300 Ecological Restoration and Design
Frisch, for example, explored the ingenuity of animal architecture evolved by
birds, mammals, fishes and insects. African termite mounds a dozen feet high, for
example, maintain a constant temperature of ~78°F in tropical climates (Frisch,
1974, pp138–149). Nests are ventilated variously by permeable walls that exchange
gases and by ventilation shafts opened and closed manually as needed with no other
instructions than those given by instinct. Interior ducts move air and gases auto-
matically by convection. The system is so ingeniously designed that chambers deep
underground are fed a constant stream of cool, fresh air that rises as it warms before
being ventilated to the outside. Termite nests are constructed of materials cemented
together with their own excretions, eliminating the problem of waste disposal. Desert
termites, with no engineering degrees as far as is known, bore holes to depths of 40
metres below their nests to find sources of water. Beavers construct large dams of
1000 feet or more in length; their houses are insulated to remain warm in sub-zero
temperatures. Other animals, less studied, build with comparable skill (see Tsui,
1999, pp86–131). Human ingenuity, considerable as it is, pales before that of many
animals that design and build remarkably strong, adaptable and resilient structures
without toxic chemicals, machinery, fossil fuels and professional engineers.
The idea that nature is shaped by physical forces as much as by evolution is
also evident in the work of Theodor Schwenk who explored the role of water as a
shaper of Earth’s surfaces and biological systems. Of water Schwenk wrote that:
In the chemical realm, water lies exactly at the neutral point between acid and alkaline,
and is therefore able to serve as the mediator of change in either direction. In fact, water
is the instrument of chemical change wherever it occurs in life and nature... In the
light-realm, too, water occupies the middle ground between light and darkness. The
rainbow, that primal phenomenon of color, makes its shining appearance in and through
the agency of water... In the realm of gravity, water counters heaviness with levity; thus,
objects immersed in water take on buoyancy... In the heat-realm water takes a middle
position between radiation and conduction. It is the greatest heat conveyer in the earth’s
organism, transporting inconceivable amounts of warmth from hot regions to cooler
ones by means of the process known as heat-convection... In the morphological realm,
water favors the spherical; we see this in the drop form. Pitting the round against the
radial, it calls forth that primal form of life, the spiral... In every area, water assumes the
role of mediator. Encompassing both life and death, it constantly wrests the former
from the latter. (Schwenk, 1989, p24)Moving water shapes landscapes. As ice it moulds entire continents. At a micro
scale, its movement shapes organs and the tiniest organisms. But at any scale it
flows, dissolves, purifies, condenses, floats, washes, conducts and some believe that
it even remembers. Our language is brim full of water metaphors and we have
streams of thought or dry spells. The brain literally floats on a water cushion.
Water in its various metaphors is the heart of our language, religion and philoso-
phy. We are much given to the poetry of water as mists, rain, flows, springs, light
reflected, waterfalls, tides, waves, storms. Some of us have been baptized in it. But