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Posted on January 5, 2016 @ 09:23:00 AM by Paul Meagher
Anyone interested in ecological design might want to familiarize themselves with the writings of Sim Van der Ryn. He did alot of pioneering work in the late seventies and early eighties which resulted in two influential books: The Toilet Papers (1978) and The Integral Urban House (1982). It is worth studying the cover art, especially the second cover which is more detailed and which envisions an appropriate design for an urban house.
In the nineties Sim and Stuart Cowen published another influential book, Ecological Design (1996), that articulated 5 principles of ecological design.
- Solutions Grow from Place
- Ecological Accounting Informs Design
- Design with Nature
- Everyone is a Designer
- Make Nature Visible
The book devotes a chapter to each principle and in a future blog I may discuss each principle in more detail. I wouldn't do it as well as the authors as the writing quality is very high. This book is often suggested reading in architecture schools.
More recently, Sim has written a book called Design for an Empathic World (2014). The book includes a number of his own watercolor paintings which, I'm guessing, is one way Sim creates an empathetic relationship to the world.
The concept of "Empathy" is becoming more of a focal point in many people's work. The Culture Of Empathy website is a good resource for learning about the different ways the concept is used.
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