9.2 A Pyric Architectural Transition: Primary Contributions in Summary

“We will have to rediscover our relationship to flame, not as an expression of Promethean power, but as a relationship we enjoy uniquely with Earth” Prof. Stephen Pyne, personal communication, 2018.

The paradigm this thesis posits – Panarchistic Architecture - proposes that the wildland urban interface of the western United States be populated by architecture and urban infrastructure which, modelled on fire-adapted flora that is native to the regional fire regimes, coevolves with the ‘rhythms’ of those regimes. Both materially and informatically, and conceptually and technically, the proposed WUI schema synthesises architectural and urban systems with ecological and wider Earth systems, such that the biochemistry, behaviours, and overall functioning of the former are synchronous to they of the latter. Within this speculative biomimetic schema, buildings, like the pyrophytic species upon which they are modelled, comprise functional traits that are selected to persist in the presence of one of the three qualitatively distinct fire regime types that are found in the case study region – low- severity, mixed-severity, and high-severity - and the fire frequencies, intensities, and behaviours that are coupled therewith. Thus, within this schema, pyrophytes are construed as architectural ‘prototypes’, which the product of epochs of evolution, exhibit tried and tested means by which to mitigate the ‘problem’ of ‘living with wildfire’.

An ‘architecture of fire-adapted architecture’, the Panarchistic paradigm draws on the- state-of-the-art-knowledge of several of the fire sciences, and in particular fire ecology, to establish the physical and systemic parameters that the proposed WUI schema need meet both in the present and possible near to medium term future. The scope of the latter broad, the schema assumes not best or even median case scenarios, but worst, wherein the mean average global temperature continues to rise, and with it, within the case study region, wildfire frequencies, intensities, and resultant severities, all the while, demand for housing drives residential development further into fire- prone territories: the ‘perfect fire-storm’. However, like the pyrophytic species, and in turn, systems, upon which they are modelled, it is proposed that the integrity of the architectures and urban infrastructures this schema would manifest would be enhanced upon wildfire’s passing, as the event thereof would catalyse their various ‘modes of persistence’. Based broadly on they of Rowe, these modes would be enabled through the potentialities inherent in both current and emerging electronic, biological, and hybridized sensing, actuating, analysis, networking, and storage technologies. The latter, when integrated with material, engineering, and design systems, which, from the molecular-level upwards, are likewise modelled on pyrophytes, presents the possibility of persistence to wildfires through strategies that may be classed as ‘enduring’, ‘evading’, and ‘resisting’. Whereas, both within and beyond the wildland urban interface of present, resilience programmes typically aspire to the creation of architectural and urban end-states, wherein the focus, sensu Clementian notions of the natural world and its workings, is on developing ‘climax communities’, the Panarchistic schema vice versa: the construct is concerned not with developing states of architectural and urban ‘conservation’, but with ‘evolving’ a pyrophytic-mimetic WUI ‘genera’ of which the ‘species’ cyclically reproduce, and in the process modify their ‘genome’ as best befits the changing fire conditions.

While the concept of creating life-like architecture and urban infrastructure is far from new, indeed, works of a nature-inspired genre date back to Leonardo da Vinci and beyond, the application of that concept to creating greater architectural and urban resilience in fire-prone WUI habitats is. Given the range and the extent of the risks that wildfires pose to both lives and properties, and both during and after their occurrence, whereas past architectural and urban biomimetic and biodesign studies have largely worked with generic concepts of the functioning of biological species and systems, the study that informed the development of the paradigm and affiliated schema of Panarchistic Architecture involved an exhaustive review of leading-edge fire ecology literature, of fire science literature more generally, and of convergence of insights extrapolated therefrom in new and original ways. Hence, the various proposals and speculations as developed and documented in this thesis rest not merely on assumptions and metaphor, but on detailed understanding of how and why wildfires and, within the case study region, their various fire regimes, together with the species as populate those regimes, behave as they do.

Another unique facet of Panarchistic Architecture is its tri-part paradigmatic approach to living with wildfire. Whereas, currently, WUI developments of the western United States, and beyond, are regulated by codes that, to all intense and purposes, propose a fundamentally homogeneous approach building in fire-prone territories, wherein the expectation is that buildings may be preserved through the addition or subtraction of ancillary features [i.e. ember guards on vents], this paradigm and its schema vice versa. Heterogeneity is one of the foremost features of the living world, the statement thereof evidenced by the immensity of the diversity of plant, animal, and other life on Earth, and a fundamental tenant of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Indeed, in the absence of heterogeneity – of evolution, H.sapiens would not exist, nor with us, all but the first living organism to emerge, or handful thereof if life emerged more than once. While this fundamental truth has relevance to architecture and urban design more generally, a primary insight gleaned from the literature review is the extent to which heterogeneity has enabled pyrophytes to persist through epochs in which wildfires were both more frequent and/or more fierce than they of present, the direct relevance thereof being the advent of what Pyne called the onset of a new ‘fire age’ and its implications to the wildland urban interface of coming years and decades. While we know not where, within the bandwidth of wildfire and wider environmental trajectories the future will fall, we do know that then, as now, wildfire will manifest in regimes of which the parameters are shaped by climate, weather, ignition sources, both natural and anthropogenic, biomass/fuel type, state, and distribution, and topography. Furthermore, humanity’s capacity to monitor variances in the above in real and near-to-real time is advancing apace, as is access thereto, and at a time when, amongst other technologies, artificial intelligence is enabling data to be aggregated and analysed in ever-greater quantities and at ever-faster speeds. Consequently, complex though wildfire behaviour is, our capacity to cut through that complexity, literally in the case of satellite [Fig. 85] and LiDAR technologies, and to see wildfire’s workings, facilitates such accuracy in forecasting and planning as was unthinkable until recently. The WUI ‘persistence’ modes as developed and presented in this thesis speculate on the potentialities of harnessing wildfire monitoring and modelling technologies within architecture and urban design in fire-prone territories. The persistence propositions accommodate of both leading-edge and anticipated near- to-medium term future developments as discerned from, amongst other methods, review of copious literature and one-to-one conversations with foremost pioneers in the technology field. While speculative, all fall within the range the sum thereof suggest to be technically possible by 2030.

The Panarchistic Architecture paradigm this thesis posits proposing a radical departure from the principles that underpin the wildland urban interface of the western United States of present, its fundamental tenants have been presented in an array of ways, including discussion, speculative design in the form of the Panarchic Codex building codes, scenarios, and flash fictions. The intent thereof is providing they for whom this thesis is principally intended – they being architects, planners, and policymakers that author WUI proposals, together with stakeholders with a direct interest in the future of the WUI, its residents included, with both technical and experiential insights, namely, how, if the codes were enacted, the WUI of 2030 and beyond may differ from that of 2018. Within and of their yet to be established field, the speculations are themselves an original contribution which it is hoped provide of insight as to how foresight methodologies, as commonly used in consultancies to industry, government, and NGOs on possible future innovations, inventions, markets, industries, and wider developments, may be useful when developing WUI policy and codes as need accommodate for a broad spectrum of socio-ecological scenarios, and at a time of rapid change.

>Continue to Chapter 9.3 here.

The thesis is also available in PDF format, downloadable in several parts on Academia and Researchgate.

Note that figures have been removed from the digital version hosted on this site, but are included in the PDFs available at the links above.

Citation: Sterry, M. L., (2018) Panarchistic Architecture: Building Wildland-Urban Interface Resilience to Wildfire through Design Thinking, Practice and Building Codes Modelled on Ecological Systems Theory. PhD Thesis, Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research [AVATAR] group, University of Greenwich, London.