This TED Talk features architect Jeannie Gang, recorded live at TED Women 2016.

I'm a relationship builder.

When you think of an relationship builder, don't you just automatically think architect?

Probably not.

That's because most people think architects design buildings and cities,

but what we really design are relationships.

Because cities are about people.

They're places where people come together for all kinds of exchange.

And besides skylands, they're highly specific urban habitats with their own insects, plants,

and animals, and even their own weather. But today, urban habitats are out of balance. Climate

change, together with political and economic troubles, are having an impact. They're adding up

and stressing out cities and us, the people who live in them. For me, the field of ecology

has provided important insight because ecologists don't just look at individual species on their

own. They look at the relationships between living things and their environment.

They look at how all the diverse parts of the ecosystem are interconnected,

and it's actually this balance, this web of life that sustains life.

My team and I have been applying insights from ecology to architecture

to see how physical space

can help build stronger relationships. The projects I'm going to show you today use the idea

of building relationships as the key driver for design. Here's an example of what I mean.

Recently, we were asked to design a center for Social Justice leadership called the Arcus Center.

They asked us for a building that could break down traditional barriers between different groups,

...