Ecological Design
Ecological Design

Sim van der Ryn and Stewart Cowan first used the term “any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes”(p. 18), in their 1996 book titled Ecological Design to emphasize the importance of integrating human activities in various fields with natural ones to curtail destructive impacts to the environment.

Historically, the field of ecology can be traced back to Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 manual Walden, or, Life in the Woods where he introduces self-reliance and living in harmony with the natural surroundings from his cabin in the woods. It has seen many changes in the interpretation of ecology from Naturalism which is referred to as “Searching for Roots”, spanned from the 19th century to WWII, which included famous writers like Thoreau, architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, and influential scientists like Ernest Haeckel.

This era was followed by Synthetic Naturalism “Searching for Systems” from WWII to 1996 that held the view of ecological design from the whole Earth viewpoint where design should focus on redistribution of global resources. Ecologists viewed the planet as one heading toward destruction if science wasn’t used to bring worldwide pollution, excessive waste, and urban explosion under control and into a natural balance.

The Third major period is Dark Naturalism (2000-2017) referred to as “Searching for Hyperobjects” which was coined by Timothy Morton in his 2010 book The Ecological Thought. This term covers issues from global warming, plastic pollution, to the destructiveness of capitalism. Morton envisions an altered definition of ecological design as perceived by Haeckel as more artificial environments develop like the islands formed by plastic waste in the ocean. They are not simply in the environment, but they are environments themselves.

Naturalism 19th century-WWIISynthetic Naturalism WWII-1996Dark Naturalism 2000-2017
Key InnovatorsKey InnovatorsKey Innovators
H.D.ThoreauS.V. RynT. Morton
F.L.WrightB. FullerEugene Stoermer
E. HaeckelRachel CarsonPaul Klee
Table 1: Historic overview of periods and influencers on Ecological Design

The major points of contention in being able to minimize the destructive impacts involve negotiating between opposing parties, understanding the incongruences between the intentions and desired outcome, and adjust what designers are trying to do and how they are trying to do it in order to advance the issue in a more adaptive and holistic manner. The problem with designers is that they tend to ignore or dismiss the various related parties in order to arrive at their design. At the core of ecological design lies community and tradeoffs, and respect for the opposing viewpoint through dialog and a willingness to analyze the short and long-term implications of the project.

A project may appear to minimize the destructive impact superficially, but in fact, be more destructive in a reality. One simple example is a home built using cutting-edge green technology located one hour from a large city, accessible only by car in order to give the owners a comfortable living space in an open area and seemingly cleaner and less noisy environment. The other house built within 15-minute walking distance to shopping and social services like hospitals and schools built with no high-tech green technology but well insulated to reduce energy consumption and noise is in fact a better ecologically designed home because it reduces the carbon footprint and improves the health of the owner through increased exercise.

Ecological design must take into consideration culture and context of the community or space which is to be used for the project and be flexible, holistic, and respect human and non-human inhabitants in order to have short-term and long-term minimal damage to the environment.

(Hall, Michael W)

Environmental risk management, Design Futures course.

References

  • Morton, T.(2010), The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Ryn, S. V., & S. Cowan(1995), Ecological Design, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.(シム・ヴァンダーリン、スチュワート・コーワン(1999)『エコロジカル・デザイン』林昭男・渡和由訳、ビオシティ)
  • Waldon, H. D (1854), Walden, or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.(ヘンリー・D. ソロー(2004)『ウォールデン 森の生活』今泉吉晴訳、小学館)