Learning Objectives:
At the end of this video you should be able to:
-Evaluate the inputs and outputs associated with different components
-Describe components in respect to their input needs and productive outputs
-Arrange system components so that they have meaningful connections

Brief Overview:

The methods of design begin with analysis. We must list the components we wish to include in our system, as well as what is already there. We think about the placing of the components in a way that puts them together usefully. We recognize the connections components could have with each other and are aware of the needs and outputs of each piece.

Take chickens. Before we put them into a system, we need to think about how they integrate. We want the chickens to have healthy, thus productive lives, and to do so, they require things like food, warmth, shelter, water, grit, calcium, dust and other chickens. Our system needs to provide all of these things. In return, we get outputs, such as eggs and meat, but also feathers, feather dust (a nitrogen element), manure, a lot of noise, and heat. We also get secondary products: other food from the eggs, feather dusters, compost, and biogas.

Then, chickens are not all the same. Breeds have their own intrinsic characteristics. Some work well in cold climates, others in hot deserts. Some are flighty, others more grounded. There are size differences, reproductive differences, color differences, behavioral differences, and on and on. The more we learn, the more we can consider the connections we are going to work to make.

We must ask where we can make connections between components: what use is the component to others, what needs can be supplied by other components, which components work or don’t work well with these components. It’s also important to consider the time element of these connections. It’s a question of both how and when, ultimately creating a pattern of optimal efficiency.

We work to recognize as many components as possible. A small farm will inevitably have structures: a house, barn, glasshouse, chicken coop. There might be other animals, say cows or sheep or rabbits. The land will have different uses: gardens, pastures, food forests, fuel wood production. There will be contextual elements, like labor and finance and skills and markets. There could be pre-existing external parts, maybe roads or water systems.

For chickens, we might make several design choices. They produce heat, so perhaps we connect the chicken house to the glasshouse. They need bedding, so we could create a slope within the yard, such that they will eventually kick the bedding downhill. Below that, we can create a composting space for the spent bedding. Beyond that, it could be a garden, where the compost is applied, instead of needing to carry it elsewhere. Then, we could take rotten crops, weeds, and so on from the garden and glasshouse to feed the chickens. This is a simple example of connections.

Fostering useful connections minimizes our work, making systems better for us and better for the components involved. We can design this from our desks, but we also have to get to the site and see that everything pieces together well, that the system is installed in a way that it will function as imagined. Thinking isn’t enough, we must act.

Key Takeaways:

-We must list and consider all components we hope to include or already exist in a system, considering the needs and outputs.
-From our list, we work to put components together in useful ways, so that the components supply the needs and utilize the outputs of each other.
-Component lists include everything from housing to other constructs (fences, windbreaks) to types of animals to ways land is used, roads, skills, energy, water, etc.
-Establishing good connections between components minimizes our work and is better for the system.
-These designs are full of information, but thinking alone isn’t enough. We must implement them at the ground level to insure they function properly.