Thinking Like an Ecosystem

This work contains an architectural exploration based on an analysis of the Ecological Footprint concept, and is designed to remedy the current state of ecological overshoot where humanity's ecological footprint exceeds earth's bio-capacity by 20 percent. This exploration asks the question, "How can we introduce into our buildings the natural capital systems that support human life?" and begins at the detail level with the construction of a prototype technology for vertical farming called 'The Salad Machine'. The study then progresses through a series of lar­ger scales looking at how accommodating this technology into our buildings could improve the energy efficiency, the agricultural productivity, and the ecological function of our cities one building at a time. This work will be of special interest to the Architecture and Engineering pro­fessions, or to the general reader interested in improving the sustainablitly of our cites.