How can design be attentive to the characteristics of an ecosystem?

Design Ecological design can be expected to be comprehensive if it includes certain characteristics, including anticipation, participation, adaptation, playfulness, plurality, respect, frugality, responsibility, and principles.

Anticipation—To anticipate means to look forward, to think about possibilities or to expect surprises—in a way it is to create thought experiments about possible future events. Responses to things can be worked out. Participation. To participate means to take part with others in some activity. Designers should participate in a complete design process, guiding involvement and commitment to the art of living together as a community. Adaptation is a process of making fit by adjusting to circumstances, environmental or cultural. Here it means fitting into an ecosystem, within established cycles and functions. It is adaptation that improves the chances of survival for a living being. Playfulness is a fondness for play, for engaging in activity because it feels good. Play is an activity that can lead to relaxation, or practice for more serious things relating to food and mating. In another sense it means to move freely within limits. Plurality is the condition of being numerous, the existence within an ecosystem of distinctive living patterns. This conditional applies to cultural and political patterns as well; it allows many values. Respect means to show regard for, or to avoid interfering with, others. It means recognizing the “beingness,” value and rights of the ecosystem itself. Frugality means being economical, avoiding excess and waste. It is the style of use of things. According to Henryk Skolimowski and others, it is a necessary lifestyle in a crowded world. Responsibility is the condition of being accountable for one’s actions or obligations. Here it means undertaking all aspects of a design, regardless of the expected level of success. And, principles must be flexible to mirror the flexibility of open systems; flexibility is provided by diversity, in fact. Sample principles are:

• Work with an ecosystem. Succession can be assisted, slowed, or speeded up, but not skipped or ignored.

• An ecosystem is designed by its limits, time, scale, and complexity

• Only details and exceptions form the ecosystem; only generalities are important—so you have to live with contradictions

• Make the smallest number of changes

• Adapt process of change to the site (you fit the ecosystem, not other way)

• Seek the best use for the products of the system; everything in the system is a resource for something; many can be directed to human use.

• Extend the life of things through cycling, then return the waste to the ecosystem; things can be recycled indefinitely, as in an old growth cycle.

• Preserve the components, structure, and function

• Understand the patterns and connections