Ecology of the Artificial

The moral responsibility of the designer; "There are few professions as harmful as Industrial design"

Ecolologically sustainable design

• The Ecosphere [earth]
• Atmostphere [Air]
• Biosphere [Life] } A Limited Evironment
• Lithosphere [Rock]
• Hydrosphere [Water]

Easter Island Example

Stone Statues on the coast.

Europeons arrived and found barren wasteland

The inhabitants chopped down all the palms to make ropes and transport the newly created statues to the coast. The last statue was erected and the last palm cut down. But the main source of food was fish, but without the wood to make canoes there was no more fishing, so soon the inhabitants decended into chaos. Civil war erupted and the natives turned to canabilism. 90 percent of the population was killed off.

This storey shows how a comparitivily primitive peoples with primitive technology was able to destroy themselves.

As designers this raises te question of "What was the persons thoughts as he cut down the last Palm Tree?" did he think somehow more would appear?

Redistribution of materials, taking more from the biosphere and dumping it back into the earth. Product Life Cycle: -> Design Concept -> Materials and Manufature -> Packaging and Transport -> Consumer Marketing -> Consumer Use -> End Of Life ->

The transition from 'Green Design' to an ecological model of the artificial.

Deconstructivist Architecture.

• Frank Gehry - Gehry House
• Our world has changed - So our architecture should reflect that.

Green Design

Ethics. eg Energy saving 'sleep' function. We added on an energy sleep mode to the computer, which is a plus, but then we feel ok about leaving the computer on the whole time.

Ecologically Sustainable Design

Instead of throwing away computers for a faster one, just replace the part you need. An extreme example for this is a tyre puncture, don't throw away the tyre, just repair the puncture.