"En las ciencias del ambiente construido, cada escuela de pensamiento, departamento o facultad ha interpretado el hábitat desde su posición sin justificar su interpretación en relación con el origen del concepto. Y esto ha ocasionado una confusión, de uso como escala, en la que todas las escuelas hablan de hábitat al equipararlo con diferentes fenómenos (espacialmente): hábitat como la ciudad, hábitat como la vivienda, hábitat como el territorio; y donde en realidad, ninguna está hablando de lo que realmente es hábitat en términos de escala y de niveles." (Marín-Vanegas, 2025)
¿Cómo ven ustedes el lugar del hábitat en la realidad y en estos campos de conocimiento?
Sorry for answering in English and trying to guess your meaning from high school french but, in Spanish I think you are asking a really important question? Whether we can successfully disconnect a habitat that will support human life, from the rest of the habitat? And perhaps even, how big must the habitat be, to sustain itself and recover from mishaps? I have no idea how to answer these questions but I did bump into an interesting definition when I was looking at nutrient transport in waterways. Have you heard of a thing called a "holobiont unit?" Apparently that's a sort of unit, at the scale of a few different life forms (plants, microbes/small insects, a bit of soil and water, for example). The idea is that each part of the holobiont unit is dependent on the other parts to share nutrients, manufacture the foods each part of the holobiont needs. For example, microbes create ammonia from nitrate which the plants then use as food. If I were asking your question in English, the nearest my language skills could guess at would be "how big or complex does a set of holobiont units need to be, in order to be self-sustaining and encompass all the functioning needed to provide food and recycling of wastes, in a continuous loop..and be redundant enough to recover from mishaps"..? I wonder if some people know the answer to this? There are micro climates growing in geodesic domes open to the public, growing coffee beans and salad veggies and I don't know how small or big they are..but perhaps half an acre? I would be interested to hear what other things you are thinking but I might use Google Translate to help me next time! Al :)
Yess! Thanks for sharing this definition of the h. unit.! That's the issue: I have worked on the definition of habitats and it is indeed impossible to separate humans from their surrounding and inter-structuring species (keystone and structural species), neighbors, and co-habitants. Habitat is not species-specific, but community-bounded; I defined it in my book.
https://cgscholar.com/cg_event/events/V23en/proposal/62898
https://editorialhumanidades.com/producto/la-vision-sistemica-del-ambiente-construido/
However, I am looking for other postures and even critics to explore this approach more deeply and produce a better understanding for all! Thanks, and it's nice to meet you, AL! Al Hall
The concept of habitat should hold a central, transversal role in the built environment disciplines, as it connects human beings with their physical, social, and ecological contexts. However, as the cited author warns, its current use is fragmented, ambiguous, and often limited by disciplinary boundaries.
What is needed:
To move beyond reductionist views (e.g., habitat = housing or habitat = city).
To recover its systemic, multiscalar, and interdisciplinary meaning.
To recognize that habitat is not just something we occupy, but something we co-create and inhabit, in constant interaction with the environment.
Glad to find people like you! We are on the same web of thinking!
I think you might resonate with the whole book https://editorialhumanidades.publica.la/library/publication/la-vision-sistemica-del-ambiente-construido Jessica Ferreira
Book La visión sistémica del ambiente construido: una metodología...
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