Urban Ecology and Conservation Symposium

Today I was lucky enough to be an attendee of the 9th annual Urban Ecology and Conservation Symposium.  It consisted of grouped 10 minute long presentations followed with a short question answer session.   The morning lectures were mainly focused on preservation of habitat and land values.  Although the subject matter was of interest and fascinating, like setting up systems for characterizing and rating existing habitat, I saw little opportunities of applying this new knowledge to my thesis.  I guess intuitively by choosing an urban site to develop you are saving/preserving the existing habitat.  My thesis would agree that it is very important that we first develop urbanized areas before preceding into habitat areas.

One of the lecture that will forever remember was entitled, "Solutions from the underground: How mushrooms can help save the world."  Paul Stamets, a Pacific NW native spoke about the important "sacrificial" role that fungi play in the ecosystem.  Often times we think of ourselves as being the superior organism, yet I have come to find that fungi are way more resilient than we will ever be.

I found it fascinating that in some cases fungi are found having a symbiotic relationship with tree root systems, increasing their network for absorption and fighting off diseases.  They have even made it possible for some trees to grow with very little exposure to sunlight.  Other studies have shown that Fungi are not only intelligent, but are capable of learning and are able to retain this learned information.

Wouldn't it be great if new urban architecture could insert itself into the fabric like a fungi on the forest floor?  It could increase connection, fight off threats, filter out impurities, and when its task was over simply be reabsorbed into the ground it once sprouted from.  Im not sure what this architecture would look like, or what systems passive or active would be required to achieve this but I find in intriguing thinking of ways architecture could become sacrificial and selfless.

Paul Stamets: Click to view Ted Talk