Culture, Architecture and Nature

All illustrations copyright Sim Van der Ryn, photographic reproductions by Dusan Mills--Alien Lifeform Research.

Sim Van der Ryn is an architect, writer, teacher, and artist. He's best known as the grandfather of sustainable and green design, or ecological design, applying principles of physical and social ecology to architecture. He began implementing sustainable practices in the '60s, with buildings and communities that imitated how ecosystems work. As founder and president of the Ecological Design Collaborative, a Northern California firm, Sim designs architectural forms that minimize environmental impact by integrating with living processes--reducing resource depletion, conserving biodiversity, preserving nutrient and water cycles, and maintaining habitat quality.

Regenerative design solutions create environments that are resilient and attuned to site, place, climate, and ecology. Sim and his design team comprised of architects, ecological land planners, landscape architects, and renewable energy specialists collaborate with clients, builders, design professionals, and consultants to design and implement ecologically sensible design solutions for projects varying from homes and communities to ecological land planning, schools and agricultural facilities. He prefers a Living Building Challenge standard for building, resulting in human- and nature-centered design.

"Culture, Architecture and Nature: An Ecological Design Retrospective," (Routledge) copyright 2014.

Sim's new book, "Culture, Architecture and Nature: An Ecological Design Retrospective," (Routledge) gathers his talk transcripts, keynote speeches, journal articles, and essays from the 1960s to the 2000s. Employing a reverse chronology--the book starts in the 2000s and extends into the past, decade by decade--many of the major green building and environmental design issues of the day are explored, with even the earliest topics having relevance today. There's a list of books for further reading for each chapter, the books that were most influential to Sim's architectural practice during those particular decades. The professor emeritus of architecture at UC Berkeley and former state architect of California has written numerous books over the years on architecture and design. As he states in the introduction, "Here, I connect the dots of my work as a designer, teacher, writer, and artist, sharing with you the evolution of my ideas, thought experiments, worldview, philosophy, and values."

It's illustrated with his own watercolors painted during the same time span--landscapes, outdoor scenes, buildings, interiors, and communities. He began painting as a student at the High School of Music & Art in NYC in 1948. Backpacking every summer in California, he would bring three brushes, a few tubes of colors and watercolor pads. The illustrations in the book represent his discovery of design. 

"Whenever I start a new building-design project, I begin with a day of sitting on site and painting, letting the site speak to me through my eyes, brush and fluid watercolors," writes Sim. "For 50 years, I have painted watercolor landscapes, all over the world. It is a way to become aware of the subtleties of place--how light changes colors; the forms and patterns; the sounds and spaces. Watercolor painting helps me to actually feel and see fully, not just with the eyes and brain, but with my whole being. It's the difference between merely looking, which is passive involvement in place, and seeing, which is active involvement."

Sustainable design has experienced significant development since its origins in the back-to-the-land movement of the '60s. Today's green focus incorporates many common sense things people have done for a long time--the orientation of the house, use of passive solar, working a dwelling into the user's lifestyle, building on a smaller scale--combined with smart design and emerging building technology. Sim gets much of the credit for doing the groundwork, establishing the tenets of green design decades before the term was invented and before it became a movement. His book leaves the reader with a deeper understanding of the possibilities for sustainable living.