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].