Biophilia

Humans are innately attracted to the natural world. We have a tendency to connect with it, especially with other forms of life.

We evolved in a natural, grown, unbuilt environment and have deep-seated psychological and emotional connection to that world.

But the natural world is a harsh mistress. She is cruel, unforgiving and always threatening. More 'nature' is not always a good thing.

A somewhat sanitised version is perhaps more truthfully what we seek. Not the teeming, writhing rainforest that prompts the Piraha people to fear deep sleep.

Don't sleep there are snakes.

How might we discover where lies the threshold between Biophilia and the neuroses of nature?

And then design for the twin-optimisation of biodiversity and human well-being?