll recycled upholstery.
custom storage sofa
custom storage walls

40. Hue & Cry Creative Studio

41. 41
Site: Historic Railway Shed
Address: 111 Virginia Street, Richmond, VA 23223
Area: 5,100 sf
Year Built: 1896
Occupancy Type: B

42. Project introduction
With Hue and Cry as the client, this adaptive
reuse project fits the varied workplace needs
of an advertising animation studio. Hue and
Cry expressed the need to host high end
clients while maintainging a comfortable
working studio environment. Their office
culture is one of relaxed, hip, creatives, and
they were not interested in a corporate office.
They chose a historic building close to the
James River to echo their distinct roots in
Virginia; not LA or NYC.
Problem statement
Sound and light played a big part in space
planning. Some producers need to have
private conversations, sound engineers need
to play the same clips repeatedly all day,
but no one wanted to work in a dungeon of
cubicles and closed doors.
Concept statement
Creative professionals agree that creativity
is not a straight and easy path. It curves
and meanders around obstacles and
mistakes. I have recreated that experience of
meandering, referencing the nearby James
River and its boulders. As all office designers
should consider, I have also taken into
account work flow and human senses: sight,
smell, touch, and sound.
Access to the windows with the most
daylight remains open, green walls filter
greywater and air, and the materials and
napping hammock are natural, reclaimed,
and biodegradable.
existing building
richmond map

43. 43

44. offices
restrooms
conference
workshop
kitchen
bar/lounge
The Floor Plan
The shape of the rooms are like boulders, with
the path of the user wearing the corners away.
Those corners become a sliver of glass so that
employees can see if the room is being used.
Wall types include built-in storage for added
sound buffers, and green walls that are filtering
air and greywater.
Employees are able to choose throughout their
day to work solo at a cafe table, focus in a
private office, work in small groups, meet in a
conference room, cook/eat, nap upstairs in the
hammocks, and end the day with a beer and
a record. There is even enough space to have
parties!
The green wall that reaches the lofty ceiling
marks the restrooms, an easy landmark for
visitors, as well as being central to the offices
and meeting rooms. The plants chosen clean
the office air, clean greywater, and aid the
mental health of the employees. In the view
above you can also see the spiral staircase to
the hammock loft.
green wall
west section
Nfurniture plan

45. 45
Materials
Salvaging, but refinishing the wood floors, ex-
posing the original brick walls, using antique
doors, and using reclaimed wood for the cus-
tom furniture and partition walls allowed the
space to keep some of it’s historical character.
Exposing the rafters but painting them yellow
keeps the mood bright and light.
sw 6908 w+w kensington reclaimed
barn wood
sw 7008 on existing brick
south section

46. offices and staircase to hammock attic
custom lighting, offices, and stairs to hammock loft

47. 47

48. Materials
Contrasting the old heavy materials with mod-
ern furniture keeps the atmosphere feeling
light and spacious. Some seats and desks are
meant for comfortable, long-term sitting, while
others are for shorter meetings and conversa-
tions.
Custom lighting design
For this office space, conceptualized around
meandering, I wanted to use corregated card-
board. Repurposed cardboard, laser cut to
modular circles, can both represent the round-
ness of boulders, but also let the light meander
out of the ripples of corregation.

49. 49prototype in my bedroom

50. Rhize Park

51. 51
Site: Jackson Ward Neighborhood over Interstate 95
Address: Between Duval and Baker St, Richmond, VA 23220
Area: 125,000 sf
Year Built: Undecided

52. Project Introduction
From the end of the Civil War (1856) til 1954,
the Jackson Ward neighborhood acted as a
separate, thriving city, within segregationist
Richmond. Jackson Ward was home to the
nation’s first female and African American bank
president, Maggie Walker, whose bank first
occupied the St. Luke’s Building in 1902. Now,
on the north bank of I-95 it is cut off from the
rest of the neighborhood.
Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church was home
to one of the nation’s most famous preachers,
an enslaved African American named John
Jasper. The community organized to have the
I-95 construction bend around this historic
church, but it could not save the 1,000 African
American homes demolished. This history was

53. 53
the inspiration to unite Sixth Mount Zion
Baptist Church with the St. Luke’s Building
again. Prior to 1954, a resident could easily
walk one block down the street to go from
bank to church. Rhize Park creates a new
form of community for people, profit, and
planet based on growth and healing.
St. Luke’s Building

54. People
With the construction of I-95, the people of the
north and south side lost a connection to each
other as well as their neighborhood identity.
A park to meet, linger, play, shop, or directly
connection people to the other side helps to
alleviate that loss. This park provides a place
to mend and grow relationships to each other
as well as a place for quiet self-reflection and
access to the historic Sixth Mount Zion Baptist
Church.
Profit
By building a new place for the neighborhood
to enjoy, the St. Luke’s Building will be revived
with small businesses and non-profit offices.
The influx of commerce to the north side of
old Jackson Ward will return some of the
capital it earned before the construction of
I-95. The bamboo can also be harvested to
produce local products and an aisle of pop-up
business stands will be available to burgeoning
entrepreneurs. The aisle is made by bending
the bamboo with taut, water resistant fabric,
which easily creates covered stalls. As the
bamboo continue to grow, a green canopy
provides a shaded walkway.

55. 55
Planet
The use of bamboo participates in all three
categories: people, profit and planet. The
bamboo grove sequesters carbon from the
intrusive highway, creates living shelters for
community meetings or shopping, provides raw
building material and a meditative space within
the neighborhood. Even the red overpass
bridge uses a bamboo composite instead of
traditional rebar. Rainwater runoff is collected
from the foot bridge and the two buildings to
irrigate the bamboo.
rainwater collection from these surfaces to
irrigate bamboo

56. Precedents
NEXT architects designed China’s Lukcy
Knot, a wavy bridge that connects river
banks, a park, and a roadway allowing users
to choose different paths. Inspired by a
mobious strip, the undulating paths provide
differing views of the surrounding site. Rhize
Park, being above a highway, does not need
to provide a view, but instead meanders
through a tall bamboo grove.
Holsher Nordberg Architects created a path,
slide, play area, and aerial walkway with a
single metal ribbon in a Copenhagen social
housing project. The Loop was developed
alonside members of the community to
maximize its potential. Rhize Park’s design
process also included community input and
utilizes the foot bridge itself to morph into
playground equipment.
The interaction of play instead of convention
into public areas increases pride in one’s
neighborhood. The prominence of Rhize
Park on a moajor East Coast highway calls
attention to Richmond as a progressive
city investing in its citizens after a history of
insitutional racism.
Besides the visual beauty of Arashiyama
Bamboo Forest, the tall stalks block the city
noise while creating a soft resonating sound
in the wind. This sound has been added to
the list of “100 soundscapes of Japan” by the
Ministry of Environment to encourage locals
and tourists to connect to Japan’s natural
heritage with all their senses. The bamboo
in the forest is also regularly harvested as a
sustainable building material for cups, boxes,
and more. Kyoto has incorporated forests
with the city for 1200 years to intersect
humans with material production and an
appreciation for the natural world.
Lucky Knot, 2016 by NEXT
The Loop, 2016 by Holsher Nordberg Architects
Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, 800 CE

57. 57
Red bridge looking south at Mt. Zion Church
The rolling topography of Rhize Park
supports the ramps of the red bridge while
creating smaller zones within a larger park.
Hills also stimulate the development of fine
motor skills within children as they run up
and down them.
Red bridge looking north at St. Luke’s Building

58. Commerce alley section

59. 59
roots emerges new growth
and planet.
ace making, the St. Luke’s
vived with small businesses
ces. The influx of commerce
f old Jackson Ward will
capital it earned before the
5. The bamboo can also be
e local products.
PLANET
The use of bamboo participates in the realm
of people, profit, and planet. The bamboo
grove sequesters carbon from the instrusive
highway, creates living shelters for meetings or
entrepreneurs, provides raw building material and
a meditative space within the neighborhood. Even
the red overpass bridge uses a bamboo composite
instead of rebar.
RHIZOME
The roots of bamboo are called the rhizome:
a network of
continuously
growing
horizontal
stem that grows
lateral and
vertical shoots
and adventitious
roots. Like
the rhizome,
Rhize Park is
spreading out
perpendicular
to gravity at
ground level,
while also
sprouting
vertically
to expedite
connections. The
new space gives
residents the
advantages of
commerce, art, play, and growth.
Richmond’s Jackson Ward was once a bustling
economic hub. Today, the community could
use space not only for leisure, but also for
burgeoning small businesses. Low cost, living
commerce stalls can be formed with the
growing bamboo. Bend the bamboo with semi-
waterproof fabric to create separate “tents” that
will contine to grow into a shaded commerce
alley north of the St. Luke’s Building. For
convenience, there is rentable locked storage
below the tabletops.
Commerce alley section

60. Creek Sculptures

61. 61
Site: Cookeville, TN Spring Creek
Area: 22 acres
Year Built: 2012

62. After getting my hands in different clays, straw,
lime, sand, and water for building structures,
I decided to find a way to be playful with the
materials I saw as practical. All my neighbors
and weekend teenage drivers were surprised
by the sculptures in the creek bed. The rainy
season eventually washed them away.

63. 63

64. Dry stacked creek rocks
covered in a plaster made of
mud, sand, ash, and cattail
fluff.

65. 65
The second day I lived on this property there
was a 100 year flood. Trees were toppled and
the creek bed widened with gravel. There was
a Sycamore tree that fell yet continued to live
and sprout new leaves. I harvested some of
it’s flexible roots which were as good as willow
for weaving.
Then I tried an earthen plaster over a root
weaving. Some gaps were too wide for
plaster. I think it looks like an abstracted hive’s
nest that washed up on a branch.
I want to continue to use my hands to
experiment and test the limits of materials and
share my findings with the world.
Thank you for your interest and time.