What drives us
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”
-------- Chinese Proverb
Human society has entered a critical stage in its presence on planet earth by progressively eroding the natural environment and its ecological processes that are vital to humanity’s subsistence. Our current way of creating, using and renewing built environments and artifacts comes at a huge cost to ourselves and future generations. Our developments are depleting prime ecological, natural or agricultural land, require enormous amounts of material, water and energy resources, emit harmful substances, gases, toxins and wastes at every step of sourcing, production, distribution and disposal, and are infringing on local micro-climates, ecological processes and societies.
Our ultimate aim is to create restorative processes and environments, where natural and artificial networks and layers amalgamate into an effective and diversely productive system, where each aspect coexists with the others to create a new type of sustainable culture and thriving ecology. We try to observe and learn from nature's strategies, diversity and mutual positive interactions, in order to create healthier designs, systems and artifacts. We base ourselves on such approaches as 'Systems Thinking' (D. Meadows), 'Biomimicry' (J. Benyus), 'Cradle-to-Cradle' (W. McDonough & M. Braungart), as well as our broad and combined experience in sustainability aspects in academics and practice.
We think that the ideal characteristics of man-made artifacts and built environments would be such that:
As some of these targets will only be achieved in the (near?) future, for now we also strive to create environments that:
The required shift in our values in built environments is unprecedented and we might not even understand its scale, nature and significance yet. It will take a joint, interdisciplinary and concerted effort from all stakeholders involved in the creation, operation and use of artefacts. By keeping the overall goal in mind and doing one step at a time we can bring about a culture of sustainable environments.
Let's do it together!
Our ultimate aim is to create restorative processes and environments, where natural and artificial networks and layers amalgamate into an effective and diversely productive system, where each aspect coexists with the others to create a new type of sustainable culture and thriving ecology. We try to observe and learn from nature's strategies, diversity and mutual positive interactions, in order to create healthier designs, systems and artifacts. We base ourselves on such approaches as 'Systems Thinking' (D. Meadows), 'Biomimicry' (J. Benyus), 'Cradle-to-Cradle' (W. McDonough & M. Braungart), as well as our broad and combined experience in sustainability aspects in academics and practice.
We think that the ideal characteristics of man-made artifacts and built environments would be such that:
- they are integrated into a holistic, complex and fine-tuned ecosystem boasting great diversity, without affecting it in any negative way but contributing positively to it.
- they build themselves through inherent, self-induced processes and with substances abundantly available in their immediate surroundings (like an oyster shell at the sea bottom or a wild rose in the hedge)
- their production, operation and renewal occurs at surrounding temperature, self-powered, using only locally available energy and substances that the respective process can obtain itself (like a leaf on a tree or a hair on your head)
- they create a surplus of valuable substances and nutrients beneficial to their surroundings instead of wastes, toxins and refuse (i.e. release air, water, soil, energy and materials that are healthier than what they obtained in the first place, like a tree creating oxygen, habitat and nutrients with its flowers, seeds and leaves)
- they create habitat not just for people, but for many other plant and animal species (like a natural meadow or a forest)
- they react to and evolve with society, constantly delivering optimum functionality, comfort and quality of life
As some of these targets will only be achieved in the (near?) future, for now we also strive to create environments that:
- are place-specific and do adapt to, respect and develop local ecosystems and culture
- recreate more and higher-quality natural habitat for different species
- feature bio-climatic adaptation to local natural aspects and take advantage of micro-climatic assets
- respect and improve urban context and life
- are as healthy as possible (minimize toxins, imbedded emissions, etc.)
- and are above all of high quality, functional, comfortable and economical
The required shift in our values in built environments is unprecedented and we might not even understand its scale, nature and significance yet. It will take a joint, interdisciplinary and concerted effort from all stakeholders involved in the creation, operation and use of artefacts. By keeping the overall goal in mind and doing one step at a time we can bring about a culture of sustainable environments.
Let's do it together!
© LifeQualityEnvironments | 2010-2023
