History of the Institute of Ecotechnics
The Institute of Ecotechnics formed in the early 70s informally through a group of individuals in New Mexico that had come together to explore new ways of living together and find ecologically sustainable approaches. In 1972, the Institute of Ecotechnics held its first conference at Synergia Ranch on the Ecology and Cultures of the Northern Rio Grande Basin.
During that time, the small team read Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth and realized that 70% of the planet is water. So, in order to understand the planet, they decided to build a research ship to sail the world’s oceans. The ship was designed in Santa Fe and built from scratch by the members of the institute themselves at the 5th Avenue Marina in Oakland, California, where, after 9 months of construction, the 82-foot ferro-cement Chinese junk sailing vessel sailed out of the Bay. Since then, the Heraclitus, as it was called, has sailed over 270 nautical miles. Currently completing a rebuild in Northern Spain, the ship will continue with educational and citizen science goals once back at sea. The Institute owns the Heraclitus and charters it to educational and research-oriented organizations.
The Institute was registered as a UK research institute in 1982. The directors are all unsalaried volunteers and donate their time.
Between 1972 and 1983, members of the institute helped to establish a network of ecological demonstration projects across the globe, not only in natural ecosystems but also in anthropogenic biomes—cities and agriculture, ranches, farms, and industrial systems—recognizing that these human-created environments and the more nature-centered biomes can be seen as building blocks of the biosphere. The overarching goals for any of these projects has been to design systems that harmonize the technosphere with the biosphere.
Starting in 1976, the Institute convened annual conferences for the next thirty years on interdisciplinary themes that impact our biosphere. The first series included 1976 on Oceans, 1977 on Deserts, 1978 on Tropical Rainforests (Jungles), 1980 on Planet Earth, 1981 a Solar System, 1982 the Galactic conference and culminating in 1983’s Cosmos Conference.
Synergia Ranch, in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, was the earliest biome project consulted to by the Institute of Ecotechnics. Established in 1969, the goal was to turn a desert into an ecological and cultural oasis, restoring land that had been severely overgrazed and even ploughed up for short-lived farming. A thousand trees were planted, including over 400 fruit tree orchards; hundreds of tons of compost were made, and organic gardens were initiated. As well, the “synergists” made tens of thousands of adobe bricks and built workshops, residences, and performing spaces, including a 50-foot-diameter geodesic dome.
An Institute of Ecotechnics branch was formed in Mumbai, India, in 1981, which operated for ten years, working on pollution remediation and assisting Thor Heyerdahl’s research in ancient sailing ships.
In 1979 the October Gallery in London was founded to show contemporary artists from around the world. Run by a charity, the October Gallery Trust manages the project where our UK-registered Institute of Ecotechnics is based.
In 1983, a sustainable forestry project was initiated in Puerto Rico with the Institute of Ecotechnics as consultant to establishing a timber plantation with 40,000 trees using the line-planting technics, instead of clear cutting. The project is now an award winning sustainable forestry project demonstrating new approaches to managing secondary forests through forest enrichment. Its spin-off enterprise, Puerto Rico Hardwoods is a leader restoring a local wood industry and demonstrating the value of hurricane-felled trees.
Also in the late 70s the Institute developed a strategy for pastoral regeneration experiments conducted over 40 years to improve pastures in this sub-tropical grassland on two projects in the Northwest Kimberley, a 5000 acre freehold and a million acre station. The Institute was briefly registered as an educational Institute in Australia during the 80s and held a conference on Eco-Transition Zones near Perth in 1979.
In 1984, the Institute brought its decades of intellectual capital and contacts to Spaces Biospheres Ventures in Oracle, Arizona to participate in the design, construction and operation of the world largest laboratory for global ecology ever built – Biosphere 2.
Following the completion of Biosphere 2 and its first two human enclosure experiments in the early 1990s the Institute hosted conferences from 1996-2007 at its conference center facility at Les Marronniers, Aix-en-Provence, France, at Synergia Ranch, NM, and a Mediterranean Ecology & Cultures conference in 2011.
In 2006, the Institute of Ecotechnics became the fiscal sponsor for ecological wastewater treatment and water-recycling systems through its Wastewater Gardens division, tropical botany and conservation programs, and collaborations with universities, research institutions, and cultural organizations around the world.
Today, conferences, exhibitions, publications, expeditions, and educational programs continue to weave together diverse perspectives and disciplines in pursuit of practical solutions to contemporary challenges. The Institute of Ecotechnics continues to help connect science, ecology, technology, and culture. It remains dedicated to support the ongoing missions of the various projects it helped to conceive of, finish rebuilding its ocean going research vessel, and hold workshops and symposiums when it can to further the conversation on how to design and build a technosphere that can exist in harmony with the biosphere.