 |
 |
| Heat gain and loss in a typical structure. | Here in a Florida Keys house, heat is an excess commodity |
Energy then is an inescapable feature of any dwelling because materials absorb and re-emit radiant energy in two related processes called:
and
Where the dwelling exists it coexists in two worlds.
Every individual home, private and personal:
is always dependent on common property
Common property refers to that territory which any community holds in trust from one generation to the next as a sort of "entailment." inherent in the landscape and watershed of which every location is an integral party.
Integrity refers to how the elemnts and features of any design cooperate, or compete and encourage or impede the long-term health of the surroundings, the hygiene of the inhabitatnts, and the functional operation of the structure.
Here
in the schematic to the left the land, air and water are seen in surface and
underlying representations that together allow us to visualize a setting as
the entire ensemble of elements and features in the landscape,
the air, the water as a common watershed. Here every
element effects and is affected by all the other pieces of the puzzle. The
situation is dynamic and subject to constraints imposed by the way geography,
water, and wind have sculpted the vegetation holding togeher the fragments of
the Earth's restless crust and whethered rocks which all contribute to the bedrock
or subtrate and the living surface we call soil.
We call this ensemble of constructed and natural elements the milieu in whch any surroundings are brought to life by the habits and habitations we arrange across the face of any terrain.
Thus any design will either enhance, damage, degrade or destroy some elelments and features of a place or setting while preserving, conserving or protecting other desired elements or features.
value discussed | ecological design principles | living well
