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What is Holistic Design Ecology?  -  Jonathan Crinion 2008 

Humans have been actively creative for millions of years. The use of tools and the construction of buildings grew into a differentiating feature of the human species. Various creative professions such as architecture, graphic design, industrial design, engineering and the arts have emerged over thousands of years. Earth is now approaching the end of ‘The Oil Age’ wherein fossil fuels have aided unprecedented economic growth and are causing climate change. Creative designers, in seeing their culpability through aiding the exploitation of the planet for commercial purposes, have adopted a path of ’sustainable’ design. But the ’sustainable’ path attempts to hold onto the existing socioeconomic structure that caused the problem in the first place. Locked in a self-perpetuating feedback loop the concept of ’sustainability’ is giving designers license to substitute one problem for another with their design activities.

 Holistic Design Ecology is an alternative new paradigm for creative people, that confronts the realities of climate change on a finite planet. The word ‘Holistic’ refers to the idea that all design actions can find their ‘fit’ within the context of Earth systems science, also know as Gaia. Non-material social innovation is predominately seen as the new role for designers working within self-empowered communities to create ecologically viable ways of living. Applied qualitative design methods are brought to light under the guiding principle of symbiosis to assist with the creation of considered solutions, given the increased complexity of working within the context of Gaia. The bioregion becomes a workable scale and boundary for designers to facilitate the transition to ecological living. The concept of Holistic Design Ecology offers creative people an innovative and growing set of building blocks that may be used to change course and find a new way forward.

This paper proposes that ‘design creativity’, as it currently manifests itself through the various creative professional fields, such as architecture, graphic design, engineering, urban planning and industrial design, is one of the forces currently jeopardising human existence.  As a response to this moral imperative a ‘forum’ is proposed and the words ‘Holistic Design Ecology’ are used to describe this concept. This forum proposes that we debate and grow an awareness of the massive implications and complexity of applied human creativity. The objective is to apply considered holistic solutions where appropriate. This forum can be an educational model or simply an ethos to bring like-minded people together in practice.

 Holistic Design Ecology is made up of three words in a significant order. The word ‘Holistic’ provides a context for our actions, ‘Design’ is an attractor for the millions of people who pursue some form of creative design activity and ‘Ecology’ is about the human relationship with the environment. What follows in this first chapter is simply an attempt to articulate the meaning of these words further.

 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his later life, lived in Weimar where he died in 1832. George Eliot, the English writer called him ‘Germany’s greatest man of letters and the last truepolymath to walk the Earth.’  It was during his time in Weimar, that Goethe saw scientific research had begun to focus on the quantitative aspects of things and proposed a new methodology of qualitative science. Goethe felt that visual perception was the door to understanding organic form.  Almost one hundred years later, also in the city of Weimar, Walter Gropius, an architect, founded the Bauhaus school (1919-1933). His goal was to create a new way of teaching design that would allow artists to work with industry. He saw the new way forward as a melding of science and art. Goethe is often referenced in writings about the Bauhaus and it becomes apparent that under Gropius the Bauhaus applied Goethe’s ideas to an education model wherein the traditional arts and crafts would develop into a merging of science and art. The Bauhaus had a short and tumultuous history lasting only fourteen years. However, the impact of the design thinking that developed during this period formed the basis of an important design methodology that has long been lost.

 One of the major themes of the early Bauhaus was what was seen to be regular laws governing spatial composition. ‘ In order to discover such laws, intuition had to be combined with mathematics, real with transcendental laws; a constant interchange was needed between the individual and the cosmos.’Like the world of contemporary science, design has strayed from its once holistic way of thinking. Almost ninety years have passed since the Bauhaus’s inception and the creative sector has enjoyed unprecedented notoriety as a feeding frenzy on cheap energy has fuelled an expanding global economy. For designers this has meant that virtually anything was possible and the speed at which things could be accomplished relied on the excessive use of energy.  I believe the real challenge for creative people as we move forward, is to comprehend our actions in the context of a finite whole, using as little energy and material as possible. An expanded meaning of the term Holistic Design Ecology offers clues as to how we might begin to think about this.

 Gaia was the ancient Greek Goddess who sprang from primordial chaos to personify Earth. Gaia is also the name that Dr. James Lovelock, together with biologist Lynn Margulis appropriately chose to attribute to a hypothesis they developed; ‘That Earth behaves like a singular self -regulating organism.’ In his book ‘Gaia’, Lovelock describes their hypothesis as,’The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth’s atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts. Gaia can be defined as a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback of cybernetic systems which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.” Their hypothesis becomes embodied by the word ‘Holistic’, in Holistic Design Ecology, referring to the concept that, ‘Earth’s living and non living systems form an inseparable whole that is regulated and kept adapted for life by living organisms themselves’. The concept of ‘Holistic’ thus becomes the guiding principle for all human activity, as humans are an integral part of that whole. The word Gaia is used to refer to Lovelock’s description of this concept from here on.

 The ’Design’ part of Holistic Design Ecology refers to everything that humans do with planned intent. Humans have the unique ability to envision creative ideas and turn them into reality. These new realities are simply some part of Earth or social systems therein, reshaped yet again. The excessive amount of Carbon Dioxide being released into the atmosphere by human exploitation of the planet is having an effect as is revealed by climate change. Human design creativity plays a massive role in directing the exploitation of the planet. Billions of humans currently live in environments, where they are virtually engulfed by human made objects and concepts. As we will see in Chapter 2 ‘ The designer’, this man made environment influences our judgment and ability to see a way out of the mess we are in.

 Within the field of design the concept of sustainability has been added to the existing creative process in an attempt to mitigate its impact.  Seen as an add-on to mainstream design, the term ‘Sustainable Design’ is, I believe, something different from the ‘Design Ecology’ I propose. ‘Sustainable Design’ may be construed as the design and development of something such as a master plan for a city, a small urban development, an office building, a house, a car, a chair or a brochure, for example, in a perceived sustainable manner. The design process exists as it is but now ’sustainability’ attributes are considered. Other terms such as recyclable, biomimicry or cradle-to-cradle, to name a few, have become fashionable clichés and questionable concepts, added onto an existing and now outdated design process. To ’sustain’ something means to continue with a process or maintain a state in perpetuity, which is clearly not possible on a finite planet with a growing population. In theory sustainability sounds appealing as it allows everyone to continue living their life styles virtually unchanged so long as they drive less and recycle a bit. Sustainable design in this sense remains an allopoietic system in which humans use materials taken from Earth to create the human-made world that surrounds us in a manner that does not appreciate the consequences. The word allopoietic refers to a process wherein a system produces something other than the system itself. I believe that, at present, human creativity is perpetuating this system through the way creativity manifests itself as material goods and services without consideration for Gaia. This idea is in stark contrast to an autopoietic system, such as Gaia, that contains all the components needed to function within itself. Human creativity when practiced as an integral part of Gaia will require a different approach. While we could argue about the semantics of the word ’sustainability’, it is my intention here to avoid its use as a way to differentiate its mainstream use from the Holistic Design Ecology thinking. As we will see in the later section on Language in Chapter 2 this is, I believe, a small but potentially very important distinction.

 The last of the three words is ‘Ecology.’ Ecology is the study of relationships among organisms and the environments in which they live, including living and non-living components. Through the recognition that humans are part of ecology and not something separate we can gain a greater respect and appreciation of our role on this planet. I feel there is a difference between ‘ecological design’ and ‘design ecology’. The first appears to be an action while the second is more of a consideration of the subject.

 Holistic Design Ecology in sum, considers the human construct of ‘design’ from a ‘holistic’, Gaian perspective, with an emphasis on the human construct of design as it pertains to ‘ecology’. In this manner Holistic Design Ecology proposes an autopoietic rather than allopoietic system for creativity, wherein we develop symbiotic relationships within a holistic context. Gaia, the notion of the world as a self-regulating organism, is a test of conceptual viability.

 By questioning our actions in this context we avoid the trap of narrowly defined and packaged ’sustainable’ solutions and allow instead, a holistic perspective with a networked debate about appropriate solutions. The process of design has just become exponentially more complex and Holistic Design Ecology seeks to evolve considered direction from this complexity.

Some key ideas:

 Taking a phenomenological approach, Holistic Design Ecology explores the ethics, values and qualities needed to shape design creativity in the context of Gaia.

 Holistic Design Ecology encourages the extrapolation from the conception of a new construct, to the creation an acute awareness of evolving implications.

 Holistic Design Ecology is not only about evolving towards a new holistic paradigm but also about being part of the thinking that informs the emerging ecological paradigm we hope to evolve. This feed back loop is a true and ongoing test of Holistic Design Ecology’s effectiveness and ability to adapt and develop its own resilience.

The aim of Holistic Design Ecology is to delicately interweave considered human interventions symbiotically with Gaia.

Eliot, George, Middlemarch. Broadview Press, Note by editor of 2004 edition, Gregory Maertz, p. 710  (Directed from Wikipedia)

Capra, Fritjof, The Web of Life, A new synthesis of mind and matter, Harper Collins, Great Britain 1996, pgs 21-22

Webster New World Encyclopaedia, Gaia, Gaia Hypothesis, Random Century Group, London, 1992,

 Dr James Lovelock -  Gaia – A New Look at Life on Earth.

 Webster New World Encyclopaedia, Gaia Hypothesis, Random Century Group, London, 1992

 Webster New World Encyclopaedia, Ecology, Random Century Group, London, 1992,