A Darwinian City : decentering humans in architectural design in an evolving urban ecology
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Wen, Angela
issued: 2021-05-07T22:21:00Z
issued: 2021-05-04
description: Human activity and the creation of anthropocentric environments are undoubtedly the most significant catalysts for evolution on this planet today. Today, approximately 55% of the world's population, 4.2 billion inhabitants, live in cities, and this trend is predicted to increase to 70% by 2050. However, migrating to cities is not just exclusive to humans. This concrete jungle is home to a menagerie of creatures attracted to plentiful food and protection from hunting or other natural dangers. The study of urban evolution has rapidly become the frontier of biology and can help us understand how evolution in urban populations contributes to conserving sensitive ecosystems. The implications of this can help establish sustainable urban environments that will improve human health. Architects have a social responsibility to reflect this social shift in our designs to create harmony between nature and humans. This thesis looks at the built environment through the lens of nonhuman species as equal citizens. By anticipating the emergence of nonhuman citizens in the city, architecture can create a reconciliation of humans with nature. Located in the southeast corner of False Creek, Vancouver, an empty lot is earmarked for a multi-building development. This thesis is a critique of this master plan. Rather than the standard method of human-centred design, this project proposes a new ecocentric way to design this site. Its objective is to think of architecture on the farthest end of the human-nature spectrum: humans are participants with nature.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/78205
note: A DARWINIAN CITYdecentering humans in architectural design in an evolving urban ecology.A DARWINIAN CITYdecentering humans in architectural design in an evolving urban ecology.BY ANGELA WENHons. BSc, University of Western Ontario, 2016SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE inTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIESSchool of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Architecture ProgramCOMMITTEECHAIRARCH 548 SupervisorInternal MentorExternal MentorAdam RysanekMatthew Soules Mari FujitaBrendan Buchanan Dee e University of British ColumbiaMay 2021© Angela Weni.Human activity and the creation of anthropocentric environments are undoubtedly the most significant catalysts for evolution on this planet today. Today, approximately 55% of the world’s population, 4.2 billion inhabitants, live in cities, and this trend is predicted to increase to 70% by 2050. However, migrating to cities is not just exclusive to humans. This concrete jungle is home to a menagerie of creatures attracted to plentiful food and protection from hunting or other natural dangers. The study of urban evolution has rapidly be-come the frontier of biology and can help us understand how evolu-tion in urban populations contributes to conserving sensitive ecosys-tems. The implications of this can help establish sustainable urban environments that will improve human health. Architects have a social responsibility to reflect this social shift in our designs to create harmony between nature and humans. This thesis looks at the built environment through the lens of nonhuman species as equal citizens. By anticipating the emergence of nonhuman citizens in the city, ar-chitecture can create a reconciliation of humans with nature. Located in the southeast corner of False Creek, Vancouver, an empty lot is earmarked for a multi-building development. This thesis is a critique of this master plan. Rather than the standard method of human-cen-tred design, this project proposes …
has type: Graduating Project
spatial: Vancouver (B.C.)
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0397338
language: eng
peer review status: Unreviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
is part of: University of British Columbia. ARCH 549
subject: sustainability
subject: nonhuman
subject: ecocentric
subject: urban evolution
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78205