Biophilia, Topophilia and Home

Abstract

The root word of both ecology and economics is a Greek word, oikos, meaning house. Ecology is thus the study of our home while economics is the study of the management (nomos) of the home. Ecology is defined as a study of the relationship between living things and the natural environment (including other living things and each other). Strangely enough, ecology does not include the built environment as part of its central concern. Urban ecology in most texts refers to the wild animals and plants that survive in the built environment rather than the built environment itself. Indeed, often in spite of our efforts rather than because of them. Even human ecology, as a field of study, is concerned with our relationship with the natural environment rather than with how the built environment itself functions as a system. On the other hand, economics is not at all interested in the natural world. And, in our current state of environmental crisis, ecological concerns seem to be in conflict with economic ambitions. Is not the house of ecology also the house of economics? The built environment we live in today may not make these dependencies explicit and the role of nature in our everyday lives may seem far removed but these provisions still exist and we still recognise nature for its value in these ways. The difference is that whilst our forefathers may have felt the presence of nature more starkly, our bonds with nature are perhaps more distant and aesthetic. The key point to note here though is that the biophilic bond is a reflection of our ecological relationship with the natural world. It is a relationship that goes back into our distant past and lies unconscious in our reading of the landscape.