ESRG
Revision as of 03:43, 24 August 2007 by 24.22.100.126 (talk) (→External Links)
Title
Environmental Structures Research Group
Description
How are structures formed in the natural environment? How are they formed in the human environment, and in what way are the processes different? Are there things we can learn from natural environmental processes that we can apply to making more sustainable human settlements, and more useful human tools?
The Environmental Structure Research Group is extracting insights from biology, ecology, medicine, mathematics, computer science and other fields, and applying them to design, architecture and urban planning. Some of those lessons cross in the other direction too - like Christopher Alexander's ideas on design patterns, which have entered the field of computer software. We are taking some of those lessons full circle, and bringing them back to the making of cities and neighborhoods.
We represent a number of institutions from around the world, and a number of researchers and practitioners from different disciplines. We share a belief that many of the most interesting questions today are not within disciplines, but between them.
Among our members are Christopher Alexander (developer of pattern languages), Ward Cunningham (co-developer from pattern langages of design patterns, and originator of wiki), Andres Duany (co-originator of New Urbanism, and developer of new urban coding approaches), Bill Hillier (developer of Space Syntax, University College London), Mike Batty (director for the Center for Advanced Spatial Research at UCL in London), Brian Goodwin (co-developer of autocatalytic set theory in complexity science) , Brian Hanson (former Private Secretary for Architecture to the Prince of Wales), Roger Ulrich (cognitive psychologist and pioneer of evidence-based design), Dick Jackson (epidemiologist and expert on environmental health, UC Berkeley), Stephen Kellert (cultural ecologist and biophilia pioneer, Yale University), Besim Hakim (scholar on historic urban codes), Nikos Salkingaros (nuclear physicist and, more recently, mathematician of urban morphology), Wayne Parsons (author and professor of public policy at University of London), Jim Wise (cognitive psychologist in biophilia and ecological design), Stuart Cowan (physicist, author and ecological design theorist), Hiro Nakano (architect and director of the Center for Environmental Structure - Tokyo), and many others.
In a nutshell, we are interested in the way that structures can be generated, and the beneficial properties that they can have as a result of their generative structure. We are fascinated by the way that simple rule-based steps can produce astonising complexity and adaptivity. We want to learn how certain kinds of adaptive codes can -- and in many cases did already - produce very high-quality settlements.
We are working to develop useful new tools through application of these lessons to real challenges, like the rebuilding of New Orleans, the revival of threatened villages in Romania, the management of rapidly urbanizing cities of Mexico, and others. There's a lot that needs to be done.
Mission Statement
The Environmental Structure Research Group is an interdisciplinary, international partnership of basic and applied researchers and practitioners in the fields of the built and natural environments, and the fields with which they interact.
The purpose of the organization is to create additional opportunities for the collaborative development and dissemination of research into best practice.
The focus of the work is the understanding and further development of structure-generating methodologies (e.g. design codes, research tools and collaborative processes) which result in more adaptive, more optimal, and more ecologically stable environmental structure, in both human and natural realms.
The working hypothesis is that important work remains to be done to understand the relation between the structure of the environment – including the built human structures within it – and human and ecological health and well-being; and that more work is needed to develop new standards of best practice, and new methodologies to achieve them. To meet the challenge this work must be inter-disciplinary, and must combine theory and practice.
Fields of Collaboration
Built Environment: Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Construction
Natural Environment: Biology, Ecology, Climatology
Other: Medicine (Epidemiology, Environmental Health), Environmental Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Business Management, Finance, Government Policy