Ecological Design or Eco-Design is a developing field that seeks to coordinate efforts within the many disciplines and industries of modern society to build and create not only sustainable habitat but consider the seamless interaction of products, services and people within those overarching and deeply interwoven systems.
The principles of Ecological Design can be used in Green or Eco Architecture but is not exclusive to it.
The realm of sustainable design, seeks to consider to all important elements within nature when constructing the built human environment. To minimize resource use and the amount of space occupied and to maximize the utilization of materials and labor, synergy is created through designing Multi-Use/Mixed Use structures which should incorporate Multi-use in Design; the idea that every component should have multiple functions and uses whenever possible to reduce cost and resource use.
Examples of products that are being designed by Ecological Designers and being incorporated into sustainable habitats and systems:
Personal Low Impact Low Energy computers
Mini-mills that reduce the cost of making things and empower local people by reducing the economy of scale needed to produce industrial items
3d Printers similarly to item 2
Methane Digesters (bioreactors), Gasifiers and similar sustainable energy systems that reduce reliance on the increasingly unreliable power grid that produces power in a way that many progressives think is unethical and particularly inconsiderate of the future generations.
Background in Ecological Design Evolution
When I was participating in the Ecosa Institute Total Immersion in Ecological Design Course in 2000 I first learned about the pioneering efforts as well as the implications of Ecological Design. Another similar name is Sustainable/Green Architecture however alike this term may seem there is a key distinction in that design implies a more encompassing area of intervention that goes far beyond the art and science of building a structure or habitat.
In addition to the consideration of the scope of Ecological Design as a field of study and impact on society, there is also the realization that Sim Van der Ryn and Stewart Cowan two of the founders who reportedly coined the term - was intent on making this field very holistic in nature and any exploration of the concepts associated with Ecological Design exposes that to the student. Thus in my opinion, Ecological Design is more than Green Architecture because it not only addresses the building process holistically, but because it expand to encompass anything that involves design.
Tony Brown the main instructor and founder of Ecosa Institute left a lasting impact on me in 2000 as a student by stressing the wider scope and implications of Ecological Design as going beyond simply green architecture. In ecological architecture, human needs must be considered in relation to the design of the building. In putting forward the notion of frugality we do not sacrifice quality of life, but design our living systems and structures to get maximum use as well as aesthetic value from the minimal use of resources.
Architectural quality is crucial to developing a sense of community which encourages people to make a solid psycho-spiritual commitment to a place. In a sense the greatest neglect is the sense of aesthetic that has departed from the political, because it is not directly attributable to economic growth or social well being. Richard Rogers however, believes that one of the greatest investments in social rejuvenation comes from employing the young, the talented and the imaginative towards improving the quality of the aesthetic spaces that we live, work and play in. The realm of sustainable design, seeks to consider to all important elements within nature when constructing the built human environment. To minimize resource use and the amount of space occupied and to maximize the utilization of materials and labor, synergy is created through designing multi-use structures. Every vital human system should incorporate these multi-use principles.
Importance of Walking the Talk
It is the resulting sprawl driven American Dream Style Lifestyles that are the ultimate driver of the status quo. If we as more enlightened and conscious eco-chic consumers want to truly walk the talk of sustainability and ecological design, we need to rethink how we live on this Earth. So the first principle of Ecological Design is the self-realization process that enables us to emerge as Critical Thinkers and ask probing questions about the what we do, how we do it and where the elements for the things we do come from.
Key Concepts, Principles and Values:
Multi-use in construction considers the multifunctional aspects of a building design that reduce unnecessary redundancy in a building. Examples of this include what Soleri has pioneered in terms of buildings suitable for living and working and performance as well as combined heating and power systems that reducing the need for heating spaces and water with separate systems
Use of Embodied Energy in manufacturing, transport and assembly
Energy and resource use of completed building
Building Synergy between systems so that systems overlap and interact with each other well to reduce operational and resource use and costs
Site Selection using concepts like Situational Design/Analysis and Stakeholder/output based mapping processes
Key Questions in Designing a Sustainable Habitat (actually for any ecologically designed project):
First how does the building and or building technology compare with other building systems that are usually constructed on-site in terms of build quality?
What is the cost as comparison to other building materials?
What is the embodied energy cost to remove, process and construct the materials at the factory site?
What are the maintenance and operational costs for the building?
How much embodied energy to transport the material to the job site?
What are the requirements in terms of cost and energy to assemble the building parts into a finished structure?
Why is Ecological Design taking time to become Mainstreamed?
There are many reasons for the relatively slow changes in relation to sustainability and sustainable development. One is that anytime you put forward a radical vision of a change there is resistance from the vested interests that perpetuate the status quo. One specific reason that Ecological Design has not caught on is because people are slow to embrace the added complexity of multi-variate thinking. This is evident in relation to the design of increasing complex modern systems of habitat, production, financial and even at the end-user level in terms of looking at consumption habits.
References & Notes:
Richard Rogers; Cities for a Small Planet; P161.