ECOLOGICAL DESIGN AND LIVING TECHNOLOGIES: RSENR # 288
3 credits, Instructor: John
H. Todd, Ph.D.
Tuesday, Thursday
Fall, 2004
Dr. John H. Todd
E-mail: jtodd@cape.com
Phone: 656 2920
Office is on the top floor of
the Gund Institute building on
T/A :
Zak Adams
211 Aiken Building
802 656 3803
Course Website: www.uvm.edu/~zadams/
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course will explore
ecological design, nature’s instructions and biomimicry, including their
principles and potential role in shaping societies in balance with the natural
world. It will describe and analyze the emergence of living technologies,
industrial ecologies and the new architectural forms that derive their
inspiration from living systems. The course reviews contemporary directions in
ecological design including microcosms, mesocosms,
replicated natural ecosystems in artificial settings, ecologically engineered
marshes, food culture ecosystems, waste purification, living machines, habitat
restoration technologies, and human settlements and human settlements
integrated with local environments. The future of ecological design in the
colonization of space and the settlement of open oceans will be explored.
The students will establish
and chronicle life in an aquatic microcosm. They will also develop their own
design project. There will be field trips to the South Burlington Eco- Machine and to the Intervale .
COURSE REQUIRMENTS AND GRADING
1: ESSAY on GAVIOTAS due on October 14. ( late papers will be marked down 1/2 grade per day. All papers must be typed,
12 pt font, double spaced.) This essay should be personal, namely your
response to the book and what parts of it most influenced you, and why. No less
than three pages and no more than five pages in length.
Percent of grade = 15%.
2: REPORT on Personal
Microcosm. This will be incorporated
into your diary. Make an attempt to identify as many of the organisms within as
you can. Draw these (in most cases magnified) and describe their behavior and
changes over time. Observe, chronicle and detail. The more you look, the more
you will see. Try and relate what you are observing to principles of
self-organization and self-design in Nature.
Percent of grade = 20%.
3: PERSONAL ECOLOGICAL DESIGN
PROJECT. Here you will develop a design project on paper. In some instances you will also make a
model. It will include technical references
and background concepts to support your project. Before you start on this come up with a
design idea, and then run it by JHT or ZA for verification that it is a valid
project. Please work up your ideas,
designs, readings, etc, etc in your diary. The actual report will be typed and
separate. My recommendation is that you
choose a subject area
that’s of real interest to you and then within that interest area, select a
design project that turns you on. Projects can be as small as a kitchen based
ecological ly designed tap water purifier or as large as to
design of a known landscape or farm.
Percent of grade= 20%.
4: DIARY. Your diary is as
important as anything in the course. Take it seriously!! First off get a really
good notebook (lined or unlined as your prefer) with a solid cover and rugged
binding. In your diary you will draw,
sketch, paint, express nascent thoughts, add photos and begin to create the
core of how designers work. Every article you read, the class lectures,
thoughts at home related to ecological design should show up in your diary. On
the left hand page put down your insights, observations from the natural world,
quick sketches, references,
hunches, etc. The left
hand page is the “genesis”, or, not-fully-formed part of your thinking. You can
also add drawings, photos or even brief articles from your literature perusal
on the left hand pages. Do it unselfconsciously as you will NOT be judged on
the “quality” of the art or the writing on the left hand pages.
The right hand pages should
be the narrative pages. Here you are summarizing in complete sentences- perhaps
with sketches here and there- what you have learned and express your more fully formed insights. You are telling the story
of a budding ecological designer reacting to the course and its contents. Be as
fully descriptive as you can. Think that you are describing what you are
learning to a close friend, but a friend who does not know much about ecology
or its importance.
Percent of grade = 25 %.
5: CLOSED BOOK EXAM. You will
have a closed book exam based upon the course lectures and readings. It is currently scheduled for the exam week
at the end of the semester.
Percent of grade = 20 %.
ATTENDANCE
The course is based to a
large degree on original materials and attendance at lectures and field sites
is expected.. Absence without a valid prior excuse
will result in a grade penalty.
TEXTS AND SUPPLIES
Nature’s Operating Instructions, 2004. Edited by K. Ausebel. Sierra Club Books. Due to be published at
the beginning of October, 2004. Advanced copies will be shipped to the
class.
“From
Eco-Cities to Living Machines”, 1994 by Nancy Jack Todd and John Todd,
“Gaviotas” by Alan Weisman, 1998. Chelsea Green Press,
*suggested
LECTURE TOPICS
Ecology and Design
1:Perspective
2:Precepts for design
3:Historical Overview
i. The
Odum legacy
ii. New Alchemy
Institute
iii.
Microcosms
iv. Space
Colonies/Biosphere II
v.
Ecosystem miniaturization
vi.
Ecologically engineered marsh ecosystem waste treatment
vii.
Permaculture and ecological agriculture
viii.
Holistic landscape management
4: Living technologies;
i. Principles of
design
ii.
Theoretical limits for design
iii.
Nature’s architecture applied to design
iv.
Living technologies for waste treatment, environmental restoration and
integrated food production.
5: Ecology and architecture:
the new synthesis
6: Ecological design in
agriculture, forestry and community development
7: Industrial Ecology and
eco-parks.
8: The future of ecological
design and ecological engineering
Last modified September 07 2004 09:37 AM
