‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

If these problems could be reduced by design, why do they still exist?
The legacy of dumb design creates vicious circles. We are surrounded by buildings that have 
excessive negative impacts, too numerous to list.
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Perhaps because we are increasingly fixated on 
small computer, television and phone screens, we do not seem to notice the condition of our urban 
environments. Some new buildings are now even turning façades into dancing digital screens.
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Meanwhile, urban development drives the spirals of waste, consumption and pollution that are 
potential sources of social conflict. As we will see, environmental management methods are not 
designed to create positive impacts and positive environments. They are only designed to reduce 
space and energy. Thus many are consigned to live in alleys, public toilets and other ‘left over’ urban 
public spaces in a dark world beneath the discotheque of commerce. Again, this is partly because we 
are taught to believe we cannot improve human relationships or increase living systems in urban areas 
through built environment design. The idea of creating virtuous cycles that increase nature’s carrying 
capacity – relative to human consumption – is almost never contemplated. Our self-referential 
‘designed world’ reinforces the belief that all development must have negative impacts. These negative 
assumptions have been entrenched in our environmental management systems, which, in turn, have 
prevented us from trying to improve human and environmental health through design.
How could development actually improve human and environmental health?
Built environment design will need to actively contribute to the ecosystem goods and services that 
constitute the Earth’s life-support system. Ecosystem goods and services include: 
•
Supporting biodiversity
• 
Disposing of organic wastes
• 
Sequestering carbon

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Design for Eco-services
• 
Controlling pests and diseases
• 
Producing food, fibres, pharmaceuticals
• 
Producing healthy construction materials
• 
Regulating the local and global climate
• 
Developing topsoil and maintaining soil fertility
• 
Producing crops and natural fertilizers
• 
Heating, cooling and ventilating using the sun
• 
Preventing soil erosion and sediment loss
• 
Purifying water and air
• 
Storing and recycling fresh water and nutrients
• 
Regulating the chemistry of the atmosphere
• 
Maintaining habitats for wildlife
• 
Alleviating floods and managing storm water runoff
• 
Protecting against UV radiation