Chapter Five
Respect Diversity:
- Nature's design framework: a flowering of diversity,
a flowering of abundance. It is Earth's response to
its one source of incoming energy: the sun. Against
this is the human "attack of the one-size-fits-all"
design response: layers of concrete and asphalt,
bland buildings, spaces lush with foliage and wildlife
shrunk to marginal places, landscapes flattened into
single-species lawns - this is a de-evolution, a tide
of sameness. Against this tide of sameness we
advance the principle "respect diversity."
The Fittest Survive, the Fitting-est Thrive
- Fitting-est implies an energetic and material
engagement with place, and an interdependent
relationship to it.
- Consider again, ants: There are more than eight
thousand different kinds of ants that inhabit the
planet. Ants do not work to destroy competing
species.
- The vitality of ecosystems depends on relationships:
what goes on between species, their uses and
exchanges of materials and energy in a given
place - a tapestry as the metaphor for diversity -
diversity means strength, monoculture means
weakness.
- Industries that respect diversity engage with local
material and energy flows, and with local social,
cultural, and economic forces, instead of viewing
themselves as autonomous entities, unconnected
to the culture or landscape around them.
All Sustainability Is Local
- From "The Hannover Principles," "Recognize
interdependence. The elements of human design
are entwined with and depend upon the natural
world, with broad and diverse implications at
every scale. Expand design considerations and
recognize distant effects."
- Bill and his professor's long term plan for the future
of the East Bank of the Jordan River Valley as well
as strategies for future towns for the Bedouin to
settle. In contrast to the competing team's Soviet -
style housing blocks, Bill and his colleagues created
a proposal to adapt and encourage adobe structures.
They tracked down elder craftspeople in the region
who could show them how to build the structures.
They hoped their plan would enhance community
in several ways: homes were built from local
materials that were biologically and technically
reusable, it would involve local people in building
the community and keep them connected to the
regions cultural heritage as well as foster
intergenerational connection.
Using Local Materials
- Avoid bioinvasion: Chestnut blight entered on the
United States on a piece of lumber from China.
- Physical materials and physical processes have an
effect on the surrounding environment - invite more
species into a landscape as opposed to "hack-and-
-mow practices.
- Sewage treatment plants based on bioremediation
to replace harsh chemical treatment of sewage -
Biologist John Todd: "living machines."
- Developing countries provide opportunities to
implement new sewage treatment systems that
make waste equal food. Michael and his colleagues
developed a system at Silva Jardin in Rio in 1992
consisting of an intricate series of small ponds,
pipes made from local clay, and a diverse array of
plants, microbes, snails, fish, and shrimp.
- An Indiana community stores its septage in
underground tanks through the winter, and in the
summer the septage is moved to a large outdoor
garden and constructed wetland, where plants,
fungi, snails, and other organisms purify and
use its nutrients with the power of the sun.
Connecting to Natural Energy Flows
- Ralph Waldo Emerson' impressions of riding on a
steamship and the lack of "Aoelian Kinetic" -
the force of the wind, and the implications of
changing these connections between humans
and nature.
- Modern homes, buildings, and factories, even
whole cities are so closed off from natural
energy flows that they are virtual steamships -
Le Corbusier's house as a machine for living
in and glorification of steamships, airplanes,
cars, and grain elevators - compare to the saltbox
houses of colonial New England (where site
orientation, trees, fireplaces, and the buildings
design and form work with the landscape.
Aboriginal Australians sticks and bark
shelter that adjusts to the sun's position.
- Modern industrialization and convenience has
caused a fading of innovative, passive, use of
local ingenuity.
A Transition to Diverse and Renewing Energy Flows
- Ecosystems and economic systems benefit from -
diversity, many small players, and a more stable,
resilient system.
- Intelligent appliances that "choose" from
alternate power sources accordingly.
- Tom Kiser of Professional Supply Incorporated -
using the natural properties of hot and cold air
to adjust temperatures "locally" within a
building and to use the entire building like
a large duct.
Reap the Wind
- Look to Dutch landscape paintings for
inspiration on scale, aesthetics and locations of
wind turbines.
- Utilities could lease land from farmers who
get an income, the utility gets power to add
back to the grid.
- Team assembled by David Orr of Oberlin College -
building and site modeled on the way a tree works -
purify air, create shade and habitat, enrich soil,
and change with the seasons, eventually accruing
more energy than it needs to operate - solar panels
on the roof, a grove of trees on the north side for
wind protection and diversity, an interior
designed to change and adapt to people's aesthetic
and functional preferences with raised floors and
leased carpeting, a pond that stores water for
irrigation, a living machine inside and beside the
building that uses a pond full of specially selected
organisms and plants to clean the effluent,
classrooms and large public rooms that face west
and south to take advantage of solar gain,
special windowpanes that control the amount of
UV light entering the building, a restored forest
on the east side of the building, and an approach
to landscaping and grounds maintenance that
obviates the needs for pesticides or irrigation.
A Diversity of Needs and Desires
- Soho and TriBeCa neighborhoods - example of
buildings designed with several enduring
advantages - high ceilings and large, high
windows that let in daylight, thick walls
that balance daytime heat with night-time
coolness - attractive and useful design
has allowed them to go through many cycles
of use.
- French jam pots - used for drinking glasses
once the jam is gone.
- Chinese Styrofoam packaging problem -
packaging could be made from rice stalks
from the fields after harvest.
Form Follows Evolution
- "Mass" customization - packaging and products
adapted to local tastes and traditions.
- Make soap the way ants would - use less water,
ship it in dry form with a biodegradable
composition.
- People want diversity because it brings them
more pleasure and delight.
A Tapestry of Information
- Working with a European soap manufacturer -
what kind of soap does the river want? A long
process to determine a safe list of chemical
ingredients - initial cost of the chemicals was
higher, but the entire manufacturing process was
considerably cheaper thanks to simpler
preparation and storage requirements.
A Diversity of "Isms"
- Adam Smith: "Every man working for his own
selfish interest will be led by an invisible hand to
promote the public good."
- Marx and Engels: "The Communist Manifesto"
- Taken to extremes - reduction to isms - can neglect
factors crucial to long term success, such as social
fairness, the diversity of human culture, the health
of the environment.
- Visualization tool: Ecology, Equity, Economy
organized as a fractal tile serving as a tool,
(not a symbol).
The Triple Top Line
- Businesses assess their health economically and then
tack on bonus points for eco-efficiency, reduced
accidents or product liabilities, jobs created,
and philanthropy - they are missing a rich
opportunity - used as a design tool, the fractal
allows the designer to create value in all three
sectors, Ecology, Equity, Economy. For example,
a project that begins with Ecology or Equity
(How do I create habitat? How can I create jobs?)
can turn out to be tremendously productive
financially in ways that would never have been
imagined if you'd started from a purely economic
perspective.
An Industrial Re-Evolution
- Natural systems take from their environment, but
they also give something back. We need to follow
their cue to create a more inspiring engagement -
a partnership with nature. We can build factories
whose products and by-products nourish the
ecosystem with biodegradable material and
recirculate technical materials instead of dumping,
burning, or burying them.
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