6.1.5 An Ecologically Antagonistic Architectural Monoculture

“he found many instances in which homes were totally destroyed while the trees next to the houses were only scorched” Jensen & McPherson, 2008.

The architectures of the present WUI paradigm stand a testament to the distinctly dichotomous relationship of the abiotic and biotic systems, and anthropogenic systems of the late Holocene. Whereas early humans, and the indigenous peoples of the recent past evolved architectural, design and technology systems that work in symbiosis with the environment, from the Early Modern Period [1500> AD] western civilisation has largely aligned to an antagonistic approach. Whereas ancient, but still living belief systems, such as Hinduism and Taoism, acknowledge that change and continuity, disruption and stability, and destruction and creation are two sides of the same systemic coin, for centuries the peoples of the West have valued the latter, but not former. Our architectures being the mirror of our mind-sets, both at the wildland urban interface, and beyond, into the city, early 21st Century peoples tend build architectural monocultures fit only for topographies of relative inertia, which, in the words of Dr. Robert Muir-Wood, make “unnatural” catastrophes “inevitable” (Muir- Wood, 2016, p.23/40).

Peruse the popular media, and it appears that all but anthropologists are unaware of fire’s integral role in the development or species, and indeed of nigh all terrestrial flora and fauna, the exception thereto being subterranean, polar, and micro-organisms. Bringing perspective thereto, Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced he thinks the impact of Artificial Intelligence on humanity will be “more profound” than fire. We can but assume that Pichai realises not that, but for fire, his species would not exist, nor with it the many technologies, search engines included, as are born therefrom (Clifford, 2018). However, he is not alone in worshipping at a veritable Temple of Technology, indeed, quite the contrary, at a time when umpteen science-defying propositions populate both consumer and trade press, many are they that believe, sooner if not later, Earth Systems will come under human control. Were, as some believe, humans now “gods”, thus attained capacity to choreograph all about them, but, in absence of understanding of how and why the systems of flora and fauna work and why, theirs would be a religion of ditheism. However, it takes not supernatural powers to manifest constructs, physical and otherwise, as embody a rivalrous nature between the human and non-human world.

Built on the premise that human control of fire extends to the scale of landscapes, and that, if all else fails, an insurance company or the government will compensate for financial losses, the increasingly many structures that populate the WUI embody none of the resilience features that enable fire-adapted flora and fauna to persist over time. Ecologically akin to invasive species, their presence has capacity to alter fire regimes, and in turn, all as rests thereupon. However, whereas, despite the many problems they pose, invasive species produce an ecological benefit of one or another sort [i.e. grazing], the WUI architectural paradigm of present produces not any such advantage. Hence, even in the [theoretical] event that the rate of structural loss to wildfire presented not issue, the ecological impact is requiring of urgent attention.

>Continue to Chapter 6.1.6 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.