Biophilia and ecology's role in a pragmatic approach to human and planetary healing.

“One important requirement of an architectural theory is to coordinate and make sense of scattered and apparently unrelated observations of how human beings interact with built form. Another is to formalize those observations into an easy to apply framework that can be used for design.” Nikos Salingaros

“We designed ourselves into this situation; we can design ourselves out of it…” Stephen Kellert

There is mounting theoretical research and empirical evidence supporting the need to alter the way we – as a profession and as a humanity - design the built environment, and a growing list of visionaries and organizations support this need for change. It is my hypothesis that the understanding of biophilia - humans’ innate affinity for nature - and ecology can inform the design process. We can biomimetically emulate thriving and restorative ecosystems in built environments to restore human and planetary health and wellbeing. Incorporating nature, and natural systems and processes with technology and human constructed systems is an opportunity to create restorative environments that can be a positive influence on human patterns and behaviors.

My aim is to create a pragmatic approach to human and planetary healing by using principles of complex systems thinking, biophilia and ecology.