6.1.9.3 Epochal Architectural Shift

“First follow NATURE, and your judgement frame, By her just standard, which is still the same. Pope, 1713.

In the era of European colonisation of the New [to them] World, ‘discovery’ of lands drove innovation and enterprise apace. Today, it being an age in which satellites have nigh mapped every square mile of the planet, not discovery of lands, but of the workings of those lands is the timber fuelling scientific and philosophical fires. Constructs of ‘nature’ are central to all such debates as relate to the potentialities for humanity and planetary futures. But, as discussed earlier, some notions thereof are not merely profoundly ecological illiterate, but to the extent of evidencing there to be truth in Alexander Pope’s words, “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring” (Ibid).

As the sciences have become ever more endowed with means by which to interrogate Earth systems at the broadest spatiotemporal scales, that in ‘nature’, as defined by the etymological origins of the word [the Universe], “all things change” (Heraclitus, 2001, p.15) and at such scales and speeds as far exceed they witnessed within the lifespan of g. Homo, let alone living memory, has become apparent. However, even whereupon one reduces the event horizon to mere human timescales, when architectures as are built in one environmental era become unfit for another a paradigmatic shift occurs. Ecological regime changes necessitate architectural regime changes, for no matter their ability to meet the ilk of BIM and LEED building guidelines, any such structures as obstruct the ebbs and the flows of local, regional, and in turn, planetary biochemical and physical systems will, in time, be overwhelmed.

Architectural and urban systems need work with, not against historical – and future possible – fire regimes, thus conceptually, materially, informatically, and practically align to local, and regional biochemistry, topography, ecology, climate, and wider Earth systems parameters, and to the ever-changing configurations thereof. As relates to not only wildfire, but to flooding and all other cyclical events, such architectures of adaption need be synchronous with the seasons, and with all such variations as reside therein [i.e. timing and spatial extent], this being a quality as is expressed in both Native American, and in other indigenous architectures of present and past, dating at least as far back as Mesopotamian times. However, contemporary and future architectural and urban design systems need not merely adapt technically, but conceptually, therein philosophically. One of several classes of natural hazard imperative to the functioning of both abiotic and biotic systems, wildfires are not a ‘take it or leave it’ option.

In a play on Spinozan theory [127], within pyrogeographic regions this author advocates for architecture as accommodates for ‘nature pyronaturans’, the intended meaning that of nature in its active [dynamic] sense, as specifically relates to wildfire. But, the lens applied thereto stems not from the 17th century, but early Indo-European cultures, thus the age from which that Wilhelm von Humboldt would term ‘sanskritisch’ came forth, and to ontological constructs in which creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin, thus opportunity is not mutually exclusive from risk. All classes of natural hazards present ways in which both materially and informatically, architecture, urban design, and the composites thereof, cities, can evolve by means of becoming ‘fitter’ as Darwin might say, for their present and future purpose. But, the particular qualities of wildfire, it being a phenomenon that redistributes nutrients and materials locally, and within timeframes that, unlike major geological events [i.e. earthquakes and eruptions] are relative at the architectural scale [i.e. occur over years, decades, or centuries, as opposed to millennia and multiples thereof], of which the spatiotemporal dimensions are coupled to the biochemical and physical lay of the land, and of which the cyclicality is coupled to the species adapted thereto, present particularly potent intellectual and creative, as well as much needed technical potentialities. But, before discussing WUI futures, thereon synthesizing the sum of the matters so far discussed, I present Part II of the case studies, in which three of the foremost significant wildfires of recent times, and the human impacts thereof are examined.

>Continue to Chapter 6.2 here.

Footnotes

[127] In reference to Natura naturans [nature naturing].

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.