Ecologies Design Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Peter Connolly, Mark Southcombe
2020, 2020-07-07
eBook
The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contemporary concerns for our planet and a new understanding of the primary entanglement of the human species ...with the rest of the world.
The use of the term ‘ecology’ with design tends to refer to how to integrate ecologies into design and cities and be understood in a biologically scientific and technical sense. In practice, this scientific-technical knowledge tends to be only loosely employed. The notion of ecology is also often used metaphorically in relation to the social use of space and cities. This book argues that what it calls the ‘biological’ and ‘social’ senses of ecology are both important and require distinctly different types of knowledge and practice. It proposes that science needs to be taken much more seriously in ‘biological ecologies’, and that ‘social ecologies’ can now be understood non-metaphorically as assemblages. Furthermore, this book argues that design practice itself can be understood much more rigorously, productively, and relevantly if understood ecologically. The plural term ‘ecologies design’ refers to these three types of ecological design. This book is unique in bringing these three perspectives on ecological design together in one place. It is significant in proposing that a strong sense of ecologies design practice will only follow from the interconnection of these three types of practice.
Ecologies Design brings together leading international experts and relevant case studies in the form of edited research essays, case studies, and project work. It provides an overarching critique of current ecologically oriented approaches and offers evidence and exploration of emerging and effective methods, techniques, and concepts. It will be of great interest to academics, professionals, and students in the built environment disciplines.
By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will likely live in cities. Human settlements depend on resources, benefits, and services from ecosystems, but they also tend to deplete ecosystem health. To ...address this situation, a new urban design and planning approach is emerging. Based on regenerative design, ecosystem-level biomimicry, and ecosystem services theories, it proposes designing projects that reconnect urban space to natural ecosystems and regenerate whole socio-ecosystems, contributing to ecosystem health and ecosystem services production. In this paper, we review ecosystems as models for urban design and review recent research on ecosystem services production. We also examine two illustrative case studies using this approach: Lavasa Hill in India and Lloyd Crossing in the U.S.A. With increasing conceptualisation and application, we argue that the approach contributes positive impacts to socio-ecosystems and enables scale jumping of regenerative practices at the urban scale. However, ecosystem-level biomimicry practices in urban design to create regenerative impact still lack crucial integrated knowledge on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services productions, making it less effective than potentially it could be. We identify crucial gaps in knowledge where further research is needed and pose further relevant research questions to make ecosystem-level biomimicry approaches aiming for regenerative impact more effective.
Academic research has long established that interaction with the natural environment is associated with better overall health outcomes. Notably, the area of therapeutic environments has been borne ...out of the recognition of this critical relationship, but much of this research comes from a specific Western perspective. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, Māori (the Indigenous people of the land) have long demonstrated significantly worse health outcomes than non-Māori. Little research has examined the causes compared to Western populations and the role of the natural environment in health outcomes for Māori. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between Māori culture, landscape and the connection to health and well-being. Eighteen Māori pāhake (older adults) and kaumātua (elders) took part in semi-structured interviews carried out as focus groups, from June to November 2020. Transcribed interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and kaupapa Māori techniques. We found five overarching and interrelated key themes related to Indigenous knowledge (Mātauranga Māori) that sit within the realm of therapeutic environments, culture and landscape. A conceptual framework for Therapeutic Cultural Environments (TCE) is proposed in terms of the contribution to our understanding of health and well-being and its implications for conceptualising therapeutic environments and a culturally appropriate model of care for Māori communities.
Context
Although biodiversity in cities is essential to ensure the healthy functioning of ecosystems and biosecurity over time, biodiversity loss resulting from human interventions in land cover ...patterns is widespread in urban landscapes. In the Southern Hemisphere, climate change is likely to accelerate the process of landscape upheavals, and consequently biodiversity loss.
Objectives & Methods
The aim of this research is to test the potentials of landscape pattern composition and configuration in safeguarding indigenous avifauna against the local impacts of climate change in urban landscapes, with reference to New Zealand. To build up a platform for landscape pattern interpretation, the literature was reviewed and semi-structured interviews with six subject-matter experts were conducted to provide information about the most important avifauna in the study area, key information on their ecological traits and niches, possible impacts of climate change on their primary habitats, and spatial requirements for ongoing species survival as the climate continues to change. A spatial analysis of land cover patterns was undertaken in Wellington, New Zealand using GIS and FRAGSTATS.
Results
Although there are still opportunities for biodiversity conservation in the study area, the current land cover patterns are unlikely to safeguard the selected species against climate change impacts.
Conclusions
Eight implications for avifauna persistence under climate change are discussed for the first time in relation to a New Zealand context. These implications can give rise to a higher level of informed decision-making on a wide range of practices for biodiversity conservation related to uncertainties associated with climate change.
Built environment professionals must solve urgent and complex problems related to mitigating and adapting to climate change and biodiversity loss. Cities require redesign and retrofit so they can ...become complex systems that create rather than diminish ecological and societal health. One way to do this is to strategically design buildings and cities to generate and provide ecosystem services. This is an aspect of biomimicry, where whole ecosystems and their functions are emulated, in order to positively shift the ecological performance of buildings and urban settings. A small number of methodologies and frameworks for ecosystem services design have been proposed, but their use is not wide spread. A key barrier is the lack of translational work between ecology concepts and practical examples of ecosystem services design for a built environment context. In response, this paper presents research underpinning the creation of a qualitative relational diagram in an online interactive format that relates ecosystem services concepts to design strategies, concepts, technologies, and case studies in a format for use by built environment professionals. The paper concludes that buildings and whole cities should be expected to become active contributors to socio-ecological systems because, as the diagram shows, many strategies and technologies to enable this already exist.
This paper employs a unique ecosystem services analysis methodology to evaluate how cities could support or generate ecosystem services. Ecosystem services analysis can provide quantifiable goals for ...urban ecological regeneration that are determined by the site-specific ecology and climate of an urban area. In this research, the ecosystem service of habitat provision is the key focus. The role of urban green space and urban forests is crucial within this. Setting ambitious targets for urban ecological performance and ecosystem services provision is of great importance due to the large negative environmental impact that cities currently have on ecosystems and, therefore, ecosystem service provision, and because healthier ecosystems enable humans to better adapt to climate change through creating potentials for increased resilience. A comparative case study analysing the ecosystem service of habitat provision in two existing urban environments with similar climates (Cfb according to the Köppen Climate Classification System) but in different parts of the world, namely Wellington, New Zealand and Curitiba, Brazil, was conducted to examine how the ecosystem services analysis concept can used to devise urban habitat provision goals. The paper concludes that, although achieving habitat provision goals derived from ecosystem services analysis in urban areas is likely to be difficult, determining quantitative site- and climate-specific staged goals could enable urban design professionals to increase the effectiveness of conservation and regeneration efforts in terms of ecosystem service provision from urban green and blue spaces.
'Neutral' environmental outcomes in terms of energy use, carbon emissions, waste generation or water use are worthy but difficult targets in architectural and urban design. However, the built ...environment may need to go beyond efforts simply to limit negative environmental outcomes and instead aim for net positive environmental benefits. This implies that the built environment would need to contribute more than it consumes while simultaneously remediating past and current environmental damage. Such development could be termed 'regenerative'. The potential for understanding and then mimicking ecosystem services is explored for setting goals for regenerative developments, designing them and measuring their successes or failures as they evolve over time. Key leverage points are identified where the systems of the built environment may be changed in order to move towards a regenerative urban environment. Analysing the urban built environment from the perspective of how ecosystems function could be a significant step towards the creation of a built environment where positive integration with, and restoration of, local ecosystems may be realized.
Des résultats environnementaux « neutres » en termes de consommation d'énergie, d'émissions de carbone, de production de déchets ou d'utilisation de l'eau, constituent des objectifs qui méritent d'être poursuivis, mais qui sont difficiles à atteindre dans le domaine de la conception architecturale et de l'aménagement urbain. Cependant, il peut être nécessaire que le cadre bâti aille au-delà des efforts cherchant simplement à limiter les résultats environnementaux négatifs et vise plutôt à obtenir des avantages environnementaux nets positifs. Ceci implique que le cadre bâti devrait contribuer plus qu'il ne consomme tout en corrigeant simultanément les dommages environnementaux passés et actuels. Un tel développement pourrait être qualifié de « régénérateur ». Les possibilités de compréhension, puis d'imitation des services écosystémiques, sont étudiées de façon à fixer des objectifs en matière de développements régénérateurs, à concevoir ceux-ci et à en mesurer la réussite ou l'échec au fur et à mesure de leur évolution au fil du temps. Les principaux points de levier sont identifiés là où les systèmes du cadre bâti peuvent être modifiés de manière à progresser vers un milieu urbain régénérateur. Analyser le cadre bâti urbain du point de vue de la manière dont les écosystèmes fonctionnent pourrait constituer un pas important dans le sens de la création d'un cadre bâti dans lequel il serait possible de réaliser une intégration positive avec les écosystèmes locaux, ainsi qu'une réhabilitation de ceux-ci.
Mots clés: cadre bâti écologie services écosystémiques avantages environnementaux lieu conception régénératrice aménagement urbain
Redesigning and retrofitting cities so they become complex systems that create ecological and cultural-societal health through the provision of ecosystem services is of critical importance. Although ...a handful of methodologies and frameworks for considering how to design urban environments so that they provide ecosystem services have been proposed, their use is not widespread. A key barrier to their development has been identified as a lack of ecological knowledge about relationships between ecosystem services, which is then translated into the field of spatial design. In response, this paper examines recently published data concerning synergetic and conflicting relationships between ecosystem services from the field of ecology and then synthesises, translates, and illustrates this information for an architectural and urban design context. The intention of the diagrams created in this research is to enable designers and policy makers to make better decisions about how to effectively increase the provision of various ecosystem services in urban areas without causing unanticipated degradation in others. The results indicate that although targets of ecosystem services can be both spatially and metrically quantifiable while working across different scales, their effectiveness can be increased if relationships between them are considered during design phases of project development.
Under the umbrella of biologically informed disciplines, biomimicry is a design methodology that proponents often assert will lead to a more sustainable future. In realizing that future, it becomes ...necessary to discern specifically what biomimicry’s “promises” are in relation to sustainable futures, and what is required in order for them to be fulfilled. This paper presents research examining the webpages of the Biomimicry Global Network (BGN) to extract the claims and promises expressed by biomimicry practitioners. These promises are assessed using current literature to determine their presuppositions and requirements. Biomimicry’s promises are expressed in terms of potential for innovation, sustainability, and transformation and appear to depend on perceived relationships between humanity and nature; nature and technology; the underlying value judgements of practitioners. The findings emphasize that in order for the communicated promise of biomimicry to be realized, a particular ethos and respectful engagement with nature must accompany the technological endeavors of the practice.
Many coastal peri-urban and urban populations in Oceania are heavily reliant on terrestrial and marine ecosystem services for subsistence and wellbeing. However, climate change and urbanisation have ...put significant pressure on ecosystems and compelled nations and territories in Oceania to urgently adapt. This article, with a focus on Pacific Island Oceania but some insight from Aotearoa New Zealand, reviews key literature focused on ecosystem health and human health and wellbeing in Oceania and the important potential contribution of nature-based solutions to limiting the negative impacts of climate change and urbanisation. The inextricable link between human wellbeing and provision of ecosystem services is well established. However, given the uniqueness of Oceania, rich in cultural and biological diversity and traditional ecological knowledge, these links require further examination leading potentially to a new conceptualisation of wellbeing frameworks in relation to human/nature relationships. Rapidly urbanising Oceania has a growing body of rural, peri-urban and urban nature-based solutions experience to draw from. However, important gaps in knowledge and practice remain. Pertinently, there is a need, potential—and therefore opportunity—to define an urban design agenda positioned within an urban ecosystem services framework, focused on human wellbeing and informed by traditional ecological knowledge, determined by and relevant for those living in the islands of Oceania as a means to work towards effective urban climate change adaptation.
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