MAIN FEATURE


capacity to produce its own energy, food and water. Buildings reduce demand on urban systems by generating more of what they need on-site. The Index’s goal is not just a better building, an outcome that most Green labels are content with. It is a bottom-up transformation of urban and natural wholes, one small intervention at a time.


EMBRACE NATURE The Generosity Index implicitly acknowledges that we exist in living, evolving systems. A building or a city


is alive, much like, say, a tree or a forest. There are in fact many parallels between human-made and natural systems. Both react and adapt to stimuli, internal and external. They rely on the same biotic and abiotic flows and processes, such as cycles of water, nutrients and energy. Each is subject to birth, growth and decay. The trouble with human-made systems, as they are presently designed and operated, is that they have become less nature-like.


There is much interest now in how to re-engage nature, i.e., bring ecosystems thinking to the drawing


board. Biophilic design is the easiest option. When elements or attributes of nature are introduced into homes and workplaces, they make us feel healthier, more satisfied12


. This approach, it should be said, is


fundamentally anthropocentric: nature in service of humans. It is sees nature as an artefact. For instance, House for Trees (VTN Architects, Ho Chi Minh City, 2014) is a private residence where each room is designed as a concrete cube within a courtyard, capped with a tree on its roof13 of residents, and possibly, neighbours who have a view to the roofscape.


. The goal is to promote the well-being


Other projects appear to have taken the next step. The ones that are biocentric seek to improve the well- being of all life, not just humans. Biomimetic developments imitate processes found in nature14


. Pioneer and


Crescent Halls, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (Toyo Ito and RSP Architects Planners & Engineers, Singapore, 2014) is both. A cluster of mid-rise residential towers sits atop a dense landscape of waterways and wetlands, a space that is home to a diversity of species. The blue-green systems in unison also perform ecosystem services, such as regulating ambient temperature and cleansing stormwater15


. FUTURARC 35


5 Villa with vegetable patches at Organo Naandi 6 Communal hall at Organo Naandi


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