At the 2025 Global Symposium on Belonging in Toronto, we wanted to create something that would not only inspire reflection but help participants feel the principles at the heart of our movement.

For our Founder and Chief Architect, Kim Samuel, belonging is not only about human connection – it is also about our relationship with the natural world. In Kim’s words, belonging is “wholeness… feeling connected to ourselves, others, and the natural world.” When we lose that connection, isolation takes root, not only among people, but in our ecosystems too. Rebuilding belonging, then, must include restoring our sense of kinship with nature.

That spirit inspired the creation of a special installation at the symposium: “Buildings Are Cliffs”, a living artwork designed by Toronto-based ecological designer Jonas Spring and his team at Ecoman.

Buildings Are Cliffs

The installation reimagined what it means for cities to belong as part of an ecosystem. Spring and his collaborators constructed three planters from galvanised steel mesh, heavy weight felted wool, recycled stone, and native plants, including ferns, asters, goldenrods, and sedges bursting from the sides of the structures. The mesh was bent into circular forms and lined with wool, creating the foundation for a living wall where greenery covered nearly 80% of the surface, revealing just glimpses of the vivid fabric beneath.

From their tops, small trees — red oak, sassafras, tulip tree, and eastern white pine — reached upward toward the ceiling, while an understory of native perennials echoed the lush plantings below. Each planter stood at a different height, forming a trio that invited visitors to move around them, touch the felt and breathe in the scent of soil and green life.

Jonas describes his concept as an attempt to “infiltrate hardscapes” and expand the function of built environments — imagining buildings that produce oxygen, capture rainwater, provide habitat and refugia, store carbon, and improve mental health and wellbeing.

Nature as a Bridge to Belonging

In her opening Symposium keynote, Kim Samuel spoke about the idea that belonging is the infrastructure of sustained problem-solving — a way to build bridges “to human connection, to nature, to democracy and decision-making, and to meaning and purpose.”

The living installation reflected exactly that: a bridge between nature and built space, reminding us that belonging cannot be confined to human relationships alone. When we honour our connection to the Earth, we nurture a sense of rootedness that extends to everything around us — our communities, our homes, and even our cities.

In an age where so much of life happens behind screens and within walls, “bringing nature inside” was both a symbolic and sensory act. It was one that grounded participants, sparked conversation and encouraged a slower, more intentional presence throughout the symposium.

The Role of Place

The Charter for Belonging, launched during the symposium, recognises Place as one of the four essential dimensions of belonging — alongside People, Power, and Purpose. It calls on us to foster “natural ecosystems and built environments where we feel at home”. The Ecoman installation embodied this principle in living form: it showed how even temporary structures can create spaces of belonging by restoring our relationship with the natural world.

A Living Reminder

“Buildings Are Cliffs” was more than a beautiful installation; it was a living reminder that our environments can either isolate us or connect us. It called on each of us to imagine cities and communities that belong within nature, rather than apart from it.

As Kim has written, “Belonging is wholeness.” And wholeness, in its truest sense, includes every living thing — from the tallest pine to the person standing beside it.