Uncertainty, ambiguity, and a constantly evolving vision of just what nature is will guide architecture as long as there are buildings.1

Debates about sustainable architecture and cities are shaped by

different social interests and diverse agendas, based on different

interpretations of the environmental challenge and characterized by

different pathways, each pointing towards a range of sustainable

futures.2 These competing environmental debates are the result,

not of uncertainty, but of the existence of “contradictory certainties:

severely divergent and mutually irreconcilable sets of convictions

both about the environmental problems we face and the solutions

that are available to us.”3 The related analytical framework of

sociotechnical theory developed here responds to the contingent

and contextual nature of technological innovation and building

design. It is further argued that the most fundamental issue,

understandably marginalized in the policy debate about industry

standards and replicable building codes, is that the environment is

a contested terrain, and that implicit within alternative technological

strategies are distinct philosophies of environmental place-making

and futures.4 Individual models of the sustainable city, even the

boundaries of the city-region, are prefigured by the particular

environmental problem presented. Seen this way, environmental

concerns are both time and space specific and are framed by

the identification of specific and dynamic models of nature, which

delimits the selection of design and development responses.