Sim Van der Ryn is an architect, author, and educator. He is President of The Ecological Design Collaborative and has, for over forty years, been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment, creating multi-scale solutions driven by nature’s intelligence. He served as California’s first energy conscious state architect and is emeritus professor of architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Berkeley. He was founder of the Farallones Institute, now known as the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

His books include The Integral Urban House: Self-Reliant Living in the City (Random House 1982), Sustainable Communities (co-author Peter Calthorpe) (Sierra Club Books 1991), Ecological Design: Tenth Anniversary Edition (co-author Stuart Cowan) (Island Press 2007), The Toilet Papers: Recycling Waste and Conserving Water (Chelsea Green Publishing1999) and Design for an Empathic World: Reconnecting to People, Nature, and Self (Island Press 2013)

Interview Date: 1/22/2014     Tags: Sim Van der Ryn, empathic design, architecture, homes in Samoa, community based architecture, Real Goods Solar Living Center, housing, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Social Change/Politics, Arts & Creativity