by Hugh M. Lewis

Ecology is defined as the "management of the household" and refers to the relationships that occur in the context of the home, the home being generally applied to the natural contexts of "living systems."

Humans occupy very generalized ecological niches in a global context, and their adaptations have far-reaching consequences for the entire biosphere, both short term and in the structure of the long run. The human species, like all other species, inhabit what can be called specific sets of meta-biotic contexts, and they maintain relationships with a broad range of other organisms on one level or another, in one way or another, probably more so than any other species on earth. Humans have taken on a general role as ecological managers and manipulators of the global environment, and this has led to a reshaping of living systems in their counter-adaptations to the growing human situation.

Human habitation as a system can no longer be looked at in terms of merely being a cave in a forested mountain-side or a home in a suburb. Such a dwelling place is part of a larger range of functional and productive adaptations that the human species has devised for itself, albeit often the central context of such adaptations, and they are therefore the representations of a suite of functional interconnections with a larger environment that are part of a larger system of adaptation involving many different members of the human species, and affecting the lives of many organisms other than human beings.

As the new information economy is leading people to re-domestication of the central workplace, and redistribution of resources, goods, services and means of production over a broader modular landscape, the ecological redefinition of the home comes to a critical strategic focus. As the human population increases rapidly to its purported carrying capacity on a global scale, increased conditions of crowding, over-development and ecological destruction are going to become more critical variables in both the relative quality and quantity of living. With increased congestion, crowding and socio-environmental circumscription, we should expect to see the increasing relevance of the role and importance played by the home and household in the articulation of the everyday life of most human beings.

We have examples of eco-habitational dwellings in structures made from alternative materials, incorporating alternative design and functional systems that are environmentally safe and sane, as for instance solar heating, the use of wind turbines for power production, the use of natural building and insulation materials, etc. Earth houses, subterranean dwelling, and even paper-houses have been utilized in the name of ecological design principles.

The issue becomes to adopt designs of structures, and materials, that can find its way to market in a manner that can compete openly with alternative building products like cement, wood, plastic and metal. The object of course is not necessarily to achieve complete replacement of these conventional building materials, or even necessarily to focus on the challenges of building itself, but to provide suitably "mixed" economies of scale that would make the use of ecologically safe and sane materials more sensible in both an economic and an ecological way.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I