Urban Ecological Architecture: An Integrated Approach to Environmental Health in the City

Abstract

Urban Ecological Architecture is an integrated approach to sustainable architecture that accounts for the unification of ecological systems and human-made systems in an urban environment such as a large city. "Green" or "Sustainable" Buildings today are able to internalize natural forces into building systems, however the act of internalization prevents the architecture from connecting to nature. In cities today, the need to reconnect to nature through ecological architecture stems from the need to preserve the natural environment and mitigate the detrimental effects of human dominance over nature. This thesis argues that an integrated approach such as Urban Ecological Architecture is able to unify the dichotomies of human and natural systems in a symbiotic way that results in mutually beneficial ecosystem services. This thesis applied the Ecological Design framework written by Sim van der Ryn to demonstrate an integration of architecture and landscape on Seattle's Waterfront when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is dismantled, leaving the waterfront free of the barricade. The proposed project is a Center for Environmental Health which unifies both a Tribal Cultural Center and an Ecological Science Lab to re-imagine the civic waterfront and the values that connect humans to issues of the environment.