Ecological design
Encyclopedia
Ecological design was defined by Sim Van der Ryn
and Stuart Cowan as "any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes." Ecological design is an integrative, ecologically responsible design discipline. It helps connect scattered efforts in green architecture, sustainable agriculture, ecological engineering, ecological restoration and other fields. The “eco” prefix was used to ninety sighting including eco-city, eco-management, eco-technique, eco- (logical archi) tecture by John Button in 1998 at the first time. The inchoate developing nature of ecological design was referred to the “adding in “of environmental factor to the design process, but later it was focused on the details of eco-design practice such as product system or individual product or industry as a whole.
By including life cycle models through energy and materials flow, ecological design was related to the new interdisciplinary subject of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology meant a conceptual tool emulating models derived from natural ecosystem and a frame work for conceptualizing environmental and technical issues.
, many propositions in design field were raised on the unsafe environment. The architect- designer Victor Papanek
suggested that industrial design
has murdered by creating new species of permanent garbage and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air. For these issues, R. Buckminster Fuller, who was invited as University Professor at Southern Illinois University
in Carbondale in 1960s, demonstrated how design could play a central role in indentifying major world problems between 1965 and 1975. That included following contents :
In the 1992 conference, ‘The Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet”, a proposition which world is presently on the path of energy
production and consumption which cannot be sustained was reported. It contained that Individuals and groups around the world have a set of principles to develop strategies for change that might be effective in world economics and trade policies, and the design professions will play a role in it. Namely, those meant that design profession becomes not what new products to make, but how to reinvent design culture likely to be realized. He noted designers firstly have to realize that design has historically been a dependent, contingent practice rather than one based on necessity. The design theorist, Clive Dilnot noted design becomes once again a means of ordering the world rather than merely of shaping products. As a broader approach, the conference of ‘Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet’ 1992, emphasized that designers should challenge for facing human problems. These problems were mentioned to six themes: quality of life, efficient use of natural resources, protecting the global commons, managing human settlements, the use of chemicals and the management of human industrial waste, and fostering sustainable economic growth on a global scale.
One of the ecological changes that have recently taken place in the design world, is the creation of sustainable clothing or organic clothing. Sustainable clothing have been around for the past two decades but only became popular during the past few years. An important point behind the success of ecological, sustainable and environmental design is gaining people’s interest and attention in the matter. People need to be educated about the benefits of green living. With an increasingly rate in textile products sales every year, the textile industry is a major contributor to the pollution of the environment. The chemicals used in the manufacture of clothes pollute the environment and the air. People also tend to buy more clothes than they need because they always want to look trendy. This also is another source of pollution as people easily dispose of their clothes to get new ones because of the fast changing trends. These clothes just go to waste instead of being re-used, donated or recycled.
There are some clothing companies that are using several ecological design methods to change the future of the textile industry into a more environmentally friendly one. Recycling used clothing to minimize the use of resources, using biodegradable
textile materials to reduce the impact on the environment, and using plant dyes instead of poisonous chemicals to improve the appearance of fabric. These might be expensive methods but they will benefit the environment and the people in the future. There are also many eco-friendly people who choose to buy only clothes made with natural fibers, who use their clothes until they are completely worn out, or donate them to nonprofit organizations like Goodwill.
Designers are being inspired by the people’s interest in green living and therefore are trying to find more environmentally friendly methods to make clothes. An increasing number of designers from the textile industry and many more industries are using ecological design to not only protect the environment now but also in the future. Designers are problem solvers but they are also problem identifiers and by using ecological, sustainable and environmental design, and technology, they are trying to make the environment a more eco-friendly place for people to live in.
Sim Van der Ryn
Sim Van der Ryn is acknowledged as a leader in "sustainable architecture." He is also a researcher and educator. Van der Ryn's driving professional interest has been applying principles of physical and social ecology to architecture and environmental design....
and Stuart Cowan as "any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes." Ecological design is an integrative, ecologically responsible design discipline. It helps connect scattered efforts in green architecture, sustainable agriculture, ecological engineering, ecological restoration and other fields. The “eco” prefix was used to ninety sighting including eco-city, eco-management, eco-technique, eco- (logical archi) tecture by John Button in 1998 at the first time. The inchoate developing nature of ecological design was referred to the “adding in “of environmental factor to the design process, but later it was focused on the details of eco-design practice such as product system or individual product or industry as a whole.
By including life cycle models through energy and materials flow, ecological design was related to the new interdisciplinary subject of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology meant a conceptual tool emulating models derived from natural ecosystem and a frame work for conceptualizing environmental and technical issues.
History
- 1971 Ian McHargIan McHargIan L. McHarg was born in Clydebank, Scotland and became a landscape architect and a renowned writer on regional planning using natural systems. He was the founder of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. His 1969 book Design with Nature...
, in his book "Design with Nature", popularized a system of analyzing the layers of a site in order to compile a complete understanding of the qualitative attributes of a place. McHarg would give every qualitative aspect of the site a layer, such as the history, hydrology, topography, vegetation, etc. This system became the foundation of today's Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a ubiquitous tool used in the practice of ecological landscape design. - 1978 PermaculturePermaculturePermaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coin the phrase for a system of designing regenerative human ecosystems. (Founded in the work of Fukuoka, Yeoman, Smith, etc.. - 1994 David Orr, in his book "Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect", compiled a series of essays on "ecolgocial design intelligence" and its power to create healthy, durable, resilient, just, and prosperous communities.
- 1994 JohnJohn Todd (biologist)John Todd is a biologist working in what is sometimes considered the general field of ecological design, in that his ideas often involve applications that become the basis of alternative technologies. His principal professional interests have included solving problems of food production and...
and Nancy Jack Todd, in their book "From Eco-Cities to Living Machines" describe the precepts of ecological design. - 2004 Fritjof CapraFritjof CapraFritjof Capra is an Austrian-born American physicist. He is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, and is on the faculty of Schumacher College....
, in his book "The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living", wrote this primer on the science of living systemsLiving systemsLiving systems are open self-organizing living things that interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter....
and considers the application of new thinking by life scientists to our understanding of social organization. - 2004 K. Ausebel compiled compelling personal stories of the world's most innovative ecological designers in "Nature's Operating Instructions."
Overview of Human and Ecology
Living organisms exist in various systems of balanced symbiotic relationship. The ecological movement of the late twentieth-century is based on understanding that disruptions in these relationships has led to serious breakdown of natural ecosystems. In human history, technological means have resulted in growth of human populations through fire, implements and weapons. This dramatic increase in explosive population contributed the introduction of mechanical energies in machine production and there have been improvements in mechanized agriculture, manufactured chemical fertilizers and general health measures. Although the earlier invention inclined energy adjusting the ecological balance, the latest population growth after industrial revolution led to change ecology abnormally. Through mans’ intelligence, humans have extended their ecological area, involving the whole planet.Ecological Design Issues and Role of Designers
Since industrial revolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, many propositions in design field were raised on the unsafe environment. The architect- designer Victor Papanek
Victor Papanek
Victor Papanek was a designer and educator who became a strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of products, tools, and community infrastructures. He disapproved of manufactured products that were unsafe, showy, maladapted, or essentially useless...
suggested that industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
has murdered by creating new species of permanent garbage and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air. For these issues, R. Buckminster Fuller, who was invited as University Professor at Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...
in Carbondale in 1960s, demonstrated how design could play a central role in indentifying major world problems between 1965 and 1975. That included following contents :
- Review and analysis of world energy resources
- Defining more efficient uses of natural resources such as metals
- Integrating machine tools into efficient systems of industrial production
In the 1992 conference, ‘The Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet”, a proposition which world is presently on the path of energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
production and consumption which cannot be sustained was reported. It contained that Individuals and groups around the world have a set of principles to develop strategies for change that might be effective in world economics and trade policies, and the design professions will play a role in it. Namely, those meant that design profession becomes not what new products to make, but how to reinvent design culture likely to be realized. He noted designers firstly have to realize that design has historically been a dependent, contingent practice rather than one based on necessity. The design theorist, Clive Dilnot noted design becomes once again a means of ordering the world rather than merely of shaping products. As a broader approach, the conference of ‘Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet’ 1992, emphasized that designers should challenge for facing human problems. These problems were mentioned to six themes: quality of life, efficient use of natural resources, protecting the global commons, managing human settlements, the use of chemicals and the management of human industrial waste, and fostering sustainable economic growth on a global scale.
Influence of Ecological Design on Manufacturing Industries and the Environment
People of the twenty-first century are becoming increasingly concerned with the issues affecting the environment. Everybody consumes products that can potentially harm the environment. Some do it knowingly because they feel like they do not have a choice while others are not aware of the impact their actions can have on the environment and the world. Nowadays, designers are making more eco-friendly or green products because they know that their target customers are slowly changing their attitudes towards a more green life.One of the ecological changes that have recently taken place in the design world, is the creation of sustainable clothing or organic clothing. Sustainable clothing have been around for the past two decades but only became popular during the past few years. An important point behind the success of ecological, sustainable and environmental design is gaining people’s interest and attention in the matter. People need to be educated about the benefits of green living. With an increasingly rate in textile products sales every year, the textile industry is a major contributor to the pollution of the environment. The chemicals used in the manufacture of clothes pollute the environment and the air. People also tend to buy more clothes than they need because they always want to look trendy. This also is another source of pollution as people easily dispose of their clothes to get new ones because of the fast changing trends. These clothes just go to waste instead of being re-used, donated or recycled.
There are some clothing companies that are using several ecological design methods to change the future of the textile industry into a more environmentally friendly one. Recycling used clothing to minimize the use of resources, using biodegradable
Biodegradation
Biodegradation or biotic degradation or biotic decomposition is the chemical dissolution of materials by bacteria or other biological means...
textile materials to reduce the impact on the environment, and using plant dyes instead of poisonous chemicals to improve the appearance of fabric. These might be expensive methods but they will benefit the environment and the people in the future. There are also many eco-friendly people who choose to buy only clothes made with natural fibers, who use their clothes until they are completely worn out, or donate them to nonprofit organizations like Goodwill.
Designers are being inspired by the people’s interest in green living and therefore are trying to find more environmentally friendly methods to make clothes. An increasing number of designers from the textile industry and many more industries are using ecological design to not only protect the environment now but also in the future. Designers are problem solvers but they are also problem identifiers and by using ecological, sustainable and environmental design, and technology, they are trying to make the environment a more eco-friendly place for people to live in.
See also
- Ecological restoration
- Energy-efficient landscape designEnergy-efficient landscapingEnergy-efficient landscaping is a type of landscaping designed for the purpose of conserving energy. There is a distinction between the embedded energy of materials and constructing the landscape, and the energy consumed by the maintenance and operations of a landscape.Design techniques include:*...
- Environmental graphic designEnvironmental graphic designEnvironmental graphic design is a design profession embracing many design disciplines including graphic design, architecture, industrial design and landscape architecture...
- Green roofGreen roofA green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
- PermaculturePermaculturePermaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
- Principles of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent Urbanism is a theory of urban planning composed of a set of ten axioms intended to guide the formulation of city plans and urban designs. They are intended to reconcile and integrate diverse urban planning and management concerns...
- Sustainable designSustainable designSustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.-Intentions:The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental...
- Sustainable landscape architectureSustainable landscape architectureSustainable landscape architecture is a category of sustainable design concerned with the planning and design of outdoor space.This can include ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainability...
- Terreform ONETerreform ONETerreform ONE is a 501c3 non-profit architecture and urban think tank that promotes ecological design in derelict municipal areas. By formulating unsolicited feasibility studies and egalitarian designs, the mission is to illustrate speculative environmental plans for New York City and other cities...
Further reading
- From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A History of Ecological Design. By Peder Anker, Published by Louisiana State University Press, 2010. ISBN 0807135518.
- Ecological Design. By Sim Van der Ryn, Stuart Cowan, Published by Island Press, 2007. ISBN 9781597261418 (2nd ed., 1st, 1996)
- Ignorance and Surprise: Science, Society, and Ecological Design. By Matthias Gross, Published by MIT Press, 2010. ISBN 0262013487