Life’s PrinciplesKristina Knežević

Life’s Principles

Represents the overarching patterns found among species surviving and thriving here on Earth.

Nature’s strategy for sustainability

Using these principles to guide our decisions and actions, humans can reconnect with Nature and begin to see ourselves as part of the Earth’s system, not independent from it, and increase our chances of survival.

The challengeI. Choose one of the Life’s Principles.

II. Choose one of the sub-principles.

III. Explain principle and give at least 3 examples from nature and 1 from human system.

self-organize

Integrate Development With Growth

DEFINITION:

Invest optimally in strategies that promote both development and growth.

Growth is necessary for organisms to survive, but sustaining life over the long haul requires a balance between growth and development. Development is the investment in the infrastructure as a platform for growth to occur.

SELF-ORGANIZE

Create conditions to allow components to interact in concert to move towards an

enriched system

Examples from nature:Flocks of birds dance across the sky, as if following choreography. Without a director, these birds self-organize with simple rules that effectively result in an emergent, aligned community.

The building process in termite mounds appears to be guided by a checmical signal that helps the termites self-organize. Workers emit a 'trail pheromone' that induces others to follow in their footsteps, recruiting them to the construction site close to the queen. The pheromone discourages the termites from depositing their pellets on the trail itself, so they start to make deposits alongside it that start pillars that are eventually transformed into walls and then galleries.

The natural prairie grasslands that laid down 30 feet of top soil over 11,000 years because of the mixed-species poly-culture.

Examples from human system: An existing office tower in downtown Toronto is being converted into condominiums using a unique planning system. The apartments are designed to be responseive to people's changing needs. Floors on one side of each unit are 10 inches higher than the concrete slab, allowing easy access to utilities such as water pipes, drains, telecommunications equipment, and heating ducts. This means that an owner can reconfigure a suite without penetrating the concrete slab or entiring the unit below. All the loads are carried on small simple concrete columns at the exterior and only a minimal number within the space; there are no concrete shear walls that need to be moved.

The advantage of this flexible system is that residents can buy a small unit, and later add another one or more, reconfiguring them as needed to create a cohesive living space.