I ran across this comment related to an earlier essay and thought it deserved a response.
“We do continue to struggle to understand each other. Patrick's discomfort with Walter's misuse of symbiosis is exactly why this discussion is happening. If we don't know the meaning, can't be sure that we have a shared understanding, of "excellence in architecture", well, where are we?”
I’ll try to explain my use of the word “symbiotic” by beginning with the definition. I should mention at the outset, however, that I haven’t been trying to provide an improved method of evaluating the final aesthetic appearance of architectural design. I’ve been trying to present a method of measurement, comparison, prediction and evaluation of the shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion and dominance created. Defensible arguments based on quantitative evaluation will produce public understanding of its motives, benefit, value and contribution.
sym·bi·o·sis
n. pl. sym·bi·o·ses
1. Biology A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
2. A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
When I use the terms “symbiotic” or “Symbiotic Period” they refer to the goal of mutual benefit between The Natural Domain and an artificial domain we call the built environment. Energy efficient buildings, for instance, are not symbiotic when they continue to consume resources without replacement or benefit to The Natural Domain. The goal is an ideal, but The Natural Domain insists on balance and architecture has a role to play.
Architecture is shelter that accumulates to form one of four divisions in a built environment I’ll refer to as The Built Domain. It is growing without restraint because we consider the land a speculative commodity. It has been considered a resource and has been overlooked as a source of life. We call its parasitic growth “sprawl”. Sprawl can be contained within geographic limits, but we are not prepared to undertake the effort with the physical, social and economic design tools available. I think many will agree, however, that the built environment must expand within a limited Built Domain that does not threaten the life of its natural host. In other words a mutually beneficial, or symbiotic, relationship must be established or it will be imposed by the Natural Domain.
Shelter
is a prerequisite for survival but is capable of suffocating the planet with
sprawl. Increasing shelter intensity within geographic limits is an antidote
for sprawl, but it is capable of suffocating our quality of life with building
mass, pavement, and social activity. If population growth continues, our
ability to protect our quality and source of life will depend on our ability to
design shelter intensity options that protect our quality of life within geographic
limits.
Mutual
benefit is the goal of symbiotic design. Architecture can play an important part
when it sees that City Design includes a strategic massing plan for shelter,
space and survival within sustainable limits. Traditional architecture is employed
to achieve a tactical shelter objective in the strategic plan.
In
the past, survival has depended on the random construction of shelter wherever
the need occurred. Architecture responded with form, function and engineering improvements
that were symbolized with artistic style. In the future, architecture can
respond with buildings that continue to sprawl and consume the land, or it can adjust
the concept of shelter for survival to reflect a mutually beneficial
relationship with the planet.
INTENSITY
Design
with intensity means learning to design with space. The relationship of building
height, mass and pavement to unpaved project open space indicates the level of
shelter intensity present. Intensity itself is a broad spectrum of design options
that can be measured, predicted, evaluated, and defined with design specification values.
The Built Domain includes four divisions: Shelter, Movement, Open
Space, and Life Support. Intensity is a function of the relationship between
Open Space and the combined impact of Shelter, Movement, and Life Support.
There are four categories of open space that reduce intensity. The
first is a Natural Domain that must be protected from the Built Domain to
preserve our source of life. The second is agriculture, which is one of two phyla
within the Built Domain (rural and urban). The third is public open space
within the rural and urban phyla of the Built Domain. The fourth is private project
open space within the urban phyla of the Built Domain.
The allocation of shelter, space and intensity within the Built
Domain will require the city design of urban and rural phyla to balance the
conflicting demands involved. This raises two fundamental questions: (1) Do we
have the authority to lead the design of the Built Domain, and (2) Can we
design symbiotic shelter solutions for growing populations within a limited
Built Domain that protects our quality and source of life?
The relationship
of architecture to city design is similar to the relationship between medicine
and public health. One is a profession focused on the individual. The other is
an institution focused on the population. We have learned through centuries of
plague and conflict that an individual is threatened when he or she cannot be
protected by the scope of his or her institutions. We are now learning that both
individuals and populations can be threatened when the health of a planet
cannot be protected by the scope of our combined institutions.
What
Is The Point?
Leadership
must have a goal and there is one above all others: to survive in an uncertain
world. Professions and institutions have evolved to contribute, but
architectural contributions have focused on individual projects. Unfortunately,
inadequate land use plans, zoning law and legal precedent have led to both
excessive project intensity and sprawl. Sprawl consumes our source of life one
project at a time and excessive intensity imposes stress within and beyond the
immediate area. The point is that a growing population is at risk when it
cannot be protected from excessive intensity, and our planet is at risk when it
cannot be protected from the shelter sprawl produced by population growth.
What
Is The Goal?
The goal is to shelter the activities of growing populations
within a geographically limited Built Domain that protects their quality and
source of life – The Natural Domain. Progress will begin with the measurement and evaluation of
existing shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, dominance and appearance using
the tools and science of city design.[1] At
this point architecture will expand its knowledge and ability to assess the
implications of future forecasted options. At this point, it will be able to address
the issue of survival once again.
We
haven’t been master builders since the Renaissance. We gather intelligence,
correlate information, and create strategic plans that are executed by tactical
field commanders. We are not in control of the strategic decisions represented
by these plans, however. They are directed by investors, construction managers
and government officials because our emphasis has been on fine art. This has
compromised our leadership potential because design is not fine art. Art does
not need to explain its decisions while architecture is expected to defend its
proposals with logic. The priorities of art and architecture diverge at this
point of responsibility. Design seeks to define a problem and solution based on
a question. Emphasis on the appearance of the solution over-simplifies the
process, and has led to the designation of architecture as fine art. Appearance
may be considered a symbol of the search for an architectural solution; and the
solution may be considered fine art, but the word that represents architectural
leadership is “correlation”.
We
cannot moderate sprawl and intensity or protect our source of life when design
is governed by the decisions of others with conflicting motivation. I have
suggested a goal for architecture that emphasizes public benefit and natural
preservation. This does not exclude any of its previous objectives. It simply prioritizes
them.
Opinion
fills a knowledge vacuum. Government and law moderate debate and bail the boat
until other institutions repair the damage with knowledge-based credibility.
This is where medical research, medical practice and public health have been.
It is where architecture must go, and why it must learn to speak in a language
of city design that can correlate the work of many previously isolated
disciplines.
Design
matters because it is the only way to reconcile the artificial Built Domain
with the land and life support of the Natural Domain. The lack of a symbiotic
solution will permit a parasite to dominate with sprawl based on a Ponzi
concept of growth that is not sustainable and always leads to extinction. You
may recoil from the analogy, but give it some thought. We have been given the
power to dominate and the responsibility to coexist. It is a struggle among
instincts that will succeed when intelligence is linked to emotion with
knowledge and wisdom.
The
next level of adaptation will require symbiotic awareness. If you agree, it is
an opportunity for architecture to contribute. Shelter is an essential part of
the solution and sprawl is a threat to survival. We must structure
architectural education to address the challenge. This includes the ability to
measure, evaluate and predict shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion and
dominance. It is the key to informed land use decisions within limited
geographic areas.
At
the present time symbiotic survival is a goal without a definition of excessive
sprawl and intensity. Eventually, sprawl may be defined as development that exceeds
the geographic limits of a defined Built Domain. The Built Domain will be
established to protect our source of life. Shelter intensity will be defined as
a range of gross building area, pavement and open space options for a given
activity and project land area. The ends of the intensity spectrum will
represent extremes, but the spectrum itself has eluded precise mathematical
definition until publication of The Science of City Design. This
definition is needed to make consistent progress toward a goal that can prevent
sprawl without sacrificing our quality of life. The imprecise and incomplete
zoning definitions presently in use have not produced consistent success. They
have led to random results and legal precedent based on crude, misguided and uncorrelated
stipulations.
Shelter
capacity, activity, intensity and sprawl consume resources, pollute the
environment, and threaten survival; but this is a claim that is only based on
growing intuitive awareness at this point in time. We are again attempting to
stand up in the grasslands trying to identify threat and risk. When
architecture can help us stand, the demand for advice will multiply; the
connection to public benefit will be apparent; and the appearance of solutions
will begin to symbolize a new period of symbiotic awareness.
INSTITUTIONS
Medicine
and law occupy positions of authority because their research institutions serve
the public interest while their practices serve the private sector.
Architecture has no comparable relationship to the public interest. It is
isolated from city planning and both suffer from the separation.
The
public suffers from plans for movement, open space, and life support that are poorly
correlated with the shelter capacity, intensity, and condition they are meant
to serve. The result is inadequate attention to our quality and source of life.
This promotes sprawl when the community is not surrounded by others; and
decline within fixed boundaries. In other words, the combination of shelter
capacity, intensity, activity, and condition is served by movement,
open space and life support systems. The combination affects our quality of
life, but improvement will require new cooperating relationships and new computer
applications capable of calculating the correlation required with the new mathematical language of city design.
The
land development process is based on a concept of growth that is out of
control, in my opinion; because the freedom to own and convert the Natural
Domain ignores the difference between a resource and a source of life.
Finally,
the measurement, forecasting, and evaluation of shelter capacity, intensity,
intrusion and domination does not require artistic talent. The effort, however,
can link all related city design disciplines such as, but not limited to:
architecture, city planning, geography, engineering, landscape architecture,
real estate investment, appraisal, environmental science, sociology,
psychology, and urban economics. In other words, a consistent measurement
system can be used to link the conclusions of all shelter-related disciplines.
PUBLIC
BENEFIT
City
design is a recognition that architecture is shelter; that shelter is an
essential component of survival; that survival will depend on symbiotic shelter
and space within sustainable geographic limits; that growing populations will
increase the need to understand shelter intensity options; that excessive
shelter intensity within geographic limits can prolong survival without
protecting our quality of life; that sprawl beyond geographic limits is a
threat to our source of life; that limiting sprawl and intensity is essential
to the protection of public health, safety, and welfare; that “welfare”
includes our physical, social, psychological, environmental and economic
quality of life; that land use allocation, architecture, and city design are
inseparable elements of shelter and survival within sustainable geographic
limits; and that shelter capacity and intensity measurement, forecasting and
evaluation can build knowledge capable of supporting a city design effort with
persuasive quantitative arguments capable of repeating success and avoiding
failure.
We
have been wandering since the Renaissance spinning off technical specialties
and pursuing fine art, but art does not need to explain its decisions while
architecture is expected to defend its proposals with knowledge and logic.
Their priorities diverge at this point of responsibility. The confusion over
priorities may have begun with the patronage of fine art and architecture.
Patronage implies that a special interest has priority. This may be true in
fine art, but I’ve argued that a greater public interest is affected by
architectural design decisions. It will be chained to the priorities of
patronage, however, until political systems and architectural institutions
realize that growing populations will be increasingly concerned with shelter
and survival on a planet that does not compromise with ignorance.
Architecture correlates information and knowledge with logic. It
visualizes results with intuition and experience. We call it creativity and
talent, but it has a mathematical foundation. The shelter capacity of land and
the intensity present or implied have had to be visualized. There has been no
measurement and forecasting system that would permit us to explore the
implications of shelter decisions within sustainable geographic limits on a
quantitative basis. This has changed with The Science of City Design and
my two earlier books.[2]
I hope they will bring recognition that land use allocation, shelter capacity, architectural
intensity, city planning, and city design are inseparable elements of symbiotic
shelter, space, and survival within sustainable geographic limits.
CONCLUSION
The leadership correlation needed to produce symbiotic shelter requires
a new vocabulary for the measurement, prediction and evaluation of shelter
capacity, intensity, intrusion, and dominance. The language required will not
replace architectural practice. It will expand its value by expanding its
ability to correlate decisions and consistently lead private projects toward
the public objectives of city planning and design. Correlation has been the
hallmark of architecture for millennia. We can put this leadership ability to
better use when we expand its focus to include the broad array of disciplines
concerned with the public need for a symbiotic future.
AUTHOR NOTE:
Architects have always responded to the need for shelter, but the need has a new dimension as population growth tests our ability to survive within symbiotic limits. This is a challenge worthy of a new period in architecture, but you must be willing to create the tools, research, knowledge, education and applications required. This will be excellence in architecture. Excellence in fine art will symbolize the next level of awareness achieved, and this excellence will continue to be a source of debate in the language of fine art.
A symbiotic parasite has a
relationship of mutual benefit that ensures continued survival. Our
relationship to the planet must become symbiotic or perish from ignorance.
We need to shelter growing
populations within a limited Built Domain that does not threaten its source of
life – The Natural Domain. I have written the three books noted in the
footnotes in response to this belief. The books introduce ability to measure,
predict, and lead shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion and dominance on
every lot and parcel within The Built Domain based on the design specification
values entered in one of their forecast model options. This work will be in vain,
however, if intensity is permitted to compromise our quality of life, or if The
Built Domain expands to compromise its source of life – The Natural Domain.
We now have the power to destroy
without the wisdom to protect the planet. A world without end now demands life
within limits, and adaptation is expected in response to the level of awareness
granted. Responsibility, however, is a decision to prevent excess. It involves
choice after a consideration of options. Risk is inversely proportional to an
awareness of implications, and negligence ignores the topic.
[1]
Hosack, Walter M., The Science of City Design, Amazon.com and
CreateSpace, 317 pages, 2016.
[2] Hosack,
Walter M., Land Development Calculations, editions 1 and 2 and their
attached forecasting software entitled, Development
Capacity Evaluation, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2001 and 2010. Also
available from Amazon.com
