livingsystem

Livingsystem is a term used across several disciplines to describe a system that sustains and supports living organisms by maintaining the conditions necessary for life. Because it is not standardized, the exact meaning varies by context, and the term may appear as a concept in theory or as a brand name in practice.

In systems theory and biology, a living system is typically described as an open, self-organizing network that exchanges energy and matter with its environment. Such systems exhibit metabolism, growth, adaptation, and reproduction, and they rely on feedback mechanisms to maintain homeostasis and to reorganize in response to change. They are often viewed as hierarchical and distributed, with information flow playing a role alongside material flow.

In applied contexts, livingsystem appears in discussions of sustainable design, regenerative agriculture, ecotechnologies, and urban ecology. Projects described as living systems aim to integrate living processes into infrastructure—for example, building designs with responsive envelopes, water and energy loops, or biophilic elements that support biodiversity and human well-being. The term is also used in software and hardware contexts to denote platforms that model or manage living processes, or to brand environmental-control and monitoring systems.

Because there is no single, universally accepted definition, the term is often paired with qualifiers such as "living systems theory," "living architecture," or "bioinspired design" to clarify intent. See also living systems theory, cybernetics, systems biology, biomimicry, and ecological engineering.