organizations · updated 2026-08-11
Living Systems
confidence: medium volatility: cold verified: 2026-08-11fresh
Environmental design firm founded 1973 by Jonathan Hammond in Winters/Davis, California. Not Steve Baer's group — Hammond authored the nation's first climatically adapted building code for the City of Davis, which became a basis for California's Title-24.
Correction: An earlier version of this stub attributed Living Systems to Steve Baer. This was wrong. Living Systems was Jonathan (Jon) Hammond’s firm, co-founded in 1973 and based in Winters, California (near Davis). Baer’s 2009 AIA slideshow credits “Living Systems Design” to “Jonathon Hammond of Winters, CA.”
Founding and mission
Environmental design firm focused on passively heating and cooling buildings, community design, building codes, and solar rights. Key associates: Jonathan Hammond (founder/principal), David Bainbridge, and Todd Neubauer. Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper collaborated with the group, though they were Cal Poly SLO faculty during this period and founded their own firm in 1976.
Work
Hammond authored “A Strategy for Energy Conservation” for the City of Davis, California — this resulted in the nation’s first climatically adapted building code and formed a basis for California’s Title-24 building energy code.
The firm published Planning Solar Neighborhoods (April 1981, for the California Energy Commission) — a comprehensive manual for energy-conserving residential developments across six California climate regions.
Living Systems operated a demonstration passive solar home in Davis: 273 sq ft of south-facing double glazing for passive direct gain, 3,343 gallons of water storage in site-built containers and a six-inch concrete slab. Evaluated 1979–80 by DOE, achieving 80% of space heating from solar (OSTI report SOLAR/1046-80/14).
Hammond proposed the Senda Nueva development in 1980 — a 73-acre residential project north of Covell Boulevard in Davis, designed to build on Village Homes’ planning principles.
Connection to the archive
Hammond’s early career included studying how four different cultures adapted to the rigorous New Mexico climate — this inspired his climate-responsive building code work. Bainbridge collaborated with Peter Van Dresser (NMSEA co-founder with Baer). Bainbridge’s water-wall manual credits Baer’s 1971–72 Corrales house as the catalyzing event for the broader wave of 1970s–80s water-wall practitioners, including the Living Systems circle.
Hammond received the ASES Passive Solar Pioneer Award in 2016.
See also
- David Bainbridge
- Ken Haggard
- Polly Cooper
- Drumwall
- Steve Baer
- Passive Solar Institute — Bainbridge’s later Davis-based water-wall research and publishing organization
- San Luis Sustainability Group — the firm collaborators Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper founded in 1976