BLUE ZONE INTENTIONS

Re-Introduction

My name is Avery Evenson Milarch, and my parents and I created BZS with the intention of taking home building/renovation a step further. While we admire and follow along with traditional building companies (we used to be one ourselves, in fact!), we’ve always felt there’s more to the home than just creating something pretty. My parents have built homes for over two decades, many of which we lived in while we built the next one. Every build seemed to more effectively shape and curate what functionally mattered to us or our clients, as opposed to simply following industry standards or trends.

By 2018, I graduated from college and my parents had just completed building and designing their unbelievable custom farmhouse in Dexter, MI. Not unbelievable because of its enormous size or cost (it stands at 2200 square feet), but because every single square foot was well thought out and crafted to perfectly serve our family and its wellness-driven lifestyle within it. It was around this time when we officially rebranded our family building company to Blue Zone Spaces, celebrating our desire to infuse our projects with nature and echoing the principles we’d come to learn from the ‘blue zones’ and found familiarity with our own lifestyle.

Fast forward 4 years, and we’ve been so fortunate to have found our niche and true passion within the home improvement and building industry.

Our company

We are a design, renovation/build, and lifestyle company. We often use the phrase “We Build Lifestyles, Not just Homes.” Of course, we want to design and build our clients the most aesthetically pleasing spaces, but that’s just a start. We want to form real relationships with our clients. Truly understand their family’s lifestyle. Learn their passions, desires and community considerations. Hear their inspiring moments and activities.

By having a deep knowledge of our client’s lives, we can truly bring their ideal vision to life. Creating intentionally designed and built spaces is our life’s mission, and our team is honored to help (past, current, present) so many families build their desired lifestyle with intentionality rooted in everything that we do. "Creating intentionally designed and built spaces is our life’s mission, and our team is honored to help (past, current, present) so many families build their desired lifestyle with intentionality rooted in everything that we do.”

Why ‘Blue Zone’ Spaces

The ‘blue zones’ are known locations in the world where humans overwhelmingly live longer and more fulfilled lives. The blue zones range from a small town in Japan to town’s in Costa Rica, Greece, Italy and California. While their cultures and climates differ, they all share many lifestyle characteristics that lead to greater longevity and happiness. There is no single, common principle that residents of the blue zones share. But rather, it’s numerous lifestyle practices that focus on a connection to nature, natural daily movement, community involvement, a sense of purpose and a plant-centric diet rich with whole foods. Though we are located in the Midwest and not in a blue zone, we feel this immense connection to intentional living can be replicated and celebrated in our area, especially with the most thoughtful design considerations. In fact, most of our clients too have a deep connection or desire to live their lives in this well-intentioned way, but need their space to better support their intentions.

How we incorporate these principles into our design:

1. Creating spaces that bring people together and enhance community, through open-concept design and layouts that promote gathering naturally

2. Enhancing accessibility to the interests and recreational hobbies our clients value

3. Reducing barriers to whole food habits through thoughtful organization, design layout and customized preparation areas

4. Valuing the needs of all family members in a design that is relevant today and in the future

Lifestyle and well-being are at the heart of every design conversation we have with our clients. How do you gather as a family or with friends? What kind of activities do you enjoy? How do you spend your day? What spaces make you feel your best and why? What aspects of your surrounding environment do you love most? These are some of the questions that we know are important in the evolution of intentionally-built, wellness-focused spaces, and one’s we’ve found to be equally as important to many of our clients. For us, intentionality falls at the center of everything we do, and has the ability to transcend every space we touch and inhabit.