What is Biophilia?

“Biophilia” as an idea describes how people have innate love for, attachment to, and even need for nature. It also expresses the notion that, as a design imperative, cities are more livable when they have more nature, and that people are happier and healthier when they have more contact with nature, from wild parks away from buzzing traffic all the way to street trees and flowers in tree pits.

Biophilia is essentially an anthropocentric proposition, whereas we should be seeking nature-centric physical and systemic solutions. Nature-centric solutions seek to find ways to make our cities, our built environments, and our production systems (i.e. those systems producing energy, artefacts, and food) to be seamlessly and benignly biointegrated with the ecosystems and with the biogeochemical cycles in the biosphere. Instead of focusing on the biophilia of cities, we should be focusing on making cities into constructed ecosystems that are proxies and extensions of naturally-occurring ecosystems.

Biophilia is “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. Innate means hereditary, and hence, part of ultimate human nature” (Kellert & Wilson, 1993). My interpretation of this phrase is that we are nature. We are not above nature, we are not just part of nature, but we are part of the whole.

The concept of “the whole” (inclusive of everything) as written about by Christopher Alexander (1977), can be supported by the Gaia principle, in which we, as Homo sapiens, are one species amongst many others that interact with our organic and inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic, self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It is this deeper connection to the organized complex order of abiotic and biotic systems that results in us being nature, being part of the whole.

Vision

To educate citizens on issues concerning water quality, bio-diversity, conservation and encourage people to understand their role in the stewardship of our environment.

Actions: Promote

Sharing information

Best Management Practices

Community Stewardship

Identify needs for eco system servicing

If you would like to join us or learn more about the group please contact :

Jim Brueck: mdbrueck@gmail.com (248) 736-3014

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