Table Of ContentEcologies Design
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.
Maibritt Pedersen Zari is Senior Lecturer, and co-founder of the Ecologies Design Lab at the
Wellington School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her
expertise includes architectural biomimicry, biophilic design, ecosystem-based adaptation, urban
climate change resilience and adaptation, particularly in the Pacific, and design for urban biodiversity.
Pedersen Zari is author of Regenerative Urban Design and Ecosystem Biomimicry (2018).
Peter Connolly is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and co-founder of the
Ecologies Design Lab at the Wellington School of Architecture, Victoria University of
Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. His work is focused on technique and theorising technique,
in landscape architectural design and urbanism, design research, design representation, fieldwork,
and aesthetic practices. He is co-author, with Rene Van Der Velde, of Technique (2004).
Mark Southcombe is Senior Lecturer and co-founder of the Ecologies Design Lab at the
Wellington School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, Fellow of the New Zealand
Institute of Architects, and Director of Southcombe Architects. His expertise includes design
praxis, collective urban housing, ecologically and socially sustainable urban redevelopment, and
prefabrication. Southcombe is co-author of Crossing Boundaries: Reflections on Collaborative
Architectural Research (2017), [Re]Cuba: Renegotiating Seismic Resilience in Cuba Street
Wellington (2014) and Kiwi Prefab: From Cottage to Cutting Edge (2013).
Routledge Research in Sustainable Urbanism
This series offers a forum for original and innovative research that engages with
key debates and concepts in the field. Titles within the series range from empirical
investigations to theoretical engagements, offering international perspectives and
multidisciplinary dialogues across the social sciences.
Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities
Joining Forces for Change
Edited by Merritt Polk
Global Garbage
Urban Imaginaries of Waste, Excess, and Abandonment
Edited by Christoph Lindner and Miriam Meissner
The Experimental City
Edited by James Evans, Andrew Karvonen and Rob Raven
Imagining Sustainability
Creative Urban Environmental Governance in Chicago and Melbourne
Julie L. Cidell
Regenerative Urban Design and Ecosystem Biomimicry
Maibritt Pedersen Zari
The Politics of Urban Sustainability Transitions
Knowledge, Power and Governance
Edited by Jens Stissing Jensen, Philipp Späth and Matthew Cashmore
Ecologies Design
Transforming Architecture, Landscape, and Urbanism
Edited by Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Peter Connolly and Mark Southcombe
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Sustainable-Urbanism/book-series/
RRSU
Ecologies Design
Transforming Architecture, Landscape,
and Urbanism
Edited by
Maibritt Pedersen Zari,
Peter Connolly and
Mark Southcombe
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Peter
Connolly and Mark Southcombe; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Peter Connolly and Mark Southcombe
to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-23447-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-27990-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Tenzin, Pema, Tashi, and Rinchen.
And for all of those to come across all species and places. May we live
well together.
For Kate, Caspar, Ruby, and Lydia.
I cherish our shared history and know that I will love our shared future.
For Gwen and Dorothy, Terry and Val, Carolyn, Luke and Joshua, Leah,
Lachlan, Charlie and those to come. May we live with great love for each
other and the places we inhabit, live humbly, with a generosity of spirit,
and an awareness that our actions affect others.
Contents
List of figures xi
Notes on contributors xiv
Foreword xxv
Acknowledgements xxviii
1 Introduction: towards an ecologies design practice 1
PETER CONNOLLY, MAIBRITT PEDERSEN ZARI, AND
MARK SOUTHCOMBE
PART 1
Biological ecologies design and regeneration 11
2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically
focused design 13
MAIBRITT PEDERSEN ZARI
3 Engaging with life: the developmental practice of
regenerative development and design 17
BILL REED AND BEN HAGGARD
4 Designing for living environments using regenerative
development: a case study of The Paddock 26
DOMINIQUE HES AND JUDY BUSH
5 The paradox of metrics: setting goals for regenerative
design and development 34
RICHARD GRAVES
viii Contents
6 Ecological design as the biointegration of a set of
‘infrastructures’: the ‘quatrobrid’ constructed ecosystem 44
KEN YEANG
7 Creating and restoring urban ecologies: case studies in China 49
KONGJIAN YU
8 Towards wildlife-supportive green space design in
metropolitan areas: lessons from an experimental study 62
AMIN RASTANDEH
9 The new design with nature 74
NAN ELLIN
10 Biomimicry: an opportunity for buildings to relate to place 85
DAYNA BAUMEISTER, MAIBRITT PEDERSEN ZARI, AND SAMANTHA
HAYES
11 The emergence of biophilic design and planning:
re-envisioning cities and city life 96
TIMOTHY BEATLEY
PART 2
Documenting social ecologies 107
12 Introduction: how to document urban/landscape assemblages 109
PETER CONNOLLY
13 City boids: diagramming molecular urbanism 111
SABINE MÜLLER AND ANDREAS QUEDNAU
14 Why would we spend time drawing with people doing their
washing in a Chinese village? 121
NIGEL BERTRAM AND MARIKA NEUSTUPNY
15 Object-led interview: documenting geographical ideas 130
VICTORIA MARSHALL
16 Mapping informal settlements: a process for action 138
DIEGO RAMÍREZ-LOVERING, DAŠA SPASOJEVIĆ, AND MICHAELA F.
PRESCOTT
Contents ix
17 Ethnographic drawings and the benefits of using a
sketchbook for fieldwork 149
KARINA KUSCHNIR
18 A landscape anthropology of green in Bahrain 158
GARETH DOHERTY
19 Valparaiso Publico: a graphic inventory of urban spaces in a
Chilean city 165
MARIE COMBETTE, THOMAS BATZENSCHLAGER, AND
CLÉMENCE PYBARO
20 Being with Hellersdorf: performative counter-mapping as a
reflexive practice between architecture and anthropology 174
DIANA LUCAS-DROGAN AND HOLGER BRAUN-THÜRMANN
21 The happy city: an actor-network-theory manifesto 181
ALBENA YANEVA
22 The aesthetics of documenting urban and landscape assemblages 188
PETER CONNOLLY
PART 3
Ecologies design practices 199
23 Introduction: on the need for and potentials of ecological
design practice 201
MARK SOUTHCOMBE
24 Indigenous ecological design 204
REBECCA KIDDLE
25 Ngāi Tūhoe’s Te Kura Whare: our living building 212
JEROME PARTINGTON AND MAIBRITT PEDERSEN ZARI
26 Design in relationship with an ecological entity 222
BRIDGET BUXTON
27 On the rise: a coastal planning strategy for adaptation in
response to climate change 231
KIERAN IBELL
