WEDESDAY, JAN 11, 2023: NOTE TO FILE

Module 1-3

A short 8-week course in ecological design, module 1, lesson 3

Eric Lee, A-SOCIATED PRESS

TOPICS: SUSTAINABILITY, FROM THE WIRES, LANGUAGE GAMES

Abstract: As I have sustainability concerns and concerns for posterity's and the biosphere's future, I will start a course in Ecological Design tomorrow, which is one of four 'dimensions' of the offering. Subnotes to file will likely follow.

COOS BAY (A-P) — The 3nd lesson. [My comments are in brackets.]

Different Streams of Ecological Design

THE APPLICATION OF ECOLOGICAL design principles and technologies to the built environment has become a major imperative with increasing understanding of global environmental problems. These problems have been largely created by the building and energy practices that characterise the ‘developed world’ with its linear – extract, use, and dispose – economies and wasteful systems of production and consumption. [Examples of ecological design being ecovillages, transition towns, Ecosystem Restoration Camps, rainwater harvesting to turn scarcity into abundance, and Dr. Todd's "Arks" or "bioshelters", some new alchemy, eco-cities, ecologically closed "life-support systems" with the goal of sustainable functioning, alternative technologies for renewable energy, organic farming, aquaculture, permaculture, hydroponics and architecture to create "living machines" or "eco-machines" that are not remotely sustainable due to energy and material constraints beyond demonstration sites, e.g. the early Biosphere II project.]

The new ecological agenda for sustainable building design is one that insists on the incorporation of not just energy efficiency in all aspects of the built environment but to do so in a regenerative way based on renewable energy and materials, while caring for the health of communities, ecosystems and watersheds within an integrated socio-ecological framework.

To start with, we will take a closer look at seven complementary and related ecological design approaches and methodologies which have been successfully applied to the creation of solutions with improved sustainability and often also to regenerate degraded systems and improve systemic health:

Permaculture - design inspired by ecology; [i.e. Feng Shui for gardeners and dilettante farmers that does not scale up to feed billions.]
Ecological Economics – balancing the four capitals; [Transition from conventional neoclassical economics to biophysical economics.]
Restorative Environmental Design– importance of place and biophilia;
Ecological Engineering– nature is the toolbox;
Industrial Ecology– cyclical vs. linear processes.
Cradle to Cradle Design– up-cycling and the circular economy; and
Regenerative Design.

Subsequently, we will explore Master Planning as a design process and how to develop and apply design protocols and sustainability indicators as tools for project implementation. We will look at the integration of utilities, the importance of the different scales of design, as well as, appropriate scale and scale-linking design, before we end investigate the relevance of re-localisation versus centralisation in urban design approaches. [Think glocalization. Also think too clever by half and not nearly smart enough.]

John & Nancy Todd, two pioneers of ecological design who started the New Alchemy Institute in 1969, proposed a set of general precepts that should guide all approaches to ecological design practice. In their book From Eco-Cities to Living Machines Principles of Ecological Design , they invite us all to become conscious and responsible co-designers of the world we inhabit:

▪ That the living world be the matrix for all design;

▪ That design follow, not oppose, the laws of life;

▪ That biological equity determines design;

▪ That design reflects bio-regionality;

▪ That projects be based on renewable energy sources;

▪ That design be sustainable through integration of living systems;

▪ That design be co-evolutionary with the natural world;

▪ That building and design help in healing the planet;

▪ That design follows a “sacred ecology”.

Jack-Todd & Todd, 1993

309