The design philosophy that David Orr advocates is emerging from our research of the last thirty years. It is now being codified into a scientific discipline and successfully implemented in a number of areas critical to both Homo sapiens and our biosphere-blessed planet. That larger mind is observable not only in the metabolism of the living world. It is conspicuously reflected in the self-organizing processes of the contained ecosystems which were first developed by the aquaculture research at the New Alchemy Institute in the 1970s. The technique and technologies have since been honed at Ocean Arks International to form a body of knowledge, now referred to as ecological design.
Ecological design is a comparatively new discipline.
It involves more than using renewable resources like solar and wind energy in lieu of fossil fuels or nuclear power. Predicated upon an unprecedented partnership with the natural world, ecological design at Ocean Arks has generated a new and hybrid form of technology. This technology, literally drawing on the intelligence encoded in the processes of evolution, incorporates elements from the living world in the form of thousands of selected organisms. This partnership of human ingenuity and resilient biological self-maintenance has the potential to replace the present technological infrastructure with more sustainable living technologies. Living technologies incorporate the use of Living Machines, which were invented and developed at Ocean Arks.