The Ecological Niche: Toward an Architecture of Care

This essay centers on the term “Ecological Design” in architecture, tracing its development from natural history and evolutionary theory to contemporary architectural theory. Beginning with the term’s biological origins in the work of Darwin and Haeckel in Europe, as well as Swallow in the U.S., the article charts how ecological thinking has shaped the evolution of architectural practice, from nineteenth-century analogies with nature to twentieth-century critiques of technologically driven sustainability and, finally, to contemporary shifts to post-human matters of care. The concept of the niche is proposed to support the translation of ecology into architecture, offering a generative model that pushes beyond normative site responsiveness. Instead, niche thinking considers design as co-evolution between the built form and the environment, structured by cultural and social practice.