Read our blog for the latest on Ecoshack projects, press and upcoming events.

ABOUT:  Ecoshack is an LA-based design studio and manufacturer founded by Stephanie Smith.

Ecoshack began in 2003 as an experimental green design lab on 5 desert acres in Joshua Tree, CA. A place where architects, artists and anyone else with a passion for change could design, build and hang out. A semi-derelict homesteader cabin (or ‘shack’) on the site served as inspiration, and as central gathering space. “Green Tent” winners from the global design competition Ecoshack sponsored in 2004 continue to be prototyped there as an ongoing experiment in green fabrication.

Today, Ecoshack is also an LA-based design studio with the mantra: Lighten Up! From Egyptian Tent Cities to Mexican Beekeeper’s Huts, from Restaged 60s “Happenings” to Green Garden Sheds, Ecoshack’s small-scale, modular projects invent new ways to live lightly on the earth.

Ecoshack is the manufacturer of its own products. It's first, the Nomad, is a modern take on the Mongolian yurt. Designed by Ecoshack founder Stephanie Smith and recently named "the country's best yurt" by Dwell, the Nomad was also nominated for a Cooper Hewitt ‘People’s Choice’ award. The Nomad is available at theNomadyurt.com and in select retail locations throughout SoCal.

Ecoshack projects currently on the boards include designs for a manufactured green event tent (approximately 100,000 event tents are sold in the US every year, and not one of them is currently nature-friendly), an off-the-grid eco-village in Nicaragua, and a vision for turning America’s suburban cul-de-sacs into 21st century communes.

Ecoshack's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums, including "The Cosmic House" at Exit Art's show 'It's Not Easy' opening in NYC July 24, 2008, and the tract "Lighten Up!" for Lisa Anne Auerbach's 'The Tract House' at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, spring 2008.

Stephanie Smith is an architectural designer, author, and member of an informal network of LA-based entrepreneurs committed to exporting progressive values to the world beyond California. Smith's designs are inspired by the ad hoc, indigenous and archetypal typologies typically found at the fringes of society and culture. Her work has been covered in many publications, including Dwell and The New York Times. And she has presented her work recently at Harvard University and The Whitney Museum of American Art (July 24, 2008). Prior to founding Ecoshack she spent seven years working globally as a strategic design and brand consultant to numerous companies including Motorola and Reebok.

Smith is also a design instructor. Her most recent design studios at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) explore ideas of fabrication, manufacturing and alternative forms of community. Course titles include “Shelter as Product: Designs for a 150 s.f. Manufactured Dwelling” and “Instant City: A Manufactured Kit for a Temporary Community.”

Smith has an M.Arch. from Harvard University. Her thesis under Rem Koolhaas explored the transformation of local cultures in China as they adapted to a global economy, published as “To Get Rich is Glorious,” in Great Leap Forward (Taschen Press). Smith's other recent texts include “The GOOD Guide to Buckminster Fuller” (Good Magazine, July/August 2007), and a short text on the topic "Why We Should Pursue Fabrication at Full Scale,” for an upcoming Columbia University publication on the role of fabrication in architecture.