Designing for Biophilia - Development of an Ecological Homestead

Entry #1 in a weekly series of blog posts, created by Machei Matysiak

This first series is Machei's Master's Thesis created for New College of California

The thesis is the driving force behind our Ecological Homestead in Taos, NM.

BACKGROUND

M y purpose in taking on this thesis project is to synthesize some of my varied learning experiences of the past in order to see how they might lead me into the future. My first academic training was in the field of mathematics. Unlike most math majors, however, I chose the bachelor of arts, rather than science, route. I truly enjoyed meeting the distributional requirements of Hampshire College (in Amherst, Massachusetts) and always expected that I would be drawn by one of these other fields to change my major. However, this did not happen. It seemed to me that, at their core, all these varied classes were trying to teach me essentially the same thing: how to think logically. So I stayed with mathematics, since it was the most effective at meeting that end.

Within the field of mathematics, my strong preference was for geometry and algebra over calculus and differential equations. When it came time to choose a division three (senior thesis) topic, I picked algebraic geometry. My advisor cautioned against this, however, telling me that algebraic geometry was a ‘closed field’ and all new research was heading in different directions (especially as computers began swallowing the minds of uncritical students). Fortunately, this advisor did not prevent me from taking this path and actively helped me to engage the material.

Upon completion of bachelor degree requirements, I felt that there was no path left for me in academia. My most sincere concerns in life were never fully addressed here. Suddenly, to my great surprise, the path that did consider such things as correct nutrition, right livelihood, physical activity, and environmental awareness suddenly opened up: agriculture. Yet not knowing even the most basic aspects of gardening, let alone farming, I made the ironic decision to stay in school by enrolling in the program on Ecological Agriculture at Evergreen College (in Olympia, Washington).

As my education took a sharp practical turn, I was once again astonished to find geometry returning. While investigating various aspects of soil chemistry, plant botany, and animal biology, I inadvertently stumbled onto the field of Biodynamic agriculture. Biodynamics offers a more spiritual approach to farming, claiming that the mind of the farmer does have an effect on the growth of the farm. (A radical idea for academia at the time.) Within this field, research was being conducted that appeared more balanced than that pursued by conventional science. Anthroposophy, the larger field of which Biodynamics is a part, gives equal validity to qualitative observations as it does to quantitative ones. Imagine my fascination as I found one anthroposophic study of plants that was based on projective geometry (a field of particular interest to me during research in algebraic geometry)! George Adams and Olive Whicher thoroughly explain the growth habits of plants without reliance on numbers or graphs or coordinates. Instead they use algebraiccurves to show how different plant families follow different growth patterns. They use projective space to show how plants evolve outward as they grow and mature. Algebraic geometry was not a closed field after all!

Once I had acquired a general understanding of agricultural principles, I began interning and apprenticing on working farms. This experiential learning began at Evergreen’s own Organic Farm and then took me to Mendocino County (California) where I completed three more years on three separate farms. These farms: Live Power in Covelo, Martin Organic in Comptche, and Common Ground Research in Willits, used cultivation practices that ranged from Biodynamic to Biointensive.

Biointensive minifarming was another field that had caught my interest during the Ecological Agriculture program at Evergreen. What attracted me to Biointensive was its emphasis on traditional hand tools, deep soil cultivation, complete diet nutrition, as well as a thorough understanding of sustainability. Having such close access to the major site of Biointensive practice in Willits, as well as proximity to Biodynamic cultivation in Comptche and Covelo, was a strong factor in my decision to settle in Ukiah (Mendocino county seat).

As I pursued my apprenticeship on these farms, I slowly became acquainted with the differences and similarities between Biodynamics and Biointensive theory and practice. The contrast between these two approaches has become an archetypal relationship that I have encountered in other polarities and continue to investigate in this thesis project. As I have indicated, Biodynamics is based on a wonderful holistic theory that truly does bring the natural world to life. Biodynamic farmers, in my experience, have a profound understanding of the living world and express a joy and exuberance for their work which is otherwise quite uncommon for their profession. These same farmers, however, often engage in practices that bring their sustainability into question. With the notable exceptions of Charles Martin in Comptche and Stephen Decater in Covelo, the two I was fortunate enough to work under, many Biodynamic farmers have placed no limitations on the use of fossil fuels and machinery in their operations. Biointensive, as mentioned, focuses on the long term sustainability of the techniques themselves. John Jeavons, the primary advocate of this method, has been preparing for the peak oil event for the past thirty years now. Yet despite such tremendous visioning, John has aligned Biointensive with a conventional scientific theory which is both reductionist and materialist. What I have seen for myself, on several occasions, are young idealistic students coming to Biointensive with great enthusiastic energy only to become disillusioned through contact with a supporting theoretical structure that does nothing for their imagination.

As I became aware of the specific local histories involving both Biodynamics and Biointensive, I began to piece together what had happened. Here on the North Coast of California, most practitioners of either of these techniques trace their lineage back to Alan Chadwick, who brought what he called the BioDynamic/French intensive method to Santa Cruz forty years ago. As any synthesist, Chadwick was criticized both for not following Biodynamic dogma more closely and for not emphasizing sustainability issues enough. Yet his students were not only enchanted but worked hard to spread his teaching throughout California, the Pacific Coast, and all North America. Tragically, upon his death, the movement that Chadwick had synthesized began to split apart again. BioDynamic/French intensive practitioners slowly divided themselves into two camps. Those who identified more with anthroposophic theory and enjoyed physical labor shifted more toward standard Biodynamics (as presented by the BioDynamic Farming Association). Those who wanted to address sustainability issues more thoroughly and preferred intellectual analysis moved toward Biointensive (which more closely resembled the earlier French intensive).

As my historical knowledge grew, I began to see my path as one of bringing the Biodynamic & Biointensive strands back together again. I began to see my apprenticeship as having been completed with Alan Chadwick himself, only one generation removed. This thesis project is a continuation of that effort. Yet its bias is toward the holistic theory. There are several reasons for this. The most immediate is the context within which this project was conducted. It was simply impractical to engage in a thorough experiential investigation of all the existing natural building techniques while also completing other degree requirements for New College of California simultaneously. I did become familiar enough, however, to recognize that Biointensive is closely aligned with natural methods, such as cob building, which also rely exclusively on hand work, hand tools, and have an extremely low impact on the land.

A deeper reason for emphasizing the holistic aspect is that I felt I had personally acquired a thorough understanding of sustainability issues through my Biointensive experience both while apprenticing and afterward in my own garden. My Biodynamic experience, on the other hand, had been also weighed toward emphasis on techniques. Not having prior farming experience, I gave priority to learning by doing. Live Power Farm was an especially good place to pursue this kind of knowledge. As the name implies, we used no fossil (‘dead’) fuels in the garden there. Most work on the farm was done either by us humans or by the draft animals. We worked traditional farming hours: dawn to dusk. While I did not ignore Biodynamic theory, it was certainly not central to my experience.

So my initial effort on this thesis project was to investigate what makes Biodynamic theory ‘work’, that is, what makes it whole, and how is it that it gives the positive effect on consciousness that I have witnessed. However, since I had chosen to study within the concentration of EcoDwelling, rather than EcoAgriculture, while enrolled at New College (in Santa Rosa), this initial investigation quickly grew, by necessity, to a look at the broader field of Anthroposophy and then to an even larger consideration of holistic theory and holistic systems in general. By considering not just Anthroposophy, but the historical threads that led up to it, including Aristotle and his four-element theory, Goethe and the romantic tradition, Pythagoras and sacred geometry, as well as complementary schools from Asia such as the study of Feng Shui, which is based on natural observations as well as the ba gua (a symbolic compass), the Chinese five-element theory, and, ultimately, the I Ching itself, I began to see the meta-theory that is above all these holistic systems. I believe that I began to recognize what it truly means to be holistic and how such a view can act to enliven those who choose to ‘see’ in this way. I trust that I have been able to express some of this knowledge in the body of this work. It is not an easy task, for as Anthony Lawlor states in The Temple in the House, “the Sacred cannot be defined precisely,” and much relies on what Pyotr Uspenskii refers to as gnosis: intuitive spiritual knowledge.

Yet as the Zen master points to the Moon, I took this bit of understanding and applied it to the design process. Coming back down toward solid ground, I tried to take that which I had learned from Sacred Geometry, Feng Shui, and Pattern Language, as well as the study of color and form to create a design for our future Ecological Homestead that restores Biophilia, the love of life, in all those who experience it. The design drawings, pattern language development, and associated visuals represent my effort toward this end. I will leave it up to you, brave reader, to determine for yourself to what extent this work reaches these goals at this point in its evolution. In a larger sense, this is just the first step of a long-term effort and there is still plenty of room for corrections and revisions. Ultimately, this work is embedded in a long tradition of resistance to ideological hegemony, a tradition bioneered by those who would rescue the Earth from the clutches of death.