Steps to Ecological Design

A. WHAT IS THE INTENTION OF THE DESIGN?

1. What are the reasons for this particular design?
2. Determine the amount of environmental integration that can be achieved in the design.
3. Evaluate the ecological and settlement history of the site
4. Inventory the designed system’s ecosystem and built infrastructure
5. Delineate the designed system’s boundary as a human-made or composite ecosystem
6. Design to balance the biotic and abiotic components of the designed system
7. Design to improve and to create new ecological linkages
8. Design to reduce the footprint of the built environment on the ecology of the locality

B. THE DESIGN PROCESS

1. Design to reduce the consequences of the various modes of transportation and the provision of access and vehicular parking for the designed system
2. Design to integrate with the wider planning context and infrastructure of the local bioregion
3. Design for improved internal comfort conditions in the built environment
4. Design to optimize all passive-mode (or bioclimatic design) options in the designed system
5. Design to optimize all mixed-mode options in the designed systems with partial use of renewable resources of energy and as low-energy design in relation to climate of the locality
6. Design to optimize all full-mode options in the designed system in relation to the climate of the locality
7. Design to internally integrate biomass with the designed system’s inorganic mass (ex. by means of internal landscaping, improved indoor air quality, etc.)
8. Design for water conservation, recycling, harvesting, etc.
9. Design for wastewater and sewage treatment and recycling systems
10. Design for food production and independence
11. Design the built system’s use of materials to minimize waste based on the analogy with the recycling properties of the ecosystem
12. Design for vertical and horizontal integration
13. Design to reduce light and noise pollution of the ecosystem

C. THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

1. Designing the built environment as the transient management of materials and energy input flows
2. Designing to conserve the use of non-renewable energy and material resources
3. Design for the management of outputs from the built environment and their integration with the natural environment
4. Design the building over its lifecycle from the source to reintegration
5. Design using environmentally benign materials, furniture, fittings, equipment, and products that can be continually recycled, reused, and reintegrated
6. Design to reduce the use of ecosystem and biospheric services and impacts on the shared global environment (systemic integration)

D. FINAL ASSESSMENT

1. Reassess the overall design of the entire system in its totality for the level of environmental integration over its lifecycle