HKS Trace Paper

Sustainable design is often on my mind. And, as developmental density increases, this idea of a 4D ecological corridor keeps popping into my head. In school we talked a bit about ecological corridors and in my few years of professional practice and work with the USGBC, I’ve managed to get a pretty good feel for what an ecological corridor is. An ecological corridor is a continuous path through an ecoregion along which plants, animals, and other organisms typical of the region can travel and develop. An ecological corridor is often mistaken as a strip of green stuff from point A to point B. It is much more than that.

The 4D part of the idea implies that rather than restricting the ecological development of our designs to a 2D site plan, we should consider the third “D”: the Z axis or height above and below the ground and the fourth “D” of time (or seasonal shifts). So, rather than creating designs that act like a rock in the middle of the living stream, even if the rock may have some nice moss growing on the north side, there should be increased integration with the life that naturally surrounds the project.

The rock-in-the-stream design is used quite often. Directing the ecoregion through the site and around the building can be very effective and beneficial to the environment. You have to be conscious to connect the dots as much as possible. Small parking islands or large parking lots can make the “rock” portion of the project unnecessarily large to the point of choking off or damming the stream of life with which we are trying to coexist.

Sometimes it may be appropriate to allow the ecoregion to flow through a building. This kind of design takes a lot of time and careful planning. (more…)