Day 11
Nov 6. 2014
Outline
- Research
- Ideation
- Some schematics
- Some inspiration from the Butterfly Garden
I can finally begin the design process! Of course, I can do field research for much longer, as I have been learning incredible amounts the past 10 days, but I only have 10 days left before I have to go come up with something so there you go, onward.
Here’s what an outline of what I had at the beginning:

And a lot has changed!
To keep track of everything, here’s an index of a few things.
Simplified definitions of important terms:
- Ecology: study of organisms and their relationships to the environment
- Biodiversity: number of species and interactions
- Sustainable Design: design with economy, environment & culture in mind
- Sustainable Development: urban planning with sustainable design in mind
- Native Plant Gardens: gardens that promote native plants over exotics
- Conservation: the act of preserving, guarding, or protecting; wise use.
- Ecotourism: tourism that focuses on the experience of nature in a ideally sustainable way
- National Park/Reserve: often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride
- Interaction Design: design to improve user experience
- Ideate/Prototype/User testing: brainstorm/create/execute
- Scenario-planning: emphasizing on providing alternatives for a possible future scenario
- Vertical Gardening: way to grow vegetables and flowers in much less space
- Green-washing: fake ecotourism; which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.
- Green urbanism: practice of creating communities beneficial to human and the environment. According to Beatley It is an attempt to shape more sustainable places, communities and lifestyles. and consume less of the world’s resources.
Locations/Organizations in Monteverde:
- ProNativas
- Monteverde Cloud Reserve
- Children’s Eternal Rainforest
- Monteverde Conservation League
- Biological Station
- Santa Elena
- Cerro Plano
- Monteverde Insitute
- Escuela Creativa
- Colegio Santa Elena
- Bajo del Tigre
- Monteverde Centro
- Villa Verde

People involved:
- Alan Masters
- Karen Masters
- Willow Z.
- Gisella F.E.
- Johel Chavez
- Raquel
- Moncho
- Bob, Director of MV Conservation League
- Carlos, Spanish Teacher
- Angela
- Julien
- Construction guy
More of SE:


















Resources:
- Internet, People, Books/documents
Aims:
- Increase biodiversity in Santa Elena => Create spaces that allows this. => Get people’s participation
- Improve visitor experience and Improve livability of Santa Elena => Can improve livability by improving visitor experience
- A public space that enables the growth of other small spaces. Use technology to widen target and inform people.
Name Ideas for Project:
- Giving voice to animals
- Some sort of animal or plant
Need to execute (in the following order)
- Site plan
- Website
- App proposal
- Brochure/poster (?)
- Video
- Presentation
- Paper
Design Examples:



References I’ve been perusing:





I explored the Butterfly Garden near my house and here are some notes;
- No signs for plants or butterflies
- 4 gardens (1 outside, 3 greenhouses)
- Beautiful trails
- Relatively secluded and quiet
- Native & exotic plants
- Fermented fruit seen on stands
- Vases with flower also on stands, for decoration (butterflies never come there)
- Map and butterfly museum at entrance
- It felt like time stopped
- Beautiful scenic view at entrance
- Their advertisements are everyone in town; probably because it’s so hard to get to
- Got lost in the gardens and loved it
- Notice looking up at trees
- Located on the bottom of the hill; not convenient
- Souvenirs sold right at exit
- Butterfly museum is so random and not cohesive; didn’t get the point of see dead bugs that I didn’t get to see (not a very good explanation of them either; no interactivity)
I also got some inspiration from photographing this beautiful garden:





































































































What’s next:
- Keep on Ideating
- Research
- Keep track of everything, ahhhhh!!!!