Ecological Design - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 353

20
Ecological Design*
David Orr
CONTENTS
20.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 355
20.2 Intention of Design ............................................................................................................ 357
20.3 Ecological Design Principles ............................................................................................ 359
20.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 362
References ..................................................................................................................................... 364
20.1 Introduction
The unfolding problems of human ecology are not solvable by repeating old mistakes in
new and more sophisticated ways. We need a deeper change of the kind Albert Einstein
had in mind when he said that the same manner of thought that created problems could not
solve them. We need what architect Sim van der Ryn and mathematician Steward Cowan
define as an ecological design revolution. Ecological design in their words is “any form of
design that minimize(s) environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with
living processes… the effective adaptation to and integration with nature's processes.” 1
For landscape architect Carol Franklin, ecological design is a “fundamental revision of
thinking and operation.” 2 Good design does not begin with what we can do, but rather
with questions about what we really want to do. 3 Ecological design, in other words, is
the careful meshing of human purposes with the larger patterns and flows of the natural
world and the study of those patterns and flows to inform human actions. 4
Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins, to this end propose a transformation
in energy and resource efficiency that would dramatically increase wealth while using
a fraction of the resources we currently use. 5 Transformation would not occur, however,
simply as an extrapolation of existing technological trends. They propose, instead, a
deeper revolution in our thinking about the uses of technology so that we don't end up
with “extremely efficient factories making napalm and throwaway beer cans.” 6 In contrast
to Ausubel, the authors of Natural Capitalism propose a closer calibration between means
and ends. Such a world would improve energy and resource efficiency by, perhaps,
10-fold. It would be powered by highly efficient small-scale renewable energy technologies
distributed close to the point of end-use. It would protect natural capital in the form of
soils, forests, grasslands, oceanic fisheries, and biota while preserving biological diversity.
Pollution, in any form, would be curtailed and eventually eliminated by industries
* Adapted with permission from Orr, D., The Nature of Design Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention , Chapter 2,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2002.
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