Sim Van der Ryn, architect and coauthor of Ecological Design (2007), says, “We can learn a great deal by moving beyond abstract statements of policy toward the particulars of design. It's here, at the...

Sim Van der Ryn, architect and coauthor of Ecological Design (2007), says, “We can learn a great deal by moving beyond abstract statements of policy toward the particulars of design. It's here, at the level of actual farms, buildings or manufacturing processes, that relationships of culture and nature are thrown in sharp relief. It's here that the contours of a sustainable world become definable.” 28 Compare Van der Ryn's statement on the factors that combine to form sustainability with James Lovelock's Gaia philosophy or Paolo Soleri's concept of arcology.