THE PRINCIPLES OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN

THE PRINCIPLES OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN

1.Harmonize with Nature.
The prime requisite for ecological design is to harmonise our human-made built environment, its systems and its products with nature. Achieving this means our designing needs to foster a mutually beneficial “nature-to-nature” relationship, between our human-made designed system with nature.

Ecological design needs to avert  the existent technology-to-nature relationship to a nature-based relationship.

To achieve this, the designed system needs to draw on the principles of biomimicry of ecosystem attributes to recreate our built environment (including our cities) to become ‘constructed ecosystems’, as human-made bioengineered systems through the mimicry of ecosystem attributes (physically and systemically) to achieve a symbiotic relationships between our built systems and nature and further, over their full lifecycles.

2.Do No Harm and Repair the Past impacts.
Ecological design avoids actions that disrupt or damage the Earth’s natural systems in its biosphere (its atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere). Ecological design repairs and regenerated the planet’s impaired ecosystems, and addresses inflicted past impacts and addresses the contaminants already emitted which if not sequestered, will extend well into the future.

3.Protect Species Biodiversity.
Ecological design supports the integrity of the local and global ecosystems. It conserves, restores, and enhances the planet’s biodiversity across habitats, including creating habitats biointegrated in built systems to ensure the resilience of life on Earth.

4.Conserve Natural Resources
Ecological design is not wasteful and conserves the planet’s non-renewable physical and biological resources, by avoiding all waste and further degradation.

5.Prevent Pollution
Ecological design avoids producing persistent or harmful pollutants (solid, liquid, particulate, biological), in its functioning by preventing their release into the biosphere and by seeuestering that which had been previously emitted

6.Enable Circularity
Ecological design creates nature-based built systems and products that are reusable, recyclable, and safely reintegratable back into the environment at the end of their useful life.

7.Enhance Human Well-being.
Ecological design promotes human health, happiness, well-being and comfort through its physical and eco-psychological (biophilic) effects.

8.Innovate for Sustainability.
Ecological design is innovative and progressive.
In addition to being fit-for-purpose, ecological design seeks innovation and progressively improves human society’s ability to co-exist benignly with nature.

9.Inspire Stewardship and Culture.
Ecological design promotes in humans an enlightened global environmental stewardship and reinforces the values of a just and sustainable human civilization.

10.Make Nature Visible
Ecological design aesthetically makes natural processes and ecological services visible and valued. Through form, function, and aesthetics, ecological design visually increases human society’s awareness of nature, its beauty and its dependence on the Earth.

Words by Ken Yeang, Executive Director, T. R. Hamzah & Yeang