Ecological design is defined by Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan as "any form of design that

minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living

processes."[1] Ecological design is an integrative ecologically responsible design discipline.
It helps connect scattered efforts in green architecture, sustainable agriculture, ecological
engineering, ecological restoration and other fields. The eco prefix was used to ninety sciences
including eco-city, eco-management, eco-technique, eco-tecture. It was first used by John Button
in 1998. The inchoate developing nature of ecological design was referred to the adding in of
environmental factor to the design process, but later it was focused on the details of eco-design
practice such as product system or individual product or industry as a whole.[2] By including life
cycle models through energy and materials flow, ecological design was related to the new
interdisciplinary subject of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology meant a conceptual tool
emulating models derived from natural ecosystem and a frame work for conceptualizing
environmental and technical issues.
Living organisms exist in various systems of balanced symbiotic relationships. The ecological
movement of the late twentieth-century is based on understanding that disruptions in these
relationships has led to serious breakdown of natural ecosystems. In human history,
technological means have resulted in growth of human populations through fire, implements
and weapons. This dramatic increase in explosive population contributed the introduction of
mechanical energies in machine production and there have been improvements in mechanized
agriculture, manufactured chemical fertilizers and general health measures. Although the earlier
invention inclined energy adjusting the ecological balance, population growth following the
industrial revolution led to abnormal ecological change.[3]

Ecological design issues and the role of designers[edit]

Since the Industrial Revolution, many propositions in the design field were raised with
unsustainable design principles. The architect-designer Victor Papanek suggested that industrial
design has murdered by creating new species of permanent garbage and by choosing materials
and processes that pollute the air.[4] For these issues, R. Buckminster Fuller, who was invited as
University Professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1960s, demonstrated how
design could play a central role in identifying major world problems between 1965 and 1975.
That included following contents:[5]

Review and analysis of world energy resources

Defining more efficient uses of natural resources such as metals
Integrating machine tools into efficient systems of industrial production
In the 1992 conference, The Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet, a
proposition was put forward that our world is on a path of energy
production and consumption that cannot be sustained. The report drew attention to Individuals
and groups around the world who have a set of principles to develop strategies for change that
might be effective in world economics and trade policies, and the design professions will play a
role in it. Namely, those meant that design profession becomes not what new products to make,
but how to reinvent design culture likely to be realized. He noted designers firstly have to realize
that design has historically been a dependent, contingent practice rather than one based on
necessity. The design theorist, Clive Dilnot noted design becomes once again a means of ordering
the world rather than merely of shaping products.[6] As a broader approach, the conference of
Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet 1992, emphasized that designers
should challenge for facing human problems. These problems were mentioned to six themes:
quality of life, efficient use of natural resources, protecting the global commons, managing
human settlements, the use of chemicals and the management of human industrial waste, and
fostering sustainable economic growth on a global scale.[7]

History[edit]
1971 Ian McHarg, in his book "Design with Nature", popularized a system of analyzing
the layers of a site in order to compile a complete understanding of the qualitative attributes
of a place. McHarg gave every qualitative aspect of the site a layer, such as the history,
hydrology, topography, vegetation, etc. This system became the foundation of
today's Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a ubiquitous tool used in the practice of
ecological landscape design.
1978 Permaculture. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coin the phrase for a system of
designing regenerative human ecosystems. (Founded in the work of Fukuoka, Yeoman, Smith,
etc..
1994 David Orr, in his book "Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human
Prospect", compiled a series of essays on "ecolgocial design intelligence" and its power to
create healthy, durable, resilient, just, and prosperous communities.
1994 Canadian biologists John Todd (biologist) and Nancy Jack Todd, in their book "From
Eco-Cities to Living Machines" describe the precepts of ecological design.
2000 Ecosa Institute begins offering an Ecological Design Certificate, teaching designers
to design with nature.
2004 Fritjof Capra, in his book "The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable
Living", wrote this primer on the science of living systems and considers the application of
new thinking by life scientists to our understanding of social organization.
2004 K. Ausebel compiled compelling personal stories of the world's most innovative
ecological designers in "Nature's Operating Instructions."

Influence[edit]
There are some clothing companies that are using several ecological design methods to change
the future of the textile industry into a more environmentally friendly one. Recycling used
clothing to minimize the use of resources, using biodegradable textile materials to reduce the
impact on the environment, and using plant dyes instead of poisonous chemicals to improve the
appearance of fabric.[8]