Design is ubiquitous; from condiment packaging to the cities we inhabit, design IS everywhere. Its seemingly innocuous being has an effect on every aspect of our lives. Good design can improve the quality of human life, restore the natural environment, and bring economic and social prosperity. Design is about problem solving and designers solve problems. Unfortunately, designers often create more problems due to the limitations of the imagination or regulatory constraints.

Instead of focusing on “products” and being consumers, this blog takes the position of exposing individuals to non status quo ideas and concepts that will lay the groundwork for the fundamental changes that need to occur in order for our society to begin living within our ecological means. The redesign of how we live is crucial to our success as a sustainable species. Preceding this monumental redesign project we must first reach critical mass of awareness, then begin a radical transformation of the way we perceive and define prosperity.

Confessions aside - here, fluff is kept to a minimum. You won’t read about the new eco grocery bag, recycled carpet, or the latest Energy Star rated techno gadgets. These things simply won’t make the structural changes needed in a meaningful human time scale. I will add that I encourage everyone to continue doing the small things, but we need to keep the big things at the forefront of our actions for creating truly sustainable communities.

With that in mind…live well!

Chandra

Read Tom Phillpot’s essay, An ‘agri-intellectual’ talks back, in response to Blake Hurst’s essay, The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals. Any thoughts or comments?

Check out Florida’s first Earthship under construction in Manatee County!

The Earthship which is a structure typically seen in the West is made of re-used tires, glass bottles, various other recycled/reused materials and earth based plasters. These structures are made to mimic the systems found in nature; rainwater catchment, greywater use, thermal mass for heating and cooling, and permaculture to name a few. Bryan Roberts of Eco-Tech Construction is the contractor for Florida’s first Earthship.

Read more about the their project at Earthship Florida.

Original article at The Daily Loaf.

“It’s about ethical versus instrumental reason,” Murray said to me, so many times over the years. This discussion buoyed me up as I tried to cultivate my own revolutionary focus and morale. “If you are driven by instrumental reason alone,” Murray said, “you will be guided by logic of efficiency and pragmatism. You will be forever running toward the lesser-of-two evils rather than pursuing our own dreams. If you are driven instead by ethical reason, then you will be guided by logic of what ought to be, what is just and humanistic—as well as simply ‘doable’.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?_r=1&hp

Seaside Farmers Market Saturday 8-12pm

KIDS FUN DAY with THE RECYCLED ART COMPANY
Join us every Saturday from 8am-12pm for a fun morning at the juice bar in Seaside.  Find the seasons freshest produce available, purchase delicious local organic eggs, and enjoy the best breakfast on 30-A featuring guest chefs each week!  The farmers market will continue each Saturday from 8am-12pm through September.

Kids fun day at the market with THE RECYCLED ART COMPANY! Learn about recycled materials with Charles & Misti Schneidewind who have been creating eco-friendly art from salvaged materials for over 10 years.  Kids can make their own bracelet from soda pop tops, or make a little sign on reclaimed wood with small license plate letters. www.recycledartco.com

LOVE YOUR MARKET CONTEST!  Seaside Farmers Market has been entered into a contest for $5000.  CARE2 and Local Harvest have created a competition of local farmers markets around the country to win money to support their market vote here now!   www.care2.com/farmersmarket/

We will have a market on the 4th of July along with face painting and music by 30A radio.  Come to the market early, vendors will be set-up by 7am, the parade begins at 8am and the roads are closed by 6:30am.  A GREAT day to ride your bike!

This summer we are focusing on the food aspect of the market, produce, cooking demonstrations, specialty items, artisan cheeses and breads, novice and professional gardeners, seed exchanges, educational aspects of growing and preparing food, and the celebration of eating and sharing great ingredients.  We look forward to developing these concepts and to your participation.
Have something to sell at the market? Call to reserve your place. 850-687-3494

Kids fun day at the market with THE RECYCLED ART COMPANY! Learn about recycled materials and make something fun!  Kids can make their own bracelet from soda pop tops, or make a little sign on reclaimed wood with small license plate letters. www.recycledartco.com
BREAKFAST! Bridgette Lowe Stringfellow will prepare delicious Raw Coconut Breakfast Cakes served with Berry-Licious syrup & Orange Vanilla syrup, walnut sprinkles, fresh blueberries & banana slices… a welcome treat of freshness in this heat! Bridgette is a local yoga and Pilates instructor and is currently studying to be a raw foods/wellness coach.  You can find out more about Bridgette and her may offerings at www.dancingwithlifestudio.com
Moonlight Micro-Farm will have Handcrafted Hoola Hoops and Organic Seeds for sprouting. Moonlight Micro Farm does sprouts, but Chandra also has CFH Design Studio which emphasizes sustainable living, from permaculture and Solar Energy systems, to Architectural Design.  Chandra also maintains the loose and creative web structure of SWELL—South Walton Environmental and Low-impact Living. www.cfhdesignstudio.com
Kinowa’s Cowboy Cookies - Mostly Organic Cookies and other Organic Goodies.  You wont find Anne at a table you’ll have to search out the roaming cookie extraordinaire with her basket in tow!
Twin Oaks Farm - Farm Fresh Organic Eggs from pastured hens. Our hens are fed certified organic grains without soy. The first Blueberry Preserves of the season!!! Made with fresh locally grown blueberries. Strawberry Preserves made with real strawberries, grown in dirt for taste and not fumigated with methyl bromide, a rare find in the area. All natural preserves, just locally grown fruits and organic sugar, NO pectin, NO citric acid, NO ascorbic acid. www.twinoaksfarm.net
Ryan Ivy – Locally grown Blueberries from Bonifay, big and yummy!
Perennials and Natives by a Girl Named Toni – Perennials and Natives specializes in produce grown locally within 100 miles of Santa Rosa Beach.  This week at the market Toni will have Watermelons, Cantaloupes, Butter Beans, Corn, Tomatoes, Green Tomatoes, Onions, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, Blueberries, and Peaches.
Pie in The Sky  - Allergen Free Treats.  Muffins, Cookies, Tarts, Pies gluten free and vegan friendly! Michael Madriaga is a local baker and entrepreneur; supplying vegan and allergen free food and baked items to our community.  Keep an eye out for his website and expanding menu!
Zen Garden Market - Plants, Produce, Super Foods, and Natural Home and Body Products.
The Zen Garden in Panama City has re-opened and expanded into a true cornucopia of health, check them out at their same location on Jackson Blvd. in Panama City.  Zen Garden Market is a Native-Edible-Medicinal and Exotic Plant Nursery that encompasses a Fresh - Local and Organic Produce Market as well as a Health Store 850-234-1651  http://www.zengardenmarket.com
Soap Pedaler - Hand Made Soaps filled with super smelling herbs and essential oils.  Local soap maker Celeste Cobine delivers her soap by bike all over Walton County…she even rides her entire Farmers Market set-up to Seaside!  Watch for monthly deals for those who walk and bike to the market.
John Kratt -  Start your own garden with plants grown without chemicals!  Tomato Plants, Pepper Plants, Herbs, some Flowering Plants, may be some Veggies and Gourds.
Nikki Lyons - Artesano Jewels www.myspace.com/artesanojewelry

Building a permaculture spiral herb garden from Walton Outdoors on Vimeo.

Is this cool or what? My dear friends, the Horns - owners of Artisan Builders - have outdone themselves with a double herb spiral, in this unforgiving heat, even. Check out the full story at Walton Outdoors.

Gotta love him.

Read the full text here.

The reality is that green building and “going green” are not synonymous with sustainability. They are an element of sustainability, but they are not the defining feature. I learned this in my first course at Prescott, Critical Issues and Applications. Instinctively, I knew this to be true, but I didn’t yet have the language or coherent thoughts to express the difference. Oddly enough, over the next two years, I still didn’t have the language (or chose to disregard) to define what I studied. I often pretended that it was something other than what it really was.

I share with most Americans a common affliction - the ability to define who I am for the rest of the world to sum up in simple, understandable terms, like one word, e.g., “I’m a ________.” For the last fourteen years I have been a residential designer. This has usually drawn blank stares and then a typical response, “oh, you design interiors.” No, in fact, I don’t. Then comes the long explanation that either draws more blank stares, disinterest, or suspicion. Occasionally, I am understood. By definition, I am an architect. By Florida law, because I am not licensed, I am not allowed to use any variation of the word ‘architect’ or ‘architecture’ to describe myself or what I do. That’s fine, I have the utmost respect for my fellow architect peers that went through traditional means to acquire their career title. Unfortunately, the title of residential designer, leaves people confused and disappointed because we are so used to thinking in absolute, specialist, simplified terms. But in reality, how many of us can really describe our livelihood in one or two words?

Add to residential designer the fact that I went back to school, not to earn a degree in architecture, but a degree in sustainable community development and what word comes to mind? Confusion? After reading Stephen Kellert’s book, Building for Life, I claimed for myself a term he used in the book to describe a new professional he would like to see emerge that combines the natural and built environments, the environmental restorative designer. Makes sense to me.

I even tried calling myself a permaculturist for a brief stint. I found that even permaculturist, Toby Hemenway, refers to permaculture as ecological design in his book Gaia’s Garden, in order to be inclusive and understood. A good and concerned friend says that the word permaculture sounds unhip, uncool, and like, what is it? 

Then I came home from Prescott, with degree in hand, remember? On my travels, I picked up a copy of Vandana Shiva’s book, Stolen Harvest and in the book, she is described as an advocate for sustainable community development and her formal education is as scientist. It finally dawned on me that I was doing myself and others around me, a great disservice by not completely owning up to my degree and educating others about sustainability. By defining myself as a residential designer who has a keen interest in green design, I miss the opportunity to be fulfilled in my life’s work. If I truly want to continue designing housing that is mostly the status quo with a few green bells and whistles, then I can continue as I have all along. If I want to work on environmental and humanitarian issues, then I must embrace this thing called sustainability. What does this make me now? A sustainologist perhaps. Confused yet?

According to the Brundtland Report, sustainable development is defined as development that ”meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren claim that permaculture goes beyond sustainability by caring for humans, caring for the earth, acknowledging that every being has intrinsic value, and sharing the surplus.

From Wikiedia: Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term improvements in well being, which in turn depend on the well being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

The First Nation Iroquois had their own definition of sustainability that considers and accounts for seven future generations. “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation… even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.” –great Law of the Iroquois

At Prescott College, the Sustainable Community Development program, created by Terril Shorb is defined by what he calls the butterfly curriculum, which consists of four areas of focus; natural history, appropriate technologies (this is where green building is addressed), spirituality and psychology, and arts and education. The butterfly is the representative symbol because of the four lobes of her wings and her ability set world changing events into action by the mere flutter of her wings.

So, the time has come to stop pretending that designing a green home somehow equates to creating a more environmentally and socially just world. It’s a piece of the puzzle, but not the whole picture. It’s about the way we live and every day decisions we make. Every choice is the opportunity to create sustainable communities or further push society down a path of uncomfortable change and destruction. In the interim, I continue to make a living as best evolved toward less harm as possible, but in the continuum, deep systemic changes are taking root.

Live well.

Chandra

Power House Project by Design 99