Environments by Design

Abstract

Building has been humanity’s means of protecting itself from the elements, and after the natural world no longer felt like a threat, as a means of protecting itself from fellow humanity. We have reached a time in our development as a species where we must recognize the interconnectedness of all things, and where we must radically rethink our assumptions about the way we construct our environments in order to survive on this planet.

We must reconsider what materials we use, how they are grown and sourced, and the means by which they are assembled. The economic underpinning of the industry is open to review – from how we finance new construction to the business model of the raw & manufactures materials companies

Defining a building as a container for life activity is no longer valid. Life cannot be contained. Let us rather imagine the built environment as a living extension of life activity – not just that of mankind, but also that of the earth. 

Mankind, in trying to assure its survival, has created a paradigm of thought and activity based on control. This paper suggests ways we can rethink our approach from the standpoint of being fundamentally safe, and supported by life. When we no longer feel that we must control each other and our built environments, a new set of functional requirements are allowed to emerge. 

Considering being in the world from the seven generations perspective, the custodianship model far exceeds the proprietary model for land and resource management. Much of today’s economics is based on maximising immediate gains through the monetization of natural resources, without sufficient counterweight placed on maintaining balanced ecosystems and forecasting the longevity of the yield. This paper looks at historical precedents and recent initiatives to vision a way forward into the next decade.