Subject: Once more on standard designs

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 10:12:19 -0400 (EDT)

Some clarification of standard designs seems to be in order as Jack's
post seems to misunderstand the definition I passed along.  I'm sorry if I
was unclear. 
A better term, and maybe one I'll startusing now that I've been prompted to
think about it, is "standard designcomponent."  It is like a word in a
sentence.  The word has a set of meaningswhich are reasonably well fixed at a
particular place and time, but in a
sentence context gives meaning utility.  In the same way a standard design is
a way to solve an extremely specific problem.  As I said earlier, biological
problems are rarely repeat themselves to that degree of specificity.  When
they do, symbionts evolve pretty quickly to solve them.

So a standard design solves a particular problem in a particular way.  We
don't reinvent glass to make a greenhouse.  And we don't need to reinvent
convection to usefully move air in a greenhouse.  There are maybe 5 or 6
classic attached greenhouse designs that provide the STARTING POINT for 90
percent of the well designed attached solar greenhouses in permaculture, if
the designer is adequately informed.  For example, the classic standard
attached solar greenhouse design for a cool/cold temperate sunny-winter
climate is a shallow pit with a 3 or 4 foot kneewall, 12 feet wide and a 60
degree slope of glass, oriented to midpoint open sky in the direction of the
equator.  Technically, there are small efficiencies in changing the glazing
angle according to latitude, but in practice these are swamped by the site
specific factors and are so small in benefit that the easy to construct
30/60/90 triangle becomes the design pattern.  However, an equally useful
standard design in the same climate is a vertical wall greenhouse, starting
at about 40 degrees latitude and higher, especially, and especially if one
has reliable winter snow or another good reflective surface.  The distinction
is a function of architecture--existing buildings may not look right with a
modernistic looking greenhouse attached but a solar "porch" could fit right
in, even in a historical area, as we did in one design. The point again is
that the competence of the designer is the paramount determining factor,
whether or not s/he plugs standard designs into the package.  The idea of
using a standard design to substitute for a permaculture design has not been
considered by any responsible designer I know or every heard of.  They are
individual words, not merely in a sentence, but in a full poem.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next starts in Oct. 1997. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA
 [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.