When buildings become Naturescapes: How EcoBUILD can help bridge ecological knowledge and urban design

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly shaping the way we imagine sustainable cities. While NbS are often discussed for parks, rivers, and urban forests, buildings themselves are still rarely treated as ecological actors.

Buildings as part of urban ecosystems

Cities are often imagined as the opposite of nature. Buildings, infrastructure, and paved surfaces are seen as spaces where ecological processes have been replaced by engineered systems. Yet urban ecologists have long argued that cities are complex socio-ecological systems, where human and non-human life constantly interact.

In this perspective, buildings are not simply inert structures. They are habitats, microclimates, and surfaces where ecological processes can unfold.

A green roof can provide refuge for pollinators, while providing space for relaxation.

A façade garden can support urban biodiversity and maybe provide herbs to pick for a tea?

A water retention system can regulate stormwater on buildings and save it to water plants.

Big questions are asked such as how multiple nature-based solutions combine and interact with each other and with mechanical or technological solutions, and how they scale across cities.

Many numbers are lacking still because they have never been measured. Some information and numbers are existing, but hidden in scientific articles and sometimes even in showcased buildings on websites

To implement targeted designs effectively, we also need better ways of linking ecological knowledge with the everyday decisions made by architects, planners, and developers.

From scattered knowledge to design intelligence

One of the biggest barriers to integrating ecology into urban design is knowledge fragmentation.

Research on green roofs, urban biodiversity, building energy systems, and ecosystem services exists across hundreds of scientific papers, case studies, and technical reports. For practitioners, navigating this landscape of evidence is difficult and time intensive due to field terminology and a format that is not useful to practitioners.

EcoBUILD, a research initiative at Utrecht University funded as signature project by Pathways to Sustainability, explores how data-driven tools can help bridge this gap between ecological science and building design.

The idea is simple yet powerful: creating a structured knowledge base linking existing sustainable design strategies, including green roofs, green walls, solar panels, or water retention or filtration systems, to their measurable environmental and social benefits.

Instead of asking whether a green roof is “good,” planners and designers could explore more nuanced questions:

· How much cooling does it provide in dense urban areas?

· What biodiversity benefits does it generate?

· How does it interact with other nature-based solutions nearby?

· Under what conditions does it perform best?

By organizing scientific evidence into accessible datasets and decision tools, EcoBUILD aims to make ecological knowledge actionable in design processes.

In other words, it seeks to translate ecological complexity into something that can inform real planning decisions.