Scale of Permanence of Products: Designing Products in Relation to Nature’s Limitations and Opportunities

Abstract

Understanding Sustainable Product Design in a world with what is perceived as limitless materials and energy can be complicated. Circular Design offers good pathways to help navigate these realities. Unfortunately, it doesn’t dig deep enough to get to the root of our unsustainability, energy and nature. However, understanding 3 interconnected concepts, energy, materials and lifespan can be foundational to untangling such complex realities. Founding this understanding in renewable and non-renewable realities can help us navigate these complexities. Within Permaculture Design is a Concept that pre-dates the development of the field called Scale of Permanence, which was developed by P.A. Yeoman for his process called Keyline Design. It was developed to design farms that are water positive farms on the driest continent on earth, Australia. Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture are founded in these concepts. It starts with the idea that humans can change some things very easily while others are very expensive and energy intensive to change. Thus, focusing on changeable things within the context of unchangeable things is critical. It’s easy to forget such ideas in a world where energy is cheap and abundant allowing us to design products that are energy and materially intensive yet consumable. However, when we do full energy accounting and recognize the limitations of finite energy sources and materials, then we recognize the importance of designing to leverage those finite materials and energy through longevity. On the other hand, when we design consumable products, aligning them with nature’s renewability and cyclicality is fundamental. Looking at all three of these ideas across a spectrum of Energy, Materials and Lifespan, integrating consumability and durability, finiteness and renewability is fundamental to begin to create a field of sustainable products in a world with more people and fewer resources, especially in relation to the field of regenerative agriculture. This paper examines these concepts, translating Yeoman’s Scale of Permanence into a diagram for Scale of Permanence for Product Design, to work with these concepts and existing Circular Economy resources. It shares examples of student projects that came from employing these resources over a 5 years span of employing this diagram in a studio class.

Keywords: Sustainable Design, Circular Design, Mutualistic Design, Permaculture Design, Keyline Design

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007768