How can designers integrate habitat opportunities

into urban architecture to support a diversity of native species?

habitat-integrated architectureBIODIVERSITY + THE CITY master’s thesis

habitat typesof the southern Willamette Valley

riparian wet prairie upland prairie oak savanna mixed woodland mixed conifer forest

fender’s bluebutterfly

cardinal meadowhawk

dragonfly

acornwoodpecker

BIODIVERSITY + THE CITY master’s thesis

physiographycompositionstructureground layer

shrub layer

understorylayer

overstorylayer

povertyrush

westernbuttercup

tuftedhairgrass

densesedge

commoncamas

willowalderoregon ash

north

south

west east

shrub layer

understory tree canopy layer

overstory tree canopy layer

ground layer

topography

solar aspect

horizontal

vertical

disturbance regimes

hydrologyedaphicconditions

managementspecies

silt

sand

low fertility

high fertility

texture

fertility

water dependence

natural/historic

urban alternative

silver-haired bat

cardinal meadowhawk

habitat templates: example of a wetland prairie template. I created similar templates for upland prairie, oak savanna and mixed-conifer forest.

I developed a transferable methodology of native habitat types of the southern Willamette Valley as templates for building design. The methodology was developed through a review of the current research on habitat-integrated architecture as well as through working with a University of Oregon thesis-level architecture students.

My master’s thesis was meant to serve as a guide for designers, particularly architects, without ecological training to create habitat-integrated architecture.

student work: Examples of student work, by Noel Shamble and Paul Harmon, produced in the thesis-level architecture studio I assisted with.

BIODIVERSITY + THE CITY master’s thesis