Four moods of ecosystem design
- Ecological restoration
- Ecological engineering
- Human habitat design
- Ecologies of mind
These are, of course, not mutally exclusive domains.
They overlap and intertwine – especially 3 & 4, but also 3 & 4 with 1 & 2, and so forth.
What all domains of ecosystem design have in common is a focus on actual living creatures, ecologies, and habitats – including ours, human ecologies.
One thing that has become clear over the last several decades as ecological restoration and ecological engineering have developed as professions is that while existing traditional disciplines may morph and change, they are not going away any time soon. After three decades, we now know omni-competent ecological restorationists, engineers, or landscape architects is not what we have or where we are headed.
Rather, collaborative, multidisciplinary design is the path forward to our best work and our best future. And that collaboration includes folks who live with, in, and around the places we are designing.
Ecologists, engineers (even ecological ones), and landscape architects have years of different training, have learned to speak different languages, and have different standards of success.
Learning to work better together is one part of a path to better restorations, designs, and neighborhoods.
