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 sighting including eco-city, eco-management, eco-technique, eco- (logical archi) tecture by John Button in 1998 at the first time. 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.
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Living organisms exist in various systems of balanced symbiotic relationship. 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, the latest population growth after industrial revolution led to change ecology abnormally.[3] Through mans’ intelligence, humans have extended their ecological area, involving the whole planet.
Since industrial revolution, many propositions in design field were raised on the unsafe environment. 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 indentifying major world problems between 1965 and 1975. That included following contents [5]:
In the 1992 conference, ‘The Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet”, a proposition which world is presently on the path of energy production and consumption which cannot be sustained was reported. It contained that Individuals and groups around the world 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]
People of the twenty-first century are becoming increasingly concerned with the issues affecting the environment. Everybody consumes products that can potentially harm the environment. Some do it knowingly because they feel like they do not have a choice while others are not aware of the impact their actions can have on the environment and the world. Nowadays, designers are making more eco-friendly or green products because they know that their target customers are slowly changing their attitudes towards a more green life.
One of the ecological changes that have recently taken place in the design world, is the creation of sustainable clothing or organic clothing. Sustainable clothing have been around for the past two decades but only became popular during the past few years. An important point behind the success of ecological, sustainable and environmental design is gaining people’s interest and attention in the matter. People need to be educated about the benefits of green living. With an increasingly rate in textile products sales every year, the textile industry is a major contributor to the pollution of the environment. The chemicals used in the manufacture of clothes pollute the environment and the air. People also tend to buy more clothes than they need because they always want to look trendy. This also is another source of pollution as people easily dispose of their clothes to get new ones because of the fast changing trends. These clothes just go to waste instead of being re-used, donated or recycled.
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] These might be expensive methods but they will benefit the environment and the people in the future. There are also many eco-friendly people who choose to buy only clothes made with natural fibers, who use their clothes until they are completely worn out, or donate them to nonprofit organizations like Goodwill.
Designers are being inspired by the people’s interest in green living and therefore are trying to find more environmentally friendly methods to make clothes. An increasing number of designers from the textile industry and many more industries are using ecological design to not only protect the environment now but also in the future. Designers are problem solvers but they are also problem identifiers and by using ecological, sustainable and environmental design, and technology, they are trying to make the environment a more eco-friendly place for people to live in.
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