Gregory Bateson studies dolphins at Sea Life Park, Hawaii, 1965Bateson argued that learning was an inherent property of healthy ecological systems.Does ecological design create a holistic shift in thinking? Jon Goodbun suggests it does. He takes the lead from systems theorist Gregory Bateson, who argued that an 'ecological aesthetic' was required to understand how complex systems like cities behave. Goodbun explains how, with this new approach, it is flexibility rather than efficiency that becomes a priority.

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The most immediate impact of scarcity on architecture is the insufficient supply of building materials. As Jon Goodbun and Karin Jaschke explain, this requires an engagement with more than the direct influences on the exhaustion of natural resources. Looking beyond the conventional capitalist model of flows driven by ‘the market’, they look at how new ideas on materialism are demanding a radical revision of the relationship between matter and social, economic and political forces.