Resource assessment and acquisition
This section by Lucie Bardos and Heather Jo Flores
The Resource step of our GOBRADIME design process boils down to two sides of the same leaf:
- Recognize the wealth of resources that surround you and that will help you to complete your design project.
- Identify which resources you need to source or introduce into your design in order to complete your project.
Resource survey and full course review
Review your goals, observations, and boundaries. Review all the modules you’ve done so far.
(Helpful hint: you should have done most of the modules by the time you get to this step.)
By way of review, you can start by working your way through the questions below, then compile the resulting information into map overlays and resource lists.
- List patterns that you notice on your design site which could be advantageous to incorporate into your design.
- Does your design site already offer any local ecosystem services such as soil building, pest mitigation, seeds, pollination, wildlife habitat, or water filtration?
- How can you use the unique characteristics of your local climate and microclimates as resources to benefit your design? Conversely, which resources might you require to adapt your project to these conditions?
- How is the scale of your site linked to specific resources or resource needs?
- If you plan to build earthworks, do you have the tools and machinery needed for the undertaking? If not, what will you need to source?
- How will you source your water? Is it already plentiful or does it need to be directed onto the site? If so, what resources will this require?
- What “waste” products on your site can you turn into valuable resources to help complete your project?
- What kinds of built structures are present on your site that can serve as resources or resource hubs? Are there any that need to be built?
- Which of your local community members’ energy and expertise can you realistically draw on to help you complete your project?
- How do all of your components connect to create a system, and what does that system give, take, create, and destroy?
Getting Creative
Let’s not sugarcoat the fact that finances are an issue for most designers and can present a significant barrier in taking a design from a map to a physical reality. For many of us, making our project doable means getting creative about ways that we can optimize our finances and gain access to resources cheaply or free of cost. Some of these strategies may require us to go to the edge of our comfort zones, but remember, the edge is where the most growth and learning happens!
If you can’t find what you need for free, try to innovate something that will fulfill the same function. Our most powerful tool for building an ecological culture is our own creativity. Use it.
Pro Tips
- Use Your Zones and Sectors. Map your resources according to the zones, placing a special focus on sector-related resources. Use these tools as a lens through which to view your site and the community around it.
- Work Smarter Not Harder. Do some research and see whether anyone else has solved the same problem or shared the same goals. With the rise of YouTube and Blogging culture, you are sure to find someone who has been in similar situations, and tackled them effectively. Remember, you should never copy anything exactly, because every design should be site-specific, but usually another person’s solution is easily adapted to a similar problem.
- Accept Feedback and Creatively Respond to Change. If the necessary resources seems impossible to source, try reassessing your goals—just a little—to make room for an alternative plan that makes good use of the resources and ideas you have now.
- Stagger Your Resource Needs. As you assemble lists of what you have and what you need, it will become apparent that you don’t need everything all at once. Rather, there will be a flow of resources in and out of the project, the nature of which will change and evolve over time. Try to envision this flow, organize your lists in chronological order, and layer them into your timeline and phase plans.
- Be Happy to Pay for Some Things. Figuring out ways to access resources free of charge is an important strategy for the frugal designer, but it’s also important that we place value on the labor and products of our colleagues. Sometimes a better choice than getting a free, mass-produced secondhand item is to buy something locally made, of real quality, that lasts for years or generations to come. If you can support local producers or artisans with your purchases, then your dollars are being invested in strengthening your community and local economy.
- Learn to Differentiate “Surplus” from “Resource In Use”. It’s important to note that sometimes the way we classify something (as “resource,” “surplus,” or “waste”) depends on our point of view and our place in society. For instance, is that empty urban lot just land that is going to waste and begging to be planted up as an urban food garden, or does it already serve as a shelter for homeless folks who were priced out of their apartment in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood? In short, we must be mindful when claiming our resources!
Homework for this phase of your design project
Brainstorm and freewriting
Go back through your components wish-list, your observation notes, and review everything with your “resources glasses” on.
What do you have?
What do you need?
What can you create?
What can you do without?
What needs acquired asap, at any cost, and what will be on your “wish list,” for some time down the line?
What needs acquired asap, at any cost, and what will be on your “wish list,” for some time down the line?
And so on…
Think, write, adjust.
Brainstorm, get more feedback, and let this step help you figure out which parts of your design will be easiest to accomplish soonest, and which parts you might need time to “save up” for.
Feedback
Ask stakeholders what they need and what they can offer to the project.
Now that you’ve begun to represent your work more visually, you have something to share. Revisit stakeholder questionnaires, review your notes, and show everybody your maps and resource assessments.
Ask each person what they can offer in terms of resources, of any kind.
Deliverables
- Before moving on to the next section, create a map layer and/or some sort of diagram that represents the resources, surpluses and deficiencies, on your site.
- Now is the time to pull together your species lists, plant lists, and related documentation about the creatures you’re sharing your site with.
- For bonus points (not really but seriously you should include this), map the connected neighborhood.