PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE

ENV Design, pronounced ‘E’’N’’V’ Design, is a building design business started in 2019 by Stephen Dobson as a way to focus on holistic, first principled design thinking and approach. ‘ENV’ is shorthand for ‘Environmental’ or ‘Environment’ Design.

Wikipedia defines ‘Environmental Design’ as “the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products.” Which, I hold to be both an ‘Outwards-In’ and First Princples approach to design thinking.

‘Environment’ can be defined as a sum total of all the living and non-living elements and their effects that influence human life. While all living or biotic elements are animals, plants, forests, fisheries, and birds, non-living or abiotic elements include water, land, sunlight, rocks, and air.

‘Holistic Design Thinking’ embraces the multi-faceted complexities of the built environment – a juxtaposition of harmony and balance, light and color, relationship to our surroundings including local and global contexts.

First Princpled Design Thinking: First principles help us solve problems by avoiding generalities that can lead to poor decision making. Applying first principles thinking is a two part process:

1. Question assumptions about a problem or scenario until you’ve reached some fundamental truths. (this approach and deep investigation of the specific project problems and realities helps lead us more directly to solutions that are fit for site, fit for purpose, fit for budget and fit for the environment)

2. Rebuild your solutions from scratch. (in this case in site specific, custom design)

This focus on taking a holistic and a ‘first principles’ design approach has inevitably, naturally, and repeatedly lead us to work with the principles of ‘Environmentally Sustainable Design’

Sustainable design principles include the ability to:

• optimize site potential;

  • In practice this means we consider the use of the whole site from the earliest stages of design to consider how space may be utilised in the most efficient ways possible be that with built or landscaped forms.

• minimize non-renewable energy consumption;

  • In practice this means we encourage and promote energy efficient building design and the use of low impact renewable energy sources includng solar passive and low energy design strategies.

• use environmentally preferable products;

  • In practice this means we consider carefully the materials we recommend and choose to work with, avoiding products and materials with high embodied energy and encouraging the use of natural and recyclable materials.

• protect and conserve water;

  • In practice this means encouraging the use of rainwater storage both in tanks and where suitable in sub-soil waterharvesting systems, as well as drought tolerant planting.

• enhance indoor environmental quality; and

  • In practice this means promoting light-filled buildings with a connection to the outdoors, or through looking for opportunities to ‘bring the outdoors in’ well considered Plantscaping and internal planting.

• optimize operational and maintenance practices.

  • In practice this means designing with a ‘function first’ mindset and seeking to design buildings and spaces that are functional, adaptable and fit for purpose now and into the future.