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.