Creating Sustainable Futures for Southwestern Cities: The ProtoCity Approach in the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/El Paso, Texas Metroplex - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 541

Ross Ashby
Design for the Brain
1960

City of Austin
Green Building Program
1991

CMPBS
Protoscope
2008

Metabolic condition
of place

Public
sector

Private
sector

Environment Organism

Protometric Protopartner

Ecology
trends

Air

Source

City
council

Water

Hydrology
trends

Transport

Food

Climatology
trends

Process

Energy

42
Commissions

Geology
trends

Material

Re-source

Feedback
loop

Feedback
loop

Feedback
loop

Development ladder
interventions

System
limits

Environmental
system limits

Dynamic
system limits

FIGURE 31.5
Ross Ashby's Design for the Brain diagram from 1960 inspired the approach used to develop Austin's Green
Building Program and most recently CMPBS's ProtoScope.

31.5.1.1 Phase 1: Information Gathering

1. ProtoMetrics ™ provides a location-specific assessment incorporating a globally
oriented biophysical pattern finding procedure.

2. ProtoSpace ™ locates similar biophysical zones.

3. ProtoPartners ™ identifies organizations in ProtoSpaces that have relevant informa-
tion to share in those same or similar biophysical zones.

31.5.1.2 Phase 2: Assessment/Learning

1. Establish flow indicators derived from assessing the local metabolism in light of
environmental patterns and human experience.

2. Establish the position on the Development Ladder.

3. Locate the physical and digital ProtoSite or a place to prototype some or all of the
solution sets.

31.5.1.3 Phase 3: Implementation

1. Establish the tool kit for intervention according to the flow indicators.

2. Identify ecoBalance (resource balancing) procedures at several scales including
the home, neighborhood, and regional levels through an understanding of air,
water, food, energy, and material balancing.