Ecological Design

by Van Der Ryn, Sim; Cowan, Stuart

• ISBN13: 9781597261401
• ISBN10: 1597261408
• Edition: Anniv.
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-31
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

Ecological Designis a landmark volume that helped usher in an exciting new era in green design and sustainability planning. Since its initial publication in 1996, the book has been critically important in sparking dialogue and triggering collaboration across spatial scales and design professions in pursuit of buildings, products, and landscapes with radically decreased environmental impacts. This 10th anniversary edition makes the work available to a new generation of practitioners and thinkers concerned with moving our society onto a more sustainable path. Using examples from architecture, industrial ecology, sustainable agriculture, ecological wastewater treatment, and many other fields,Ecological Designprovides a framework for integrating human design with living systems. Drawing on complex systems, ecology, and early examples of green building and design, the book challenges us to go further, creating buildings, infrastructures, and landscapes that are truly restorative rather than merely diminishing the rate at which things are getting worse.

Author Biography

Sim Van der Ryn is the founder of the Eco-Design Collaborative, the non-profit Ecologic Design Institute, and the Center for Regenerative Design at the College of Marin Stuart Cowan is a General Partner of Autopoiesis LLC

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
A Ten-Year Retrospective	p. 2
Bringing Design to Life
Sustainability and Design	p. 18
An Introduction to Ecological Design	p. 32
Nature's Geometry	p. 50
The Ecological Design Process
Introduction: The Compost Privy Story	p. 68
First Principle: Solutions Grow from Place	p. 76
Second Principle: Ecological Accounting Informs Design	p. 102
Third Principle: Design with Nature	p. 124
Fourth Principle: Everyone Is a Designer	p. 168
Fifth Principle: Make Nature Visible	p. 184
Resource Guide for Ecological Design	p. 199
Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 229
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