PLANNING AND DESIGN

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Community Design, Systems and Ecological Design

Community Design
  • Creating Community
    Ian Mason's Homepage. An Ecological Community and Eco-Village Web Site Principles, ideas and visions for developing local community.
  • Eight steps to creating your own sustainable Community
    by Robert Gilman � edited by Tommy Cichanowski. You might think that guidelines for eco-village development would mostly have to do with their "eco" aspect. That is, how to handle the blosystem and built environment. These are certainly important but in researching this issue and interviewing many people with extensive community experience, we have learned that the physical systems are the easiest part. They are also the most variable. The details depend strongly on the specifics of the community, its location, purpose, and composition. These guidelines here, focus on where we perceive the need to be. The social process of eco-village development.
  • Sustainable Community Design
    Sustainable Community Design refers essentially to a practice of planning, designing, building and managing, and the social- economic development of communities following the precepts of sustainable development set out by the UN Brundtland Commission in 1986. In the same year, Van Der Ryn and Calthorpe published their "design synthesis for cities, suburbs and towns" -- a foundational study of conceptual and empirical approaches, environmental, landscape, urban design and architectural themes, and illustrative project designs for creating "sustainable communities". The Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba
  • Green Communities
    The Green Communities Assistance Kit that you will find here is packaged as a step-by-step guide for planning and implementing sustainable actions. Each of the five steps results in a specific outcome. Provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  • The Natural Step
    The Natural Step (TNS) is an international organization that uses a science-based, systems framework to help organizations, individuals and communities take steps towards sustainability.
  • Glossary of Terms
    on the website of Earthsong Auckland, New Zealand.
Systems and Ecological Design
  • A Pattern Language (Book)
    by Christopher Alexander
  • Pattern Language.com
    The website to the book! Patternlanguage.com is a community-based website dedicated to supporting all efforts to re-build the earth and care for it as a living structure.
  • Ecological Design Institute
    "Designing to meet human needs while preserving the health of planetary life is the fundamental task of ecological design, and the primary mission of the Ecological Design Institute (EDI) and Van der Ryn Architects."
  • Society for Responsible Design, Australia
    The aim of the Society for Responsible Design is to work towards a sustainable future through environmentally and socially responsible design practices
  • Planet Earth Home, by Mel Moench (Book)
    planet earth home is a compilation of the entire world's knowledge and technology for new self-sufficient home designs. It is organized as a reference work covering virtually all related technologies such as solar, photovoltaic, wind, greenhouses, and more.
  • SETAC Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) Advisory Group
    The mission of the SETAC LCA Advisory Group is to advance the science, practice, and application of LCAs to reduce the resource consumption and environmental burdens associated with products, packaging, processes, or activities.
  • The Hannover Principles
    Developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, the Hannover Principles were among the first to comprehensively address the fundamental ideas of sustainability and the built environment, recognizing our interdependence with nature and proposing a new relationship that includes our responsibilities to protect it.
  • Whole Systems
    Nature is a whole system. But also an economy, a family, a company, a community, or many other things, can be looked at as whole systems. A whole system view would include all the factors involved and examine how they relate to each other and how they work as a whole. To deal with a whole system we can't leave anything out as irrelevant. Intuition is as important as rationality, we must address both scientific and artistic approaches, both material and spritual needs, the small as well as the big, what we feel as well as what we think, what we perceive as well as what we imagine.
    Resources from the New Civilization Network
  • Introduction to General Systems Theory
    A slide show.
  • Corporate Design Foundation, USA
    Corporate Design Foundation is a nonprofit educational and research organization founded on the belief that individual and organizational interests can best be served through the effective use of design disciplines: product design, communication design and architecture. This site contains resources for business leaders, faculty, students and others interested in the integration of design and business.
  • William A. McDonough
    William McDonough is an internationally renowned designer and one of the primary proponents and shapers of what he and his partners call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.'
  • Design Earth Synergy
    Envision Synergy was initially formed when Chris Belknap (Design Synergy) and Paul Ponthieux (Envision) made a commitment to join forces after many years of collaborating on sustainable community projects in Hawaii. Together and individually, they spent many years working to promote the opportunity and value of sustainable design at the community level.
  • Mind Tools: SWOT Analysis
    SWOT Analysis is a very effective way of identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses, and of examining the Opportunities and Threats you face. Carrying out an analysis using the SWOT framework will help you to focus your activities into areas where you are strong, and where the greatest opportunities lie.

updated: 16-Feb-03

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