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Home , Ecological design

Ecological in the Southeast --A Workshop & Design

April 23-25, 2014, Asheville, NC Thank you to our sponsors Welcome!

• Introductions • Agenda for the next three days • CED Program—what & why • • Charrette project The mission of the American Ecological Society is to “…promote the development of sustainable that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both…” To further that mission, AEES developed and sponsors the Certified Ecological Program.

Though sponsored by AEES, the CED program promotes ecological design as a

collaborative, multidisciplinary practice and is therefore open to interested practitioners from ecology and other sciences, landscape , planning, and related disciplines, as well as engineers. The goal of this workshop:

• enhance the practice of collaborative, multidisciplinary ecological design The basic science of is ecology… --Mitsch & Jorgensen, 2004 ECOLOGY

--the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment (Haeckel) DESIGN Everyone who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing conditions into preferred ones. --Herbert Simon ECOLOGICAL DESIGN: Devising courses of action to change existing ecological conditions into preferred ones We are concerned that restoration ecologists often seem to disguise their values as science, although this is probably done unconsciously… An can be altered, but it makes no sense to refer to ecosystems as healthy or sick. Even statements that refer to “damaged” ecosystems, or that call for the “repair” of ecosystems, are ultimately value-laden statements. The fact [is] that restoration ecologists are actually operating as landscape engineers or ecological architects, conceiving a vision for an ecosystem and then working to implement it… --Davis and Slobodkin 2004 Engineers, landscape architects, and ecologists:

• have different training, • speak different languages, and • have different standards for success… “Our best designs come when we have both engineers and ecologists on the team, working together from the beginning.”

--USACE Stream Restoration Project Manager Design is…becoming a team sport and a social art…

The myth of the solitary design genius is fast giving way to the reality of “team design”--the engagement of many talented minds working simultaneously and cooperatively to solve problems.

--James Cramer, DesignIntelligence The great originating rift in architectural education was the parting of the ways of architects and engineers in 19th-century France and the establishment of separate academies.

This division of the artistic and the technical is one of the key operations of modernity… --Michael Sorkin What is important about ecosystem design is that we're not designing for forms, we're designing for natural and physical processes…who cares what they look like? --an ecological engineer When [a] constructed wetland specialist…was hired to design a showcase wastewater treatment for a winery, she found herself longing for a partner who could integrate the system into the surrounding landscape as well as propose variations beyond the rectangles and ovals she typically designs. -- Magazine, 2004 Is an appropriate profession to address natural systems? What tools do urban need to better incorporate natural systems into their work? --Kinzer et al. 2005, Rediscovering Nature: Natural Systems in the City What is a design charrette?

• Charrette comes from the French for “little cart.”

• are rapid, intensive, product-oriented work sessions in which design teams focuses on a particular problem to arrive at a Image source: The National Charrette Institute collaborative solution.

• Public charrettes are increasing in popularity as a way to address complex planning challenges.

A good source for more info on charrettes: National Charrette Institute www.charretteinstitute.org Photo by Brian Haggard Charrette Project: French Broad Riverfront Greenway, Asheville, NC • Art • Recreation • Stormwater • Stream