Healing Natures, Repairing Relationships: New Perspectives on Restoring Ecological Spaces and Consciousness

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Amy Lenzo

Healing Natures, Repairing Relationships by Robert France brings together a leading group of distinctive voices to explore ideas underlying the restoration of environmental and human integrity in what pioneer restorationist Aldo Leopold once called our damaged “world of wounds.” This emerging paradigm—referred to by the editor as “Restoration Design”—is defined as the process by which participants creatively develop physical and conceptual relationships to engage nature through the architectural transformation of their inhabited ecological space as well as their internal environments. In this collection of essays, restoration design is shown to be a comprehensive process involving elements of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, ecopsychology, environmental art, ecological science, and landscape architecture.

Presenting emerging perspectives on environmental restoration, this collection of essays by a leading group of environmental scholars combines theoretical discussion with practical approaches. Describing the variety of ways that humans can and should interact with nature, this multi-disciplinary work shares hands-on exercises for engaging urban communities to develop supportive relationships with their surrounding environment. These writings define the paradigm of “restoration design” and the ways that its disciplines and actions can provide humans with a new direction for interrelating with the world in the 21st century.

PROLOGUE
Swamped! A Tale of Two Restorations: Part I: The View From Home

INTRODUCTION
Engaging Nature and Establishing Relationships Through Restoration Design

PART I. ENGAGEMENT

Ecological Restoration and the Uncomfortable, Beautiful Middle Ground
William R. Jordan III and Alex Turner
Place-Based Performance and Ecological Restoration
Mark Dannenhauer
As Inside, So Outside: Restoration of Inner and Outer Landscapes
Lane K. Conn and Sarah A. Conn
Nature’s Memory: Restoration and the Triumph of the Cognitive
David W. Kidner

PART II. RELATIONSHIPS

Restorative Relationships: From Artifacts to “Natural” Systems
Andrew Light
Restoring and Renewing Whole Ways of Life
Stephanie Mills
Embracing and Resisting the Restorative Impulse
Elizabeth V. Spelman

PART III. DESIGN

Ecological Art: Visible, Visionary, Practical and Restorative
Jill Brown
Art, Nature, Health and Aesthetics in the Restoration of the Post-Industrial Public Realm
Tim Collins
Constructing Restoration Ecologies: Nature, Aesthetics, Sites and Systems
Louise Mozingo
Understanding the Role of Environmental Designers in Environmental Restoration and Remediation
Robert Ryan

CONCLUSION
Landscapes and Mindscapes of Restoration Design

EPILOGUE
Swamped! A Tale of Two Restorations: Part II: The View to Abroad

APPENDIX
The Muddy, Messy Means and Mores of “Restoring a Broken World”: A Literature Review”