A collaborative design project for a world without oil.

How can we utilize the collective genius of as many people as possible to work towards an ecological future in terms of housing.
This is not a rating system, this is an open source project to create criteria and a database of resources, designs, materials, how they go together and how much they cost.
There are still many questions about how this all works, so this blog was created to get feedback and develop the idea and how the process works.

An outline will be posted soon to create a foundation to work from.

Ecology

Ecology (from Greek: οἶκος, "house"; -λογία, "study of") is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings. Ecosystems are defined by a web, community, or network of individuals that arrange into a self-organized and complex hierarchy of pattern and process.
from WikiPedia

Intro

If you would like to post an entry to this blog, send your text/images to ecologicaldesignbuild@gmail.com.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

What new forms will be created by ecological design:economy and ecology

Lets say the business' of the future will have a bottom line in terms of ecology rather than economy because the "growth" doctrine is replaced with the "regenerative" one.  Economic success is based on ecological regeneration to achieve a steady state economy.

What will the industrial forms that arrise out of this economy and more importantly, ecology.  Will the forms found in nature in particular bioregions become the new forms in making things?

Lets look at thatch.
If we used thatch as an ecological roofing solution, how would that change the shape of the shelters we build?  For one, roofs would be steeper.  Roof slopes of at least 45º are typically used in order to preserve the thatch.  Secondly, the texture and color are largely dictated by the actual reed used.
This is a photo of a good thatching reed in Plainfield, Vt. - Phragmites.
And finally, it will be easier and take less time to achieve curved edges and surfaces.  This is not necessarily the case for all ecological materials.

What new forms will emerge depends on both the ecology and the cultural community that forms relationships with it.  Or in other words, what and how a community harvests and builds.  And to some degree, what shapes they collectively are drawn to.  But they will no longer reflect an economic standard in the sense of cheapest cost of US dollars.

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