For the past six years,ecological design has been more than an ab-straction for me.The essays that follow originated in physical andintellectual proximity to an ecological design project on the campusof Oberlin College described in chapter 14.What began as a fairlystraightforward design and construction project became a crashcourse in architecture,engineering,materials analysis,ecological engi-neering,landscape ecology,energy analysis,philosophy,institutionalpolitics,and fund-raising.