WHAT CAN ECODESIGN LEARN FROM OTHER DESIGN

TRADITIONS?Are there any general principles?

orHow lateral can you get?

Peter Harper

RULES FOR A COMMON JIG

• 6/8 time

• 2 repeated sections of 8 measures

• A A’ B A

MECHANIC’S TOOLBOX

• ‘Swiss army knife’ vs. the kitchen sink

• What’s in the top of your box?

• What’s a beginner’s set?

• Geometry and time….

RULES FOR A LIMERICK

• 2 rhyming 5-foot anapaestic lines– set characters and situation

• 2 rhyming 3-foot lines in same metre– Introduce a development or complication

• 1 5-foot line rhyming with the first two – The punchline

• AAbbA

GOOD AND BAD LIMERICKSThere was a old man from Acroma,

Who read aloud verses from Homer.

People came from afar

Just to smell his cigar,

It had such a lovely aroma

POOR: WHY? There was an old fellow from Lyme

Who married three wives at a time

When asked “Why the third?”

He said, “One is absurd,

And bigamy, Sir, is a crime.”

A COOK’S HERB BED

Parsley

Rosemary

Thyme, Marjoram

Chives Mints

Lovage

Sweet cicely

Bay

TarragonFennel

Sage Thyme

Rosemary

Kitchen

Sorrel

KEY Unseparated waste Separated waste (brought) Separated waste (kerbside) Heat Biogas Electricity Intermediate materials Clean recyclate Finished goods Unsaleable inerts

DRY MATERIALS RECOVERY

UNIT

PICNIC AREA

LAB

OFFICE

SHOP/CAFÉ/VISITOR CENTRE

CHPUNIT

GREEN-HOUSES

GARDEN CENTRE

AD UNIT

CURING UNIT

IN-VESSEL COMPOSTING

PYRO-LYSIS

WOOD PRO-CESSING

REPAIR AND REMANUFACTURING

UNITS

BRING SITEMATERIAL AND ENERGY FLOWS IN A

RESOURCE-RECOVERY PARK USING BOTH MIXED & SEPARATED WASTES

Architectural salvage

Cardboard

Coarse Demolition waste

Furniture, paint etc

General re-

cyclables

Reject combustibles

Dry re-cyclables

Organics

MECHANICAL-BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT

ENGINEERED LANDFILL

WEEE

Mixed MSW

RECYCLING FUN PARK

LOW ENERGY HOUSING I

LOW ENERGY HOUSING II

DESIGNING A COMPOST BINFOR SOFT WASTES

• Flat aspect ratio

• Half lid

• 10mm grille base and door

• Moveable insulation cover

Chains of added valueGreen Business Network

Cardboard collection

Preparing and shredding Sales for animal

bedding

Collection of used bedding

Worm composting

yielding worms for saleFinished

compost for sale

Worms sold to visitors for feeding

fish

Sales of fish

THE WORD ‘DESIGN’ APPEARS PRINCIPALLY IN THE APPLIED VISUAL

ARTS• Graphic design • Book design• Textile design• Flag design• Typeface design

• 3-dimensional design• Product design• Garden design• Kitchen design• Interior design• Stage set design

• Web design• Object-oriented design• Ecological design

• Designer clothes, drugs etc• Grand Designs• The Design Council• Design and build• Craft design and technology• The argument from design

Feng Shui

?

• Keep It Simple...

• Use Meaningful Symbolism...

• Use 2 - 3  Basic Colors...

• No lettering or seals...

• Be Distinctive or be Related...

RESONANT, GNOMIC, DETAILED ADVICE

• The Common Closure Principle: Classes that change together, belong together. • The Common Reuse Principle: Classes that aren't reused together should not be grouped

together. • The Acyclic Dependencies Principle: The dependency structure for released components

must be a directed acyclic graph. There can be no cycles. • The Stable Dependencies Principle: Dependencies between released categories must run

in the direction of stability. The dependee must be more stable than the depender. • The Stable Abstractions Principle: The more stable a class category is, the more it must

consist of abstract classes. A completely stable category should consist of nothing but abstract classes

• The Open/Closed Principle: Software entities (classes, modules, etc) should be open for extension, but closed for modification.

• The Liskov Substitution Principle: Derived classes must be usable through the base class interface without the need for the user to know the difference.

• The Dependency Inversion Principle: Details should depend upon abstractions. Abstractions should not depend upon details.

• The Interface Segregation Principle: Many client specific interfaces are better than one general purpose interface/

• The Reuse/Release Equivalency Principle: The granule of reuse is the same as the granule of release. Only components that are released through a tracking system can be effectively reused.

A DESIGNER TRYING TO GIVE GOOD ADVICE:

(What kind of design?)

• Look for simplicity. If you don't have it, make sure that there are reasons that more complexity was exposed. Accept good answers, but only good answers.

• Also look for good things. • I have tried from time to time to come up with a theory of

"needless contrivance" where you can recognize the difficulty of using an interface that the interface is inappropriate, and in what way. I guess what I'm saying is that if you see a design with a lot of "patching up around the edges" then the problem isn't the edges: its the core.

A MASTER’S LIST

• Observe and interact• Catch and store energy• Obtain a yield• Apply self-regulation and accept feedback• Use and value renewable resources and services• Produce no waste• Design from patterns to details• Integrate rather than segregate• Use small and slow solutions• Use and value diversity• Use edges and value the marginal• Creatively use and respond to change

KITCHEN IMPLEMENTS

• Special or general purpose?– Brilliant one-offs– Neat but you can manage without– Complete bloody lemons

• How many do you need?– Beginner’s sets– Building up

• Accidental new uses• Graceful simple items with opportunities for display,

amusement and variation• Any of these principles applicable outside the kitchen?• Anything ‘eco’ here?

SOME PRINCIPLES FOR AN ECO-RETROFIT

• The household should make the maximum practical contribution to ‘sustainability’

• Generalisable results are the most useful output, rather than simply ‘being green’

• It could be designed with results in mind• One or more areas of specialisation should be

chosen• There should be a reasonable balance between

research and ‘just living’• But try this: No skips, no bonfires

FINDING THE BALANCES

• Modest conventional standards of comfort and appearance

• Multiple systems where appropriate, straddling the threshold of conventional standards

• Avoid anal greenie perfectionism– Quit while you’re ahead– A sprat to catch a mackerel is OK– BATNEEC: do the best you can within the

budget

‘Breathing wall’ approach

Bitvent

Foil-backed plasterboard

Warmcel

Ground floor ceiling and internal wall insulation in some cases

An opportunity for de-materialised play

Effects of No Skips rule

Categories of building wastes• Re-used (or stored for re-use) on site:• Re-usable plumbing items• Re-usable electrical fittings• Wood for joinery• Wood for garden structures • Slate slabs (5 size categories)• Building stone• Stone for hardcore• Whole Bricks• Broken bricks• Water-worn stones• Special items such as chimney pots• General building rubble • Wood for fuel• Small woody wastes for composting

Exported to recycleNonferrous scrap Ferrous scrapWEEE

Exported to landfill PlasticsToxic materials (e.g. asbestos sheeting

93.3

2.1

0.21.6 2.8

Dubious wastes Scrap metal & WEEE

Wood for fuel Wood for re-use

Inerts for re-use or stock

About 4.3 tonnes of material

Figures in percentages

NOW…

Does any of this help us design a common jig?

CONCLUSIONS?

• There are no universal design principles that are useful to beginners

• Even within specific fields, the rules for beginners and the rules for experts might be different

• There is no substitute for getting stuck in and learning from inside

• Then the ‘wisdom of the elders’ starts to make sense