The foundation of Ecological Design rests in a hope for humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, diverse, and sustainable manner. The mission of Ecological Design is twofold: to see living systems as models and metaphors for sustainable design; and to use this knowledge to integrate human systems with existing ecological systems.

Ecological Design is born simply from the application of ecological understanding to the practice of design. A contemporary understanding of scientific ecology is rooted in the concept of interrelatedness. Because organisms evolved in relationship to one another, ecological systems are interconnected and interdependent at all scales. Seeing natural cycles in their entirety can provide profound evidence of this.

Imagine it beginning to rain. A single water drop falls on ridge top; it may evaporate and return to the sky; it may be absorbed by a tree and become part of that tree; it may be flushed down your toilet; it may join others in a fractal of streaming patterns, each connected to a greater flow, eventually rejoining with the ocean.

Imagine yourself inhaling a deep breath; part of the breath was undoubtedly breathed by many other creatures; part of that breath was created by plant life; part of that breath contained nuclear fallout; part of that breath was absorbed into your blood; part of that breath will be breathed by your children.

Imagine yourself a farmer. You reach down and take a handful of dark, rich soil. In that one handful of soil exists an entire ecosystem of life; that soil contains nutrients from weathered rock millions of years old; that soil may have carcinogenic toxins from artificial fertilizers and pesticides; the soil we hold contains our livelihood for the future’s food production.

Phenomena occurring at very different spatial scales are linked together by natural cycles. From a dewdrop to the earth’s oceans; from a baby’s breath to the earth’s atmosphere; from a grain of sand to the Himalayan Mountains, living systems are in continuous dialogue through the cycling of materials, energy, and information.

Living systems are interconnected in this way because they evolved in response to the relationship they have with one-another: they co-evolved. In this context, all living beings are connected and dependent on the relationship of the others around them. Biologists are discovering that more than 95% of plants in nature live in mycroryzal relationship with fungus in their roots, meaning the plant and fungus live in cooperation. When we take a seed and plant it in a sterile medium, we neglect its relationships to a greater ecological system, thus are only witnessing only a fraction of the life that seed has to offer. When we raise children in sterile urban environments, neglecting the important relationship humans have with ecology, we produce people who do not understand ecological systems and will design with that perspective.