Customer Reviews

From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Design

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While I find Dr. Todd's work inspiring, this time around I was disappointed by this particular book. There isn't much new in it since the 1985 publication of Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, and City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design. For example, Eco-Cities lifted at times the same paragraphs and sentences from Bioshelters when describing the Cape Cod Ark, the Margaret Mead sailing boat, the Lindisfarne Hamlet, and rooftop gardens.

If you haven't read the 1985 book, then I could see how Eco-Cities deserves a throrough reading. If you have read Bioshelters than I would not purchase the new book, Eco-Cities, but take a glance at it at your local library instead.

I'm currently trying to organize an association in Paris, France to build an apartment complex using the ideas found in both Bioshelters and Eco-Cities. But I'm finding it difficult to gather concrete examples, blueprints, or even contact numbers for architectural firms with the experience to do so. I'd like to encourage the folks at Ocean Arks International to publish a book like Eco-Cities but move past concepts and give us a technological guide for actually creating eco-cities.

John Todd (b. 1939) is a biologist working in the field of ecological design, and this 1994 book was co-written with his wife Nancy (who has also written A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise Of Ecological Design). This book is an updating (with much material copied literally word-for-word) of their earlier book, Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design.

They note early on "The relevance of the GAIA hypothesis in the context of our work is as both working premise and metaphor." One of their fundamental principles is, "Biology is the model for design." They actually break the work into sections based on their nine "Precepts," such as, "Design Should Follow, Not Oppose, the Laws of Life," "Design must Reflect Bioregionality," "Design Should be Coevolutionary with the Natural World," "Design Should Follow a Sacred Ecology."

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"It is only because most of us do not have a sense of human history over this long period of time that we do not feel how ODD it is to build cities and suburbs as we do."

"Some of the saddest designs in architecture are those of schools."

"The economics for converting a factory to a solar food barn are as yet conjectural."

"A living machine is a device made up of living organisms of all types and usually housed within a casing or structure made of extremely light-weight materials."

This book will continue to be of interest to those interested in ecology, ecovillages, sustainable communities, urban planning, intentional communities, etc.

I found the book to be very informative. It was specific enough to understand his work even if you aren't a biologist yet tied together nicely with an holistic paradigm that wasn't overdone. His vision of the ideal future for urban planning seemed reasonable and worth aiming for.

Dr. Todd presents us with clear, easy and very logical ideas of how we should live and build our cities. This book should be a required reading for most professionals that deal with development. I would like to see a second book with more hands on examples.