Principles of Eco-Design by Ken Yeang

 
FROM KEN YEANG  via Wayne Weissman


Yeang is an architect of some renown. These dictates and questions are formed from his early PhD work at Cambridge University where he studied how ecological design and Eco-aesthetic principles could be combined in the built environments.  dh

A. WHAT IS THE INTENTION OF THE DESIGN?

1. What are the reasons for this particular design?

2. Determine the amount of environmental integration that can be achieved in the design.

3. Evaluate the ecological and settlement history of the site

4. Inventory the designed system’s ecosystem and built infrastructure

5. Delineate the designed system’s boundary as a human-made or composite ecosystem

6. Design to balance the biotic and abiotic components of the designed system

7. Design to improve and to create new ecological linkages

8. Design to reduce the footprint of the built environment on the ecology of the locality

B. THE DESIGN PROCESS

9. Design to reduce the consequences of the various modes of transportation and the provision of access and vehicular parking for the designed system

10. Design to integrate with the wider planning context and infrastructure of the local bioregion

11. Design for improved internal comfort conditions in the built environment

12. Design to optimize all passive-mode (or bioclimatic design) options in the designed system

13. Design to optimize all mixed-mode options in the designed systems with partial use of renewable resources of energy and as low-energy design in relation to climate of the locality

14. Design to optimize all full-mode options in the designed system in relation to the climate of the locality

15. Design to internally integrate biomass with the designed system’s inorganic mass (ex. by means of internal landscaping, improved indoor air quality, etc.)

16. Design for water conservation, recycling, harvesting, etc.

17. Design for wastewater and sewage treatment and recycling systems

18. Design for food production and independence

19. Design the built system’s use of materials to minimize waste based on the analogy with the recycling properties of the ecosystem

20. Design for vertical and horizontal integration

21. Design to reduce light and noise pollution of the ecosystem

C.THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

22. Designing the built environment as the transient management of materials and energy input flows

23. Designing to conserve the use of non-renewable energy and material resources

24. Design for the management of outputs from the built environment and their integration with the natural environment

25. Design the building over its lifecycle from the source to reintegration

26. Design using environmentally benign materials, furniture, fittings, equipment, and products that can be continually recycled, reused, and reintegrated

27. Design to reduce the use of ecosystem and biospheric services and impacts on the shared global environment (systemic integration)

D. FINAL ASSESSMENT

28. Reassess the overall design of the entire system in its totality for the level of environmental integration over its lifecycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Yeang#The_pursuit_of_an_aesthetic_for_ecoarchitecture

About Ken Yeang Eco-Architect Design Pioneer

Yeang’s single minded pursuit of ecodesign and ecomasterplanning and their aesthetics for close to four decades have influenced countless architects and professionals whose work impinges on the environment not just in the way they approach design, planning and the natural environment but aesthetically (greatly encouraged by his former PhD Supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor John Frazer) – in asking what a green building and masterplan should look like?

What is particularly motivating in Yeang's work is this original eco aesthetic, as an aspect of ecodesign that is close to Yeang’s heart. Yeangs contends that an ecological architecture should look natural and green, making nature and its processes visible in the biointegration of the synthetic physical components of building with the ecology of the land. Much of existent architecture and masterplans elsewhere that lay claim to be green are simply commonly-styled or iconically-styled builtforms stuffed internally with ecoengineering gadgetry. Yeang contends that an ecoarhitecture and an ecocity should look 'alive' like a living system, not 'de-natured', and not be nor look predominantly inorganic, artificial and synthetic. Yeang asserts that ecoarchitecture and ecomasterplans demand their own 'style'. It is this green ecoaesthetic in Yeang's architecture that brought considerable international attention to his work and to his selection as architect of choice.

This work in a relentless pursuit of an original biointegrated 'ecological aesthetic' may be Yeang’s other significant contribution to this field.

Because ecodesign in the 1970s did not have the benefit of prior research or theoretical models and frameworks, Yeang early years involved doing empirical research, experimental design, and investigative studies of ecological processes that he could replicate or mimic in his humanmade structures. His early research work is evident in several of his key books including, Designing with Nature (McGraw-Hill, 1995) (see above), The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered: A Design Primer (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), The Green Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings (Prestel, 1999), Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design (John Wiley & Sons, 2006), Eco-Masterplanning (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), Eco Design Dictionary (an Illustrated Reference with co-author Lillian Woo (Taylor and Francis, 2009)). He is currently researching for a monograph, Ecomimesis: Bases for Designing the Built Environment, on the mimicry of the ecological properties and attributes of ecosystems (Taylor and Francis).