Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

When the people of Skara Brae moved to Stonehenge, their community didn’t fail, they just chose a different energy source. They picked a new site in England because it was the latitude at which the moon passed closest to the earth. The earth is tilted though and there is a second latitude that is closest to the moon and it runs through the ruins at Praia de Macas, and sites throughout Spain and Portugal. Design thinking here not only explains how the structures were designed and made, but also reveals a 100% self-reliant, sustainable community that existed 8,000 years ago without any social safety nets. Design thinking relies on a brutal honesty to effectively evaluate prototypes and more forward. Discovering that the stone artifacts – carved in granite without metal tools – were calendars, and clocks and directions on how to construct stone circles, changes the perception of women in this society. In this paper we consider how women developed and maintained architectural and astronomical principles and practices producing construction drawings with a length of string and keeping track of the calendar with ochre dots on the stone tools; and the implications.

Presenters

Bruce Grulke
Principal, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Communities, Adaptive Transformation, Sustainable Development Solutions, Virginia, United States