Karla Dakin

Denver

Growing things, building things, and relishing the chaos, entropy, and generative quality of nature—all are ideal creative means for Karla Dakin, who appreciates change in the process of art and design. With an education and years of work in ceramics, printmaking, and photography, Dakin tended towards accidents in these process-oriented genres rather than editions. As a landscape artist, Dakin works comfortably in plant material, steel, wood, stone, and concrete. Dakin’s recent projects include “Sky Trapezium,” a permanent green roof installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver in Denver, Colorado and a book entitled “The Professional Design Guide to Green Roofs,” published by Timber Press. Dakin specializes in environmentally resilient landscape architecture with an emphasis on knowing context and what feels the most appropriate. She has completed a diverse array of projects, including over 100 residential gardens, as well as many commercial and public projects such as the gardens around the Whole Foods Flagship Store in Boulder, Colorado and the 10,000 s.f., green roof atop the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in California in collaboration with Lisa Lee Benjamin and Belzberg Architects. Dakin combines her landscape architecture expertise—she holds a masters degree in landscape architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver—with fifteen years of experience in the art worlds of New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Dakin’s past work in the art world gives her insights into the creativity of art and design. In recent years, she has continued her landscape education by completing classes in green walls and green roofs, biodynamic and master gardening, as well as teaching garden design and architectural theory, and volunteering for Permaculture Projects in Brazil and Ethiopia.