gift my paintings to. I’ m not sure if we were to look at the work we as designers develop, if we could honestly say it has all the right parts in the right balance and satisfies the users. Too often I think we tend to pursue aesthetic or functional purposes without finding ways to balance the two. Or to place in the context of rules 1 and 2 to ensure our built environment is of the place and provides a holistic ROI.
We need to be pretty thoughtful about what we add or remove from the objects or systems( especially systems) Nature has built. To be honest, my example of the mouse trap belies the terrible complexities of natural systems. Objects and systems built by Nature have form and functional relationships at the macro to molecular levels. It’ s not hyperbolic speech to suggest there is no way for us to know or understand all of the relationships built into a naturally built object or system. I’ m not advocating analysis paralysis.
The point is simply look closely at what Nature has already built, it’ s a model for what we should build. We don’ t need superfluous, nonfunctional objects or systems in our built environment. And we should be really careful about pulling at the thread and unknitting Nature. We don’ t understand what we don’ t know, and there is a lot we just don’ t know. Does that mean we shouldn’ t interact with Nature? Not at all. But it also means the next time someone says, we don’ t have to worry about“ X,” it will never harm Nature, our collective radars should sound.
Isle Royale National Park in Michigan doesn’ t require anything to make it more beautiful. However, some designers might propose adding a“ little color”( day lilies, ornamental grass) to improve the view. While these improvements might enhance the human perception of the scene’ s aesthetic value, they would do little to improve the scene’ s habitat value.
SUMMARY
Although humans have been altering their environs with ever-increasing rapidity for centuries, we have rarely created objects or places that have the long‐lasting power of those created by Nature.( Heck, we can’ t even socially organize ourselves effectively for more than a few centuries before new civilization paradigms and regimes circumvent previous organizational structures.) While we can certainly point to a few remnant objects or places, more has been lost than preserved. Why is that? We certainly have the smarts for creating amazing structures, objects, and places.
For my own convenience, I grossly anthropomorphize Nature throughout this essay as if it were sentient and sovereign. The fact is, Nature is neither. Nature is mindless.
10 | LEARNING FROM NATURE