Knowing Vs Doing

In the lead-up to this week's lecture on Emissions, Energy and Measurement, Anne Trumble's article on 'Knowing vs. Doing: Propelling Design with Ecology' seems like an appropriate topic for discussion. In this article, Trumble refers to a book entitled Project Ecologies to argue her point that a very theoretical and complex interpretation of landscape architecture (and not just landscape architecture but all urban design practice) in the literature is creating a barrier for the practical realisation of ecological design. 

Ecology has evolved from being a natural science to a trans-disciplinary model across fields such as social sciences and art. It has further been reduced to a metaphor to describe anything remotely related to the environment and even as a descriptor for dense networks of connectivity. Because of its "descent into simplistic truisms that everything if interlinked and interacting", Trumble argues, "it loses its meaning as a specific idea." The confusion is further amplified by the broad spectrum of fields over which ecology spans from landscape ecology and human ecology to evolutionary ecology and unified theory of ecology. The below image from Project Ecologies taken from Trumble's article illustrates the complex and theoretical nature of literary ideas in landscape ecology. 

I find myself agreeing the Trumble as I find the highly theoretical nature of much of our information is not only restricted to academic literature but in our higher education learning. Across the five years of my Architectural degrees, a huge proportion of our learning was dedicated to design and it wasn't until years into the program that any consideration of the buildability of these designs was given. I undertook subjects designed purely to stimulate creativity and very few which equipped me with the knowledge to design practical solutions in the real-world. 

Similarly, the world has gained incredible insight into the sources and impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and even how to measure it and what levels are appropriate. But what are we doing about it? We are so concerned with telling people what not to do and explaining the ramifications of our actions that we're not improving the wealth of information available to convey what needs to be done. People now understand how their actions are having negative effects but what they don't know is what alternatives are available to them. 

Source: Trumble, A 2016, 'Knowing vs Doing: Propelling Design with Ecology', The Nature of Cities, 14 March 2016, accessed 23 March 2016, <http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2016/03/14/projective-ecologies-review/>.