Hello.

My name is Benjamin. At least that’s what my parents named me. If you know me from college, you’ll know me as Bentley. Or you may know me as Ben. It doesn’t matter, because it’s good to meet you.

Allow me to tell you my vision. The ideas dancing around in space, waiting to touch something special. I’m the founder of Habitat Humans. That’s a bit of a quirky name, but it really connects with what I think a company, a business, a studio and office of people should be. People living. Thriving. Doing what God made them good at and enjoying every minute of life.

I’m here to help with the places. The physical things we touch and see, the Habitats, if you will. I have a passion for all those places we end up in life. The local café, the libraries, churches, homes, gardens. You name it, if it’s a physical place, I’m curious to know about it in some way. Those places should be beautiful and useful, even if it’s a humdrum part of life.

There’s a spectrum of utility all the way to beauty, and it’s important to know where something lies on that line. It doesn’t mean that common things need to be ugly, or beautiful things useful. Nearly everything can be both. Our habitats should be as well. Those habitats should nourish living things. The animals, the plants, the people. Everything. I want to leave things better when I’m gone, avoiding a short term gain for long term sacrifice.

For some reason, when God made me, He made me good at understanding space and knowing how to create it and form it. Not outer space, but the built environments that contain people. Maybe it’s the space between the walls of your office, or the space that a tree takes up after 110 years of growing. Those places have relationships with people, creating networks, communities. I’m here to serve and grow them. Each one of you has a set of connections with others and no set of connections is exactly the same.

When creating space, I have my own set of connections. Contractors, architects, artists, engineers, realtors. Name it: if we have a job to do, we have a guy that’s good at it, either in house, or an outside partner we’ve known and vetted. Now someone is gonna hear that and give a tough ask. Then my assistant is going be sent on a mission to find someone to do a job we’ve never been asked to do before. But that’s fine. We’re a learning habitat as well. No one has all the right answers, but we know how to go about finding good ones.

Those good ideas are managed by the team of great guys who understand the ins and outs of their area of expertise. That frees you up so you can come up with an idea, present it, and we make it a real habitat for Humans.

Thanks for listening,

Benjamin Derby

Ann Arbor, Michigan, September 25, 2025