Liber Futuro Ignium [Book of Future Fires]

“We’re so bound by time, by its order. But, now I’m not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings” [135] Heisserer, E, 2016.

6.4.1 Overview

Having discussed the pyric past, present, and possible future at the local, regional, national, and planetary scale, together with some of the most pertinent implications to they as reside at the interface of ‘wild’ and ‘urban’ lands, this section develops the underlying principles for a new architectural and urban design paradigm, which aligned to the fire regimes of the western U.S., thus accommodates for an event horizon that stretches beyond the spatiotemporal boundaries of the human scale.

6.4.2 Tria juncta in uno: A Pyrosystemic Synthesis

As discussed earlier, myriad sources suggest that our ancient ancestors feared not fire. On the contrary, they worshipped it, for they, as do clades of our closest living relative, g.Pan [chimpanzee], recognised it held potentialities. However, as humans migrated out of Africa and to the present day, we transcended several “pyric phases” (Bowman et al, 2011, p.2229), which though not universal in their spatiotemporal distribution across species, let alone civilisations, nonetheless constitute a series of paradigmatic shifts of which, until recently, the general direction of travel has been towards eradicating wildfire from ‘wildlands’.

Beyond the field of fire ecology, recognition of the adverse implications of anthropogenic augmentation of fire-prone landscapes is slowly, but surely filtering through to they that are logic, therein science-led, within society at large. However, the matter that myriad internal and external factors contribute to the propagation of a paradox, of which a root cause is the fact that not merely are the manifold and complex implications to biotic and abiotic systems distributed in space and time, but across verified timescales (Spies et al, 2014, p.3), renders only they as have either first-hand experience and/or capacity for abstract thinking across multiple disciplines and scales able to fully grasp the gravitas of the situation. If applying Jung’s theory of Psychological Types (2017), they as align to all of the four primary variations thereof could, in theory, grasp the systemic dynamics. However, they of whom the worldview is predominantly informed by the senses and/or feeling will likely do so only upon witnessing phenomena first hand, and even then, their interpretation will be led by what they believe they see or feel.

One might reasonably posit that variations in psychological types could explain why, no matter the extent of the environmental, and in turn societal pandemonium projected to come forth from the Pandorian pyxis within the land-use-type known as the wildland urban interface there remains a veritable paneremos of panoptical paradigmatic interrogations of the architectural and urban design thereof. However, whatsoever the causation, as discussed throughout the preceding chapters, significant is the body of transdisciplinary data as suggests our species, and in turn and descendants thereof, need relearn how to metaphorically dance, not ‘play’ with fire. When such is the gap between the workings of fire regimes, and in turn, the processes as are collectively referred to as Earth systems, and the predominant WUI paradigm of present, nothing short of a philosophical pan-genesis is proposed, wherein, to co- opt a statement by Darwin in relation to his Pangenesis hypothesis, a bringing together of “a multitude of facts, which are at present left disconnected by any efficient cause” is pursued (Darwin, 2010, p.357).

6.4.3 PANdorian Theory

Building on earlier discussions, said to be born of Hephaestus and Athena at the behest of he who controls ‘the sky’, thus the atmosphere, climate, weather and all as is beholden thereto, father of all gods, of the pantheon, and of whom the savior was the primordial deity as personified by the Earth [Gaia], he being Zeus, the ‘all-gifted’ sister of Pan [136], Pandora, has widely been interpreted as a cause of catastrophe. However, whereupon one considers both Greek mythologies and their Indo-European antecedents and contemporaries as not stories, but a means of conveying complexity theory, more specifically as applies to Earth Systems, Pan-dora is indeed the bringer of ‘gifts’ to humanity. However, within this theoretical construct, whereupon Pandora’s gifts are treated not with due care and respect for forces greater than they that humanity has capacity to manifest, that which comes forth from her ‘pyxis’, as bestowed by Zeus, overwhelms ‘mortal’ beings [i.e. they that, unlike Earth systems, and planetary processes throughout the Solar System and beyond, have a finite existence within the space-time continuum].

Thus, while the theory of Panarchy as developed by Gunderson, Holling and peers (2002) is embedded within and of the foundations of the WUI paradigm under development, this thesis further infuses an array of original theoretical constructs, which stem from the findings of its transdisciplinary study. Additionally, the paradigm’s use of ‘Pan’ within its title, ‘Panarchistic Architecture’, though relating to the Greek god of nature, alluding to the Grecian term thereof [“all”], and a nod to Gunderson, Holling et al’s theory, its use is predominantly in reference to Pandora, and to the author’s interpretation of her mythology’s meaning and intent as relates to Earth systems and humanity’s interplay therewith. Additionally, the term is used by means of relating the paradigm to the theory as was pivotal in developing the field of Earth systems science, Gaia, thus its creators Lovelock and Margulis (2016), therein to the theoretical family tree of which it is a descendent.

The paradigm of Panarchistic Architecture will, first and foremost, require an acceptance of humanity having influence, but not control over Earth systems, and all such phenomena as are part thereof. Therein, although that which underpins the paradigmatic premise falls predominantly within the domain of the sciences, philosophically the construct aligns to that of Grecian, Vedic, and all such Indo- European mythologies as embed the Promethean story and its conceptual tenants, which as discussed earlier, are hypothesized to have physical and not merely philosophical origins. Hence, Panarchistic architecture constitutes a paradigm of which the origins reside in prehistory, and which, part of a philosophical continuum, therein process, is presented in expectation of its evolution over time.

6.4.4 Material Metamorphoses and The Circle of Variability

“the spark embodies the incendiary potential of ideas, which can plant the seed for a new invention, scientific discovery or artistic creation, as well as spark a revolution powerful enough to reconfigure the entire world order.” Ronnberg & Martin, 2010.

Although, sensu Descartes, disciplines have resided in silos for some centuries now, both within and before the past half millennia, developments in one field have ricocheted to another, this being a phenomenon that is expressed across the sciences, arts, and humanities. Both at the individual and the collective level, psychology plays a hand therein, more specifically, as discussed earlier, the appeal of the ‘new’ to they as are inherently attracted to change. Given that comprehension of the systemic nature of Earth systems is evidenced in several ancient universal motifs, while also conveyed in humanity’s foremost foundational mythologies and philosophical texts, that, as late as the early 1900s Clementian successional theory gained popularity is, on the surface, somewhat surprising. However, that a system progresses towards a climax- state was not merely an idea that was embraced by many within the field of ecology, but by multiple sectors within and beyond academia, and in particular business and commerce, where exponential growth became a goal so ingrained as to still persist today.

But, the palaeological record makes apparent that, while Earth and its abiotic and biotic passengers are on an evolutionary journey of which the direction is aligned to that of the ‘arrow of time’ (Eddington, 1928), the journey involves periods of progress towards one extreme, thereon the other, this being a philosophical construct expressed by the Circle of Variability [Fig. 72]. The ongoing transition between points of polarity are expressed at multiple spatiotemporal scales across innumerable Earth, and in turn Solar and Interstellar systems, such for example as the progression from day to night to day, that being a phenomenon as was central to the development of proto Indo-European, thereon Bronze age belief systems as formed the worldviews of they that built the Cradle of Civilization [Mesopotamia and Dynastic Egypt]. As relates to PANdorian theory, and to the WUI paradigm aligned thereto, the metamorphoses of the abiotic to biotic, thereon biotic to abiotic, abiotic to biotic, and so on, expresses how, within the Circle of Variability that which is living is not mutually exclusive from that which is non-living, therein a philosophical construct as accommodates for the whole of nature, thus the ontological concept as is embedded in the etymological origin of the term ‘nature’.

Not merely a matter of material practicality as is expressed in such constructs as seek to address the issue of Earth’s finite resources, such as ‘cradle to cradle’ (Braungart and McDonough, 2009), the blurring of boundaries between that which, within contemporary culture is perceived as mutually exclusive, i.e. the life and death of things, the Circle of Variability is, in effect, an expression of the space-time continuum, therein of Einsteinian relativity as applied to Earth systems.

Profound, and perhaps unanswerable, are the philosophical questions as are raised whereupon one queries whether there is in fact an absolute division between that which is living and non-living, and if so where, precisely, that line is drawn, this being a delineation as is not expressed in the belief systems of many indigenous peoples, nor in the worldview of early civilisations, including but not limited to those as have been discussed. Bringing perspective to the construct, the author’s biological specimen collection is comprised items from the Silurian [443.8-419.2mya] to the present, thus, collectively, its materiality is comprised both inorganic and organic matter, which in the case of the former includes extinct relatives of the latter, extant specimens, which have undergone processes including permineralization, authigenic mineralization, replacement and recrystallization, adpression, and external moulding. However, although the specimen species were/are organisms in their own right, both in their organic and inorganic forms they constitute a host as accommodates a range of micro-organisms, which integral to their biology, were, in some instances, also integral to their metamorphoses into fossils. Whereupon a time-lapse camera had been set up some hundreds of millions of years ago by means of capturing the lengthy transition from an extant specimen to an extinct one [i.e. a pinecone that fell from a conifer species during the Mesozoic], while, at the broadest of timescales [i.e. geological ages] one could establish roughly when the organic became inorganic, difficult if not impossible would be task of deciphering precisely when the transition from one material state to another occurred [i.e. the minute, hour, day, week, month, year, century, and millennium thereof].

But, within the metamorphic scheme of things the transition from biotic to abiotic and back is part of an endless cycle, wherein living matter transitions to non-living matter to living matter ad infinitum. However, fossilisation is but one way in which living matter becomes non-living matter, which in turn, is reconstituted as living matter, fire being another. However, the material metamorphoses that is catalysed through the processes of fossilisation occurs over epochs, whereas that catalysed by fire occurs instantly. Hence, the distinction between extinct and extant, biological and geological, and, ultimately, life and death is, one might argue, all a matter of spatiotemporal perspective. The paradigmatic relevance thereof is that of asserting there is tangible credibility to the philosophical concept of creative destruction, more specifically the regenerative role of fire within the evolutionary continuum [Fig. 73].

Whereupon one extends the construct of the Circle of Variability to space as well as time, such for example as to the Supercontinent Cycle, therein the transition between Pangaean aggregation and dispersal of the Earth’s continental crust, this phenomenon being central to oceanic currents, therein global weather systems, and all as is influenced thereby, it brings perspective to the limitations of human actions within the universal schema. Ultimately, no amount of tree hugging or planting will sustain a state of Earth systems stasis. Thus, as did our ancestors, H.sapiens and future descendants thereof will need evolve if our genus, and in turn, all such taxonomic variants as may stem therefrom, are to survive. As the climate shifts we will need to adapt both ourselves and our constructions, the extent thereof aligned to the bandwidth of possible climate and wider environmental trajectories, they being such as makes much evident that mere augmentation of the predominant modes of architectural thought and practice would be largely insufficient to prevent against the perishing thereof [Fig. 74].

Architecture and urban design thinking, practice, policy, and codes of the now, near, and far future will need to evolve with the emergence of new [sensu Darwin] ‘niches’. Hence, the findings of this study align to some of the philosophical and practice constructs that have been developed within the wider school of evolutionary-inspired architecture by authors including Gordon Pask (1969), John Frazer (1995), Michael Weinstock (2010), Achim Menges and Sean Ahlquist (2011), and Michael Hensel (2013). Within the paradigmatic parameters of this evolutionary approach, the climatic, and wider environmental transitions as are underway mark a point of architectural departure from one evolutionary state to another. For example, as isothermic ranges shift, so too will the territories as befit human habitation, therein, just as some species are moving upwards and/or polewards as MST rises, so too will some human settlements, the underlying reason being that human physiology has limits beyond which species members cannot survive [Fig. 75]. As relates to fire regimes, architecture and urban design will need to evolve as ecological assemblages, therein fire intensities, severities, behaviours, and territories change. Put succinctly, WUI architectures need be as dynamic as the environments in which they are built [Fig. 76].

6.4.5 Branches in Time: Morphological Data & Evolutionary Hardware

“Ecophysiological processes are the foundation of acclimation and evolutionary adaption to climate change”. Chmura et al, 2011.

The palaeological record constitutes a database extending across multiple Earth systems including atmospheric conditions; wildfire, drought, flooding, and eruption frequencies together with the spatiotemporal dimensions thereof; as well as an incomplete, but nonetheless comprehensive record of the evolution of life, and of the symbiosis of species with their environment. Unlike present-day digitized technologies, the materiality of that record is relatively robust [i.e. unlike a USB drive an adpression fossil will not rust, therein endures for epochs not years, or at most decades], and is unbiased in its presentation of the facts [i.e. it the data can be misinterpreted, but not corrupted]. Likewise, living specimens tend be more resilient to their environment than the ilk of personal computers. For example, whereupon a mobile was exposed to a low-severity fire its innards would melt, thus erase any such data as had been stored on its ‘memory’. On the other hand, not merely would a species of which said regime-type fell in their phylogenetic range survive the fire, but whether via the parent plant or off-spring thereof, all such ‘data’ as was significant [i.e. DNA] would survive. Hence, one might conceive of the palaeological record as akin to evolutionary ‘hardware’, the concept thereof complimentary to that of a species’ genotype and phenotype as ‘software’, the latter of which has been explored by multiple authors within the domain of cybernetics and related fields including John Holland (1992, 1998, 2014), Melanie Mitchell (1998), and Peter Bentley and David Corne (2002).

In perceiving of both extinct and extant floral and faunal specimens as hardware that can accurately record Earth systems data over epochs, another boundary becomes blurred, that being the division between ‘material’ and ‘information’ as can be expressed by the Circle of Variability. Thus, another alignment with the wider evolutionary-inspired architecture school, as exemplified by Skylar Tibbets’ programmable materials (MIT, 2018). However, though the latter’s works are endowed with several ‘life-like’ features [i.e. a rudimentary capacity to ‘learn’ about their environment, and to respond to changes therein, such as increased moisture levels], ‘as is’ the application thereof has been extended not to wildfire or to natural hazards more generally. However, within the paradigm of Panarchistic Architecture, material-informatic hybrids need be appropriate within an Earth systems context, more specifically, to the particular parameters of fire regimes, and to the ecological and other environmental legacies thereof.

6.4.6 Lebbeus’ Legacy: Seeing the Woods for the Trees

“We can safely suppose that it is based not on stability but on instability, on change from one form into another – perhaps even from one language of form into another”. Woods, 2004.

Lebbeus Woods interrogated the tension between architecture, geopolitics, and geomechanical forces. This study interrogates the tension between architecture, geopolitics, and biochemical and ecological forces. Thus, on the surface, ours are fields of inquiry that are spatially, temporally, and, largely methodologically independent. Yet, philosophically, many are the parallels in our respective conclusions, both of which harness a “revolution in knowledge” (Woods, 2001, p.15) to confront “disparate realities” that arise when “things of different orders meet” (Ibid, p.13). Upon exploring “complexly transformative space” (Woods, 2004, p.45) Woods found change “is inevitable”, for as materials “are affected by disturbances” they are “reborn” in “continuous cycles” (Ibid, p.47), thus “the creative dialogue between opposing forces, and most especially, between destruction and construction, between death and life, as equally vital elements of existence (Moss, 2004, p.18) evokes “the possibility of a new collaboration between the forces of nature and of the human” (Woods, 2004, p.44). Further areas of agreement between the conclusions of Woods and this study include acknowledging that the ‘forces of nature’ are beyond human control; we need work with, not against those forces; the process thereof necessitating the creation of principles, not prescriptions, beginnings, not conclusions; and the union of determinism to nondeterminism. But, as Woods noted, “So abhorrent is the idea of the fall, so quick the rush to erase its evidence, so single-minded the effort to rebuild the sameness, that the reality of the fall itself and the nature of the transformations it has brought about are obscured” (2004, p.108). Arguably, the statement thereof is as relevant to both press and policy responses to wildfire in the WUI, as to historical reconstruction in the aftermath of war, earthquakes, storm surges, and hurricanes in Sarajevo, San Francisco, and Havana. However, that upon rising from its ashes, no matter the “instinct to recapture something irretrievably lost” (Ibid), the metaphorical phoenix reaffirms not “a past” order, but provides of a platform for change, is a proposition that while arguably anticipatory of our architectural and urban future, remains no less radical today, than during Wood’s lifetime.

Although, qualitative research, and especially that which relates to areas that are measured by subjective, as well as objective measures presents greater complexity in its replicability than, as a rule, does quantitative research, that, upon lengthy independent examination of the problems and potentialities which reside at the interface of natural and human architectural and urban systems, both Woods and this study drew complimentary outcomes suggests our findings may represent universal truths.

6.4.7 Pyro-urban Secession and a Phenomenological Paradox

“Context-specific and place-based approaches will be needed to address many existing and future coupled wildfire socio-ecological system problems.” Moritz et al, 2014.

A pangenical paradigm that aligns the architectural and urban design systems of the wildland urban interface with they of fire regimes indigenous to the western U.S. will require the adoption of the ecologically, not engineering-led approaches as advocated by Gunderson, Holling, and peers. The application thereof needs be foundational, for as discussed earlier, the extent of the spatiotemporal scale of the biochemical and other reactions as become manifest during wildfires extend beyond human control, and no less so than within the bandwidth of climatic and wider environmental trajectories as are theoretically possible in the years and decades ahead. Put succinctly, biological-cladding ‘isn’t going to cut it’.

Having established that, metaphorically speaking, the Tree of Life is propagated by an Eternal Flame, and the Phoenix akin to evolution, in that its lifecycle is synced to the rhythms of the seasons, more specifically within fire-prone landscapes, that ancient indigenous architectural and urban thinking and practice aligns to ecological, and in turn planetary systems becomes evident. Hence, another branch needs to be added to the philosophical family-tree from which the emergent paradigm has descended. However, whereas the architectural schema that was developed by the Pomo peoples relied solely on first-hand past and present knowledge of wildfire, and of other ecological regimes, Panarchistic Architecture steps forth in an age when the parameters of understanding of atmospheric, topographic, and ecological data extend far beyond the here and now and into the deep past and future. Therein, while some of the principles are one and the same, the means of application will be an epoch apart.

Whereas, presently authors of WUI architectural and urban design thinking, practice, policy, and building codes largely assume wildfire to exhibit relatively homogeneous behaviour, therein accommodate not for fire regimes and the variances between them, this thesis asserts it imperative to acknowledge both the regimes, and heterogeneity in ecological, and in turn, Earth systems generally. However, the findings of the study suggest it not merely they that author creations for interstitial spaces as need gain understanding of fire and its behaviour, but, given the climatic outlook, all that work with flammable [i.e. carbon-based] materials, for not merely in world’s wildlands is fire resuming historical regimes that stretch beyond ‘living memory’. Thus, it is proposed that prior to commencement of the ilk of architecture, planning, and policymaking degrees students are required to take a foundational qualification in Earth sciences of which the content spans that which will nurture the skills as are required to understand the workings of Earth systems, and the implications thereof to human systems. In other words, a platform with capacity to produce a generation of they as think and do as did Price, Woods, and their late and living peers. Knowledge being power, it is assumed not that they that wish reduce not enhance citizen capacity would embrace such a concept, for in reconciling the opposites within and of the fire paradox questions of ‘inconvenience’ to all as wish business be ‘as usual’ may be asked.

6.4.8 Pyropangenesis: The Variation of Fire at the Wildland Urban Interface

“Wilderness fire, in its purest form, should be “wild” fire: unfettered by the constraints of humans.” Agee, 2000.

Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, human systems, including but not limited to the architectural and urban design narratives of the Global North, have been largely treated as a thing apart from Earth systems. This tri-part paradigm advocates that not merely must the former be synchronous to the latter, but form a synecological unit therewith, in which, be they seasonal, decadal, millennial, or epochal, material and information exchanges flow with, not against fire cycles. Thus, the principle parameters within which decisions are to be made when applying this trichotomous paradigm fall within the domain of the Earth, not political nor economic sciences.

As in life, the moment a building is ‘born’ it progresses towards death, the event thereof not an ‘if’, but a ‘when’. This paradigm, in which materially and informatically architecture evolves in space and time, is consumed not with creating architectural ‘specimens’, but ‘lineages’: an Origin of Architectural Genera endowed with functional traits that enable coexistence with one or more fire regimes, and with their affiliated intensities, severities, and behaviours.

A pan-archaic paradigm, in that its scope is as expansive as its origins are ancient, Panarchistic Architecture rejects the notion that any one architectural schema has universal application. As flora and fauna exhibit not homogeneity in their resilience to wildfire and to other environmental disturbances, so too must architectures that straddle wild and urban lands. Thus, Panarchistic Architecture will become manifest in not one, but various forms of which the workings, thus appearance, will vary from one fire regime-type to another. Therein, unlike most other architectural paradigms, sensu Woods, though highly principled in its approach, Panarchistic Architecture is not prescriptive.

Practice of Panarchistic Architecture will necessitate familiarity with the low-severity, mixed-severity, and high-severity fire regimes, and with the fundamental biochemistry, physics, and ecology of wildfire more generally. Furthermore, as one of the fastest-developing scientific fields worldwide, practitioners’ research thereof will need to be ongoing, and particularly given that climate trajectories suggest that transitions from one fire-regime type to another are highly probable in wide-ranging regions.

As do species native to fire-prone regions, Panarchitectural genera will select traits which, sensu Rowe, be they morphological, biochemical, physiological, phenological [exhibiting cyclic behaviours], and/or behavioural, align to one of three the ‘modes of persistence’:

Pyro-Endurance

Evolved to persist in WUI adjoining low and mixed-severity fire regimes, such as Californian chaparral and oak forests, pyro-enduring architectures will comprise functional traits selected to endure frequent, but relatively low intensity fires.

Morphologically, like their ecological equivalents, pyro-enduring architectures will feature perennating parts, including below-ground data and storage networks, which like Canyon live oak roots, are protected from surface and crown fires by a layer of soil and/or other insulting material. The depth thereof will be proportionate to the soil /material type [i.e. Percentage mineral vs. organic matter, thus level of flammability]. In addition to subsurface modes of data and other storage, pyro-endurers harness the potential of remote storage networks, thus, their perennating parts may extend to satellite-enabled communications and other IOT infrastructure [i.e. cloud networks]. Coexisting with frequent wildfires, unlike Panarchitectural genera adapted to infrequent, but intense wildfires, pyro-endurers may simply ‘clone’ their data and the outputs thereof from one wildfire to another.

Physiologically, should a wildfire’s intensity exceed the historical regime precedent and compromise the integrity of subsurface networks, thus the data stored therein [i.e. copies of documents such as land-ownership, marriage, birth, and insurance certificates, and architectural plans and other design blueprints, together with personal paraphernalia such as photographs, love letters, etc] as do superspecies variants of ecological endurers, architectural pyro-endurers will exhibit a trait based on postfire seedling recruitment by means of an ‘insurance policy’. Data-storage and network technologies now fast evolving, as biocomputing advances, pyro-endurers will advance away from digital and towards biotechnologies. Hence, morphologically and physiologically, materially and informatically, pyro-enduring architectures will become increasingly ‘life-like’.

Endowed with environmental sensing, actuating, and analysis technologies, pyro- enduring architectures will perform both pyriscence and pyrogermination wherein upon detection of heat and/or chemical signals that evidence the passing of wildfire, ‘seeding’, thereon ‘germination’ of data will occur. As do fire-adapted floral species, such as several members of the genus Pinus, architectural pyro-endurers may use serotiny to distribute their data-encoded ‘seeds’, wherein resins are formulated to melt at specific temperatures, thus releasing mechanisms that propel said items into their surroundings. In concert with pyrogerminating processes, such for example as heat cracking of ‘seedcasings’ and/or responses which are triggered by the breakdown of organic compounds in the soil, pyro-enduring architectures could exhibit phoenix-like recovery from wildfire. Research and development thereof would involve transdisciplinary programmes populated by fire ecologists, biochemists, engineers, architects, and data scientists of whom the training spans both established and emerging practice.

Foremost suited to open canopy terrains, in which their structures stand sufficiently distant from both biomass and human constructions as to limit the probability of wildfire spreading above surface-level, pyro-enduring architectures will be free of features that enable fire to climb their exterior parts. The trait thereof may involve a form of architectural abscission, which a phenological behaviour would be cyclic [i.e. shedding occurring prior to the commencement of the annual fire season].

Functional Traits Translated from Ecological to Architectural Applications:

• Resprouting

• Pyriscence

• Pyrogermination

• Abscission

Pyro-Evasion

Evolved to persist in WUI adjoining mixed and high-severity fire regimes, such as Yellowstone’s Lodgepole pine forests, pyro-evading architectures will comprise functional traits selected to evade relatively infrequent, but high intensity fires.

Like their pyro-enduring Panarchistic cousins, pyro-evaders back-up their architectural and other valuable and/or treasured data. But, whereas the former take a two-pronged approach, succumbing to wildfire, the latter rely not partially on perennating parts, but solely on ‘seed banking’. Shielded either by serotinous structures or buried below ground, thus protected by the insulating properties of mineral soil and/or a synthetic equivalent, seeds of pyro-evaders remain dormant for decades, to then be activated by pyriscence and pyrogermination, via the same or similar processes to those discussed above.

Persisting in landscapes where, historically, fire regimes are so intense as to incinerate flora and architecture alike, pyro-evaders are ‘built to burn’. Designed such that upon wildfire’s passing their materiality is redistributed into its surroundings, pyro-evading structures will help propagate both ecological and architectural seeds. Thus, like the Pomo’s people’s ‘wickiup’, pyro-evaders are temporary structures. However, persisting in landscapes where fires are less frequent, though cyclical, their temporality is not seasonal.

Suited to regions where biomass and/or architectural density is high, like their ecological equivalent, pyro-evaders will nonetheless necessitate the creation of urban landscape mosaics. The feature thereof increasing the probability of heterogeneity in wildfire’s spread, it is posited that ‘mosaical WUI planning’ could provide of pockets of refuge for both residents and/or emergency workers that had not the time to evacuate. The concept thereof is born of the behaviours of faunal species in the presence of both forest and grass fires. Few materials able to withstand the fire intensities that are present in mixed and high-severity fire regimes, it is proposed that pockets of refuge are born not principally of architectural, but of landscape architectural interventions, which harness understanding of how vegetative state, structure, type, and distribution, together with topography, therein wind speeds and direction, together with humidity levels impact upon wildfire behaviour. Research and development thereof will principally involve transdisciplinary programmes populated by fire ecologists, biochemists, atmospheric and other planetary scientists, landscape architects, and data scientists.

Pockets of refuge would also provide of safe haven for data seed banks of which the contents inform post-fire recovery. However, whereas the inter-fire periods to which pyro-endurers are adapted are sufficiently brief as afford for architectural cloning, their inter-fire periods spanning not years, but decades, or even centuries, ever- responsive to changes in their environment, and particularly within the fire regime, pyro-evaders will ‘evolve’ upon their regeneration. Reconfigurations in pyro-evaders’ architectural DNA will be triggered by environmental cues. Whereas ecological evaders are often endowed with biochemical properties that propagate fire intensities, given the possible risks to human and other faunal life, as may be in near proximity during a wildfire, their architectural cousin will exclude this particular trait.

Functional Traits Translated from Ecological to Architectural Applications:

• Pyriscence

• Pyrogermination

Pyro-Resistance

Evolved to persist in WUI adjoining low and mixed-severity fire regimes, such as California’s Ponderosa pine forests, pyro-resisting architectures will comprise functional traits selected to resist frequent, but relatively low intensity fires.

Physiologically, die-hardy pyro-resistors will be endowed with exterior parts designed to withstand fast-spreading wildfires. The form and materiality of buildings and infrastructure of this Panarchistic genus will be bespoke to the site. Choice of composition and chemistry of materials, together with decisions of structure and form will be informed by the surrounding vegetation type, structure, and distribution, and landscape topography, therein wind and atmospheric conditions as may become manifest. Wherein the sum thereof, in concert with the historical fire regime make evident that wildfire will, most likely, spread at the surface, like their ecological counterparts, pyro-resisting architectures will focus their fire defences towards their base. For example, from their foundations upward several meters, pyro-resistors in regions prone to surface fires will feature fire-resistant walls, windows, and doors, and ‘self-pruning’ of all such parts as might enable fire to scale their exteriors [i.e. features made from flammable materials, such as wooden verandas, and trellises]. Whereas, in regions prone to canopy fires, upper building parts, such as roofs and balconies, will feature robust pyro-armoury, as did the Chinese vernacular architectures of Zhou City [i.e. fire-resistant roof tiles and topologies].

As with their ecological equivalents, such as the Coulter pine, pyro-resistors will feature exterior walls of which both the molecular composition and the surface texture dissipate heat, thus helping to protect interior parts [i.e. bark-like plating]. Several routes may facilitate the research and development thereof. For example, mineral- based materials could be recycled into plate-like furrowed amour that could be affixed to building exteriors. Alternatively, biotechnology and/or biodesign may present the potential to build bark-like bricks biologically. Integration of chemical sensors and actuators thereto could enable self-repairing processes similar to they as enable post- fire rhytidome renewal.

Like endurers and evaders, pyro-resistors will store data in serotinous, and other pyriscent ‘seeds’, of which ‘germination’ is activated by wildfire’s presence. Phenologically adapted to relatively short fire-cycles, whereupon the spatiotemporal dimensions thereof align to the historical fire regime, like pyro-endurers, resistors of the architectural variant will commonly replicate pre-fire conditions.

Functional Traits Translated from Ecological to Architectural Applications:

• Retardant Rhytidome

• Abscission

• Pyriscence

• Pyrogermination

Perpetual Pyropangenesis

Highly attuned to their environment, whereupon climatic and/or ecological regime shifts occur, all three members of the Panarchistic architectural trio will evolve in response. Thus, their DNA [codes] will edit functional traits as befit the conditions as emerge. One might perceive of pyro-endurers, pyro-evaders, and pyro-resistors as three architectural R’s, not ‘re-use, reduce, and recycle’, but resprout [replicate], redistribute [reproduce], and resist [remain].

Pyropangenesis as expressed in the tri-part Panarchistic Architecture paradigm aligns to the principles of the Adaptive Cycle (Gunderson et al, 1995, 2002), but the spatiotemporal dimensions thereof vary across the three quantitatively and qualitatively distinct modes of wildfire persistence. Four stages [functions] are expressed within the cycle: exploitation [r-phase], conservation [K-phase], release [Ω- phase], and reorganisation [α-phase], which in toto express the integration of creative destruction to the successional model as preceded it, thus the addition of the Ω and α phases [Fig. 77].

As applied to the panarchic wildfire persisting trio, the Adaptive Cycle is expressed at:

• The level of the architectural ‘specimen’ in pyro-evaders, which, like their ecological counterparts succumb to wildfire, but reproduce [seed] upon the passing of a mixed to high-severity fire, thus, transition from the K to Ω phase occurs with each fire cycle.

• The scale of the architectural ‘species’ in pyro-endurers, which, like their ecological counterparts, resprout upon the passing of a low to mixed-severity fire, but which absent of traits that enable them to endure high-severity fires, at the species-level, transition from the K to Ω phase whereupon the historical fire regime shifts from low-to-mixed, to mixed-to-high severity.

• The scale of the architectural ‘ecosystem’ in pyro-resistors, which, like their ecological counterparts, resist upon the passing of low to mixed-severity fire for several fire seasons, but of limited life-term, can only successfully reproduce whereupon fire intervals are long enough for their offspring to grow sufficiently robust defences to resist wildfire’s passing. Thus, the transition from the K to Ω phase occurs whereupon the historical fire regime shifts not merely shifts from low-to-mixed to mixed-to-high severity, but to fire return intervals too short for even die-hardy resistors to accommodate.

Put succinctly, pyro evaders, endurers, and resistors may be perceived as expressions of the Adaptive Cycle at multiple spatiotemporal scales.

6.4.9 Tritogenian Philosophy: A triangulation of cyclic elements

“Of Pallas Athena, guardian of the city” Anon, Homeric Hymns, <3BC.

Sensu Heidegger, this lichtung [philosophical forest clearing] at the interface of wild and urban systems, presents potent potentialities that strike to the heart of Banham’s pyric tribal parable (1984). However, whereas that latter perceived of a combustion vs. construction dichotomy, the findings of this study suggest there to be potential for reconciliation between parts which, for a period of several centuries, have been considered disparate. However, only in natura can the strengths and weaknesses of a panarchic paradigm be fully established, for in vitro experiments could model not the complexity of wildfire at the wildland urban interface.

Upon triangulating insights from the sciences, arts, and humanities, spanning past, present, and possible future, that wildfire and its behavioural variations need be factored into the thinking, practice and policy that sets the parameters of architectural and urban schema becomes evident. A foundational element in the emergence of the Cradle of Humankind, thereon of Civilisation, howsoever humanity’s future unfolds, pyrophilic arts will be central thereto. Though a step, not a destination in an evolutionary journey, in the three taxonomic architectural groups described above are behaviours, relationships, and systems that have enabled some of the longest-living plant genus to endure, evade, and resist wildfire at frequencies and intensities above and beyond they humanity has witnessed during our geologically-miniscule existence.

In this, a principally patriarchal age, this paradigm calls for our present Prytaneis [seat of government] to, metaphorically speaking, look to the light of the matriarchal Hestia’s hearth-fire and architecture flame, this being an act only possible whereupon policy, and other decision makers exhibit such integrity as, according to Homeric Hymn, had the mythological she. At a time of well-documented gender inequality both within, and beyond the sciences, and society more generally, that several prominent figures in the fire ecology community are championing gender equality, such for example as the editorial board of the open access journal ‘Fire’, renders that an ambitious, but nonetheless achievable aim.

6.5 Summary: Principles of Pyrorelativity: A tri-part paradigm in précis

“All things change to fire, and fire exhausted falls back into things.” Heraclitus, 2001.

As a new age of discovery dawns, ideas so ancient as to pre-date the written word are rising from their cosmological ashes. Supported by state-of-the-art scientific findings, and necessitated by climate, ecology, and fire regime shifts on a planetary-scale, these ideas seek to re-align human systems within Earth’s operating parameters. Stepping beyond disciplinary boundaries and the intellectual blinkers they tend create, these ideas, and the methodological approach their exploration necessitates, illuminate how indigenous architectures in fire-prone regions accommodate for the frequencies, intensities, and severities of historical fire regimes. Whereas, the dominant architectural narratives of the WUI of the western U.S., constitute an invasive species that while propagating wildfire, paradoxically perpetuate policies and practices that seek to extinguish it, thus by default to hinder not help sustain the integrity of local, regional, and global abiotic and biotic systems.

But, as awareness of the synergism within natural systems grows, and especially as relates to the role of wildfire in sustaining not merely species, nor assemblages thereof, but regional hydrological and geological integrity, and all as relies thereupon, the imperative to review architectural and urban design thinking, practice, policy, and the codes created therefrom becomes increasingly apparent. Within the worlds of industry and commerce change often comes from without not within, and it may be that the same becomes true of architecture. For example, as wildfire frequencies, intensities, and thus severities take an increasingly large economic toll, structures built to present WUI specifications may become uninsurable, while simultaneously land-availability, thus prices are rising. Ultimately, architects, planners, and policymakers drive not markets. People and their immediate and near-future needs do.

Having drawn on the insights from both the case studies and the wider body of research across which this study extends, this thesis proposes a tri-part architectural paradigm, which like the original ‘ur-ban’ revolution is principally a consequence of environmental change at the local, regional, and global scale. Born of the study of the functional traits of some of the foremost persistent plant genera on Earth, the environmental parameters of the paradigm extend beyond the present and to the possibility that the climate is transitioning towards MSTs as extreme as those of the Paleocene-Ecoene Thermal Maximum, therein to fire regimes sizeably more ‘ferocious’ than they within ‘living memory’.

Rejecting the notion that it will be possible to avoid real estate development in wildlands, with contributory factors including mass migration of peoples due to sea level rises and resource driven conflicts, it’s proposed that architects, planners and policymakers work not to best-case, but worst-case WUI scenarios, thus increasingly more, not less real estate and other development situated in fire-prone regions of the western United States, and beyond. Should this scenario come to pass, both present and historical precedent suggest it highly improbable that decision-makers at the national, regional, and local scale will agree on the strategies as need be developed and deployed. Thus, abiotic, biotic and human factors could converge to create highly heterogeneous WUI landscapes, some of which will, as today, be populated by architectures and other infrastructure that align not to the workings of wildfire, thus exasperate existing problems, such for example as water scarcity.

Sensu Bowman, humanity has both cause and capacity to enter a new “pyric phase” (2011) in which wildfire is bestowed the reverence it once was, wherein its gifts, as well as its price, are acknowledged, but, expressed not via acts of worship, but of WUI practice and policy. A pan-archaic approach, which though developed through rigorous scientific interrogation, echoes philosophical teachings in mythologies Grecian, Vedic, and more, the paradigm and its associated theoretical constructs, including PANdorian theory, and The Circle of Variability, speaks to an “old new world”, in which, sensu Newley an Bricusse’s musical standard, ‘Feelin’ Good’, the cyclicality of circumstances entangles past with present. For example, used to settlement we, most of us, have become during the Holocene. However, planetary- scale transitions may necessitate a return to a nomadism of sorts, thus temporary not permanent architectures and the material values affiliated therewith. Put succinctly, that we are “living in a material world” (Brown and Rans, 1984) may be subject to reassessment. Upon synthesising the transdisciplinary strands of this study, the principles for a new architectural and urban design paradigm aligned to the fire regimes of the western U.S. may be summarised as below, and as compared to the existing and historic paradigm in the table [Tab. 7] over page:

Metaphorical Context:

• ‘Eternal Flame’ - Pyric cycle as facilitator of biological evolution, therein survival of not species, but of genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom.

• ‘Phoenix’ - Life as a prerequisite for death. Death as a prerequisite for life, ad infinitum, thus landscapes in states of transition, not conservation.

• ‘Tree of Life’ - Systems of abiotic and biotic systems: nature as not a part of its sum, but the sum of its many living and non-living parts.

Design Thinking, Practice and Policy Brief:

• Architecture as a cyclic biochemical process of material & information exchange.

• Creative destruction as architectural and urban design brief.

• Architectural genera of 3 variants: pyro-endurers, pyro-evaders, & pyro-resistors.

• Variants replicate, reproduce, or resist upon the passing of wildfire.

• Pyro-endurers exhibit resprouting, pyriscence, pyrogermination, & abscission.

• Pyro-evaders exhibit pyriscence, & pyrogermination.

• Pyro-resistors exhibit retardance, abscission, pyriscence, & pyrogermination.

• Evolutionary architecture, forms new species & assemblages in space and time.

• Cradle to not product cradle, nor building cradle, but landscape cradle.

• Ashes to Architectural Ashes: upon destruction nourish not pollute landscapes.

• Architectural DNA [i.e. codes] distributed at multiple spatiotemporal scales.

• Environmental sensing, actuating, & analysis informing architectural transitions.