FieLDworkshop LLC is a practice dedicated to design, planning, research and urbanism. We are focused on the intersection of the cultural and the ecological, exploring how buildings engage the experience, performance and temporal qualities of a place; and leveraging the capacity of design to heighten the experience of natural phenomena. Because we believe that true sustainability emerges from a deep understanding of local ecologies, we plan and design buildings, interiors, furniture, products, public space and public art that respond to the qualities of specific sites, landscapes and regions; creating a sense of place and enhancing everyday life. Our work engages human experience with ecological performance, designing new ways to visualize and support ecologies in the public realm; to provide comfort, reduce energy consumption, and maximize use of renewable resources; expressing these ideas through materiality and the craft of construction. We believe buildings are an important connection between our past and future, and thus should be built to last and adapt over time. We cherish opportunities to work on the restoration, reinterpretation, modernization and adaptive reuse of structures that have a strong cultural connection to a place. FieLDworkshop strives to create spaces that are beautiful, healthy, long lasting and endlessly useful.

FieLDworkshop was founded in 2013 by two principals that brought over 20 years of combined experience leading a diverse range of projects in award winning firms. Our work ranges from small objects, furniture and private residences, to larger landscapes and planning. We enjoy an interdisciplinary, research-based process in close collaboration with clients and allied design disciplines. We take pride in working creatively with the constraints and opportunities of each project to create unique and place-specific solutions. 

Michelle Laboy, Principal

Michelle Laboy is trained as an architect, engineer and urban planner with over 18 years of experience. She completed two master degrees at the University of Michigan, where she earned the Henry Adams Medal and the Thesis Prize. As member of the design faculty in Architecture at Northeastern University, she recently won the prestigious 2017 AIA Latrobe Prize for her research on Adaptive Reuse and Regenerative Design of buildings. She started her career at the international firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, working in large scale architecture and urban design projects in China, Saudi Arabia, and Chicago. She later worked for ten years as a Senior Associate at the renowned Cambridge-based office of Maryann Thompson Architects, where she designed and managed many award-winning projects, including early childhood centers and private residences, as well as master plans, renovations and adaptive reuse of historic structures for libraries, schools, restaurants, and residences. Some of her biggest institutional clients included the International School of Boston, Princeton University, and Shady Hill School. At FieLDworkshop, she leads efforts in community-engagement, sustainable design and planning, seeking to produce projects that are meaningfully grounded in their cultural place and landscape ecology.

Joshua Fiedler, Principal

Joshua Fiedler is an architect licensed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, with over 17 years of experience. At FieLDworkshop, he brings an interest in the potential found in the marginal conditions of cities, from aging infrastructure and historic structures to urban voids. He studied architecture at RISD, where he refined his skills in material investigation, thinking through making, and the poetics of place. He worked for four years at the international firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill on large scale projects including Burj Khalifa, corporate interiors in Norman Foster’s Saint Mary Axe project in London and other high rise projects in Chicago. More recently he worked at the offices of Butz & Klug in Boston, completing many historic renovation projects. A particular focus of his work has been blending the existing character of a project and site with contemporary spaces and materials.  He brings to projects a refined sensibility to detailing from many years of field experience working in various construction trades and woodworking, and an effective perspective to project delivery from working with different design review and historic commissions.