Biocultural Design is a Hawai‘i-based landscape masterplanning and design studio. Operating at the intersection of ecology, culture, and community, the landscape studio focuses on design that restores biocultural relationships across the pae ‘āina. Based on Kaua’i, Biocultural Design draws from close collaboration with Limahuli Garden & Preserve—an incubator for practice-based learning with biologists, cultural practitioners, horticulturists, and stone wall builders.
We apply these principles across public, private, conservation, and nonprofit sectors, always centering community vision and ecological stewardship. Our work is grounded in a deep respect for place and a design methodology that values process, dialogue, and incremental, place-based transformation.
O ke kahua mamua, mahope ke kūkulu.
Site first, then the building. Learn all you can, then practice.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau. #245
Site first, then the building. Learn all you can, then practice.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau. #245
Biocultural Design
5-5226 Kuhio Hwy, #733
Hanalei, HI 96714
+1 (808) 482-9898
studio@biocultural.design
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Meet Our Team
Joshua Diem
Principal Landscape DesignerJoshua Diem is a landscape designer, builder, and caretaker. Trained as a landscape architect at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Joshua comes from years of experience with Limahuli Botanical Garden & Preserve. There he has worked in the feild to recover significant archeologic sites within the preserve and reimagine the spatial logic (Ahupua’a System) of the valley. Knowledgeable in Hawaiian plants, land systems and building techniques, Joshua practices with a design approach that integrates the knowledge and resiliency of Hawaii’s ancestral planters with contemporary technologies to craft a vision for Hawaii’s future. Outside of his design practice, Joshua, together with his wife Claire, stewards the land of their home in Hāʻena, caring for their māla (garden).
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