Dr. Stuart Cowan’s Post

INFINITE DESIGN How can we support diverse landscapes and cultures as they work out their own ways to reintegrate our species into a pluriverse of millions of species within a vast, self-regulating, self-organizing planetary matrix known as Gaia? --- On October 25th, 2025, The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) in Austin, Texas will celebrate its 50th Anniversary as one of the world's leading research centers for innovative building materials and systems, lifecycle analysis (LCA), bioregional design and planning, and related fields. Congratulations to Co-Directors Pliny Fisk III and Gail Vittori and CMPBS staff, board, and interns as they shepherd CMPBS into its next fifty years! 🌟 Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Details: https://lnkd.in/g24yZXEV As part of a book honoring this occasion, Buckminster Fuller Institute has contributed some thoughts on the intertwined legacies of CMPBS and Buckminster Fuller in the essay "Lenses for Infinite Design". Full text below and excerpts here: ____ For fifty years, CMPBS has been testing ecological design and planning protocols, policies, and prototypes at scales from building to planet. This includes significant work at the bioregional scale, a perfect scale to align cultural transformation with coherent groupings of ecosystems shaped by water, soil, climate, topography, geology, nutrient flows, and other influences. Now in 2025 there is growing momentum around a federated, decentralized response to the polycrisis that is centered around empowering territories, landscapes, and bioregions with protocols for regenerative storying, mapping, modeling, planning, governing, and financing. In the early 1970s CMPBS Co-Founder Pliny Fisk III was mentored by visionary inventor, futurist, and world historical figure R. Buckminster Fuller. Bucky developed Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science as a regenerative design discipline that could be applied at scales ranging from individual buildings to global industries, and from site to bioregion to planet. At each scale, an understanding of universal principles (e.g. ephemeralization or "more with less" and syntropy or "negative entropy") combined with a deep understanding of local patterns would ensure cascading benefits across the system and up and down in scale. --- Now imagine the Lenses for Maximum Potential Futures supported by a new kind of Artificial Intelligence, one that is Life-Centered ... Forty-one years after its founding, Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) is exploring this infinite design terrain, a strange and unexpected symbiosis of human, ecological, and digital intelligences. It is a marvelous thing that the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems continues with a vital life force after fifty years, and BFI looks forward to spontaneously collaborating with the Center over the next five decades in the service of life.

The violence of geometries Ecologies Beyond Boundaries: Natural, Artificial, and Hybrid Worlds 1. Ecologies of the Natural We often begin with the natural world when speaking of ecology: forests, rivers, oceans, soils, and the living networks that sustain them. These ecologies surround us, embed us, and make life possible. Yet instead of recognizing their porous, interconnected boundaries, we often attempt to contain them. We draw maps, impose property lines, and translate living rhythms into geometrical abstractions. The violence of this act lies in its reduction. What is open, flowing, and relational becomes closed, static, and objectified. The sense of awe and wonder that such living systems invite is extinguished when we reduce them to resources, units, or grids. 2. Ecologies of the Artificial Ecologies are not confined to the natural world. Human-made systems—cities, infrastructures, technologies, institutions—form ecologies of their own. They are artificial, but no less alive. A city is a living system of flows and exchanges; a digital platform is an ecology of algorithms, codes, behaviors, and cultural patterns. Yet here, too, we impose rigid geometries and taxonomies. Cities are zoned into sterile compartments; institutions are organized into hierarchies; knowledge systems are reduced to databases. Such orderings obscure the networks of interaction and improvisation that actually sustain these artificial ecologies. Jane Jacobs, in her reflections on urban life, argued that cities thrive not because of imposed design but because of their capacity for self-organization. Vitality emerges from interactions in the street, not from rigid zoning plans. Artificial ecologies, like natural ones, flourish when boundaries remain porous and relationships remain visible. 3. Ecologies of the Hybrid The distinction between the natural and the artificial is, in truth, less absolute than we imagine. Bruno Latour has argued that every artifact is a hybrid—an entanglement of human and nonhuman forces. A smartphone, for example, embodies minerals extracted from the earth, global supply chains, cultural practices, political economies, and individual desires. It is both natural and artificial, ecological through and through. Félix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies deepens this insight by insisting that environmental, social, and mental ecologies cannot be separated. A polluted river alters not just ecosystems but also social practices and cultural imaginations. Likewise, a new digital infrastructure reshapes mental habits, social relations, and environmental resource flows. Hybrid ecologies demand that we move beyond oppositions—nature versus culture, natural versus artificial—and instead attend to the interwoven networks in which we are always already embedded. 4. The Violence of Geometry interconnection. 5. Toward Ecological Design

Did you know that 71% of Earth's surface is water? Imagine the new job sectors and sustainable living techniques if we moved below the waves! 🌊 - Innovative architecture - New energy sources - Marine biology opportunities Let's connect with more pioneers in this field. Ready to make a splash? Dive in! @BlueInnovation @OceanicEngage #SustainableLiving

𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵'𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀? 🤔 Fascinating new research 🛰️, leveraging 20 years of satellite data, reveals that Earth's seasons aren't nearly as synchronized as we once thought. Scientists have identified "hotspots" of 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆 🔥—areas where local environmental cycles (think rainfall 🌧️, temperature swings 🌡️) are significantly out of sync with broader regional patterns. For engineers, this isn't just an ecological curiosity; it's a critical factor for 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻. 🚧 Imagine designing a water management system, agricultural supply chain 🚜, or even urban infrastructure based on outdated, generalized seasonal models. This study demonstrates the need for more 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿, 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 to account for these localized, asynchronous events. The ability to predict complex patterns, like the nuances of coffee harvests across Colombia, showcases the power of this analytical shift. ☕ This research underscores the importance of: 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Extracting actionable insights from massive, multi-decade remote sensing datasets. 📈 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀: Moving beyond simplistic models to build systems that can withstand localized, asynchronous climate variations. 💪 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Enhancing our ability to forecast and prepare for complex environmental behaviors. 🌐 How do you factor environmental variability into your current projects? Could a deeper understanding of seasonal asynchrony improve your engineering solutions? 💡 Read the full study here: https://lnkd.in/emWN89ka #Engineering #DataScience #EnvironmentalEngineering #ClimateTech #Infrastructure #RemoteSensing #SystemsModeling #Resilience #Innovation

Thousands of photographs. One island ecosystem. Each tile captures something different - azure waters, volcanic soil, Mediterranean vegetation, coastal architecture. Individually, fragments. Together, they reveal how natural and human systems integrate. The parallel to organizational design is clear: sustainable success requires biodiversity of talent. Some elements provide stability (the coastline), others enable growth (vegetation), many facilitate connection (the paths between). Remove any ecosystem component and the whole system weakens. Consider which elements your organizational ecosystem might be missing.

AI meets nature restoration: Meta & WRI’s open-source DINOv3 helps satellites count trees from space, cutting verification costs by 97%. This could unlock large-scale finance for restoration while empowering local communities. Amazonia Tech Partners Alexandre Hildebrand Garcia #AIforGood #NatureRestoration #SustainableFinance #ClimateTech #Biodiversity #ImpactInvesting https://lnkd.in/dGk7EvR2

I'm convinced Landscape Architects have been some of the biggest innovators in advocating for nature in the last 30+ years. 🧑🎨 🌳 Planting urban forest's before policy, 🦋 designing biodiversity corridors before UN gave their stamp, ☀️ tackling urban heat issues before heat officers were appointed in councils - all the time designing the issues beautifully. But proving that impact has always been hard. Now, with OPO’s AI, we can track canopy change over time: 🌳 Current Canopy: 15% 🔻 Loss: 20% 🔺 Gain: 27%” For the first time, it’s easy to see how individual projects improve or reduce tree canopy — and how they add to the urban forest over time. 👉 How are you currently measuring nature’s impact in your projects?

The Woods of Brabant (Nationaal Park Brabantse Wouden) is a Belgian forest complex existing of both managed and set-aside forest areas. 🌳 The forest reserves are relatively young (20-50 years) even compared to other European counterparts, but even in this short timeframe different changes can occur. ⌛ In the paper of Sofie Van Winckel we looked at the above-ground carbon stock in the forest reserves, and compared them to the surrounding managed forests. 🪵 The selected areas are part of the Informa Forests Management Platform, which makes sure they are comparable in terms of forest type, soil type, topography and legacy. We then tried to model this carbon stock using satellite remote sensing. 🛰️ What did we find? Even after a short time, unmanaged forests had a higher above-ground carbon stock compared to their managed counterparts. We could model the carbon stock relatively well with remote sensing, especially when we combined multiple sensors, but the difference between managed and unmanaged forests seemed to disappear. Want to know more? You can find Sofie's original post here: https://lnkd.in/er_jdHsP. The paper is accessible here: https://lnkd.in/eT9mrJtw. Many thanks to the Informa Forests consortium members for lending their help! Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape (FNL)

#EvacPaperAlert: Experimental study on pedestrian #evacuation characteristics through building bottleneck group structure Just published on #DevelopmentsintheBuiltEnvironment 🟢 #OpenAccess paper (freely available to read and download). 🟢 🔗 Link: https://lnkd.in/g6ZTvjnb New research reveals key insights into pedestrian flow through multiple bottlenecks! A study with 119 participants found that: 🚶♀️🚶♂️ The first bottleneck has the biggest impact on crowd flow, as the second bottleneck is a direct result of the first. 💡 A funnel-shaped bottleneck design can significantly improve evacuation efficiency. ⚠️ Previous research on single bottlenecks may not apply to individual bottlenecks within a group. This study provides valuable data and a framework for designing safer and more efficient evacuation routes in buildings.  💡 Stay Connected: Don't miss out on any updates! Follow us on #X for more insights and exclusive content: https://lnkd.in/guNVuUfN #pedestrianflow #evacuation #bottleneckdesign #crowddynamics #buildingsafety #research #datascience #urbanplanning 🏢🚶♀️🚶♂️📊  

Nature's perfect design often lies in the smallest livings This insect is a masterclass in engineering and adaptation. Its incredible leaping ability, powered by gears and springs in its hind legs, allows it to catapult away from danger in a millisecond. It’s a powerful reminder that big innovation often comes in small packages. It got me thinking about a few lessons we can apply: ✅ Build a strong foundation. This planthopper is perfectly adapted to its specific host plant. Knowing your environment and your "roots" is everything. ✅ Efficiency is key. It doesn't waste energy. It sits, feeds, and when necessary, makes a powerful, precise leap to safety. ✅ Sometimes, a bold jump is the best strategy. Not all progress is a slow crawl. When the moment is right, take your leap. #Nature #Innovation #BioInspiration #ProfessionalDevelopment #GrowthMindset #CuyahogaValleyNP #Ohio #NationalParks #NatureLovers #Entomology #LifeLessons