The Peak Oil Homestead Requirements are now organized according to the structure discussed last week. The major subsystems of the homestead are given separate sections within the main Objectives and Requirements Document (ORD). Once the main requirements are fully developed and design solutions are chosen, further ORD’s will describe components of the major subsystems (e.g. cistern requirements).
1.0 Homestead System-level Requirements
2.0 Water Subsystem Requirements
3.0 Food Production Subsystem Requirements
4.0 Electrical Subsystem Requirements
5.0 Shelter (Structural) Subsystem Requirements
One difference from the generic structure I discussed before is that there are now explicit provisions for sustainability and safety requirements. These would ordinarily fit in among the suitability requirements, but I want to ensure we place sufficient emphasis on sustainability and safety.
If you looked closely, you may have noticed that the major subsystems have related requirements defined under the Homestead’s functional requirements. This is no accident as the subsystems are defined by the functions they perform. If you identify a subsystem in your design without a functional requirement companion, then something is missing. The converse is also true.
(Side note: Microsoft Word has a nice auto-numbering feature that makes it easy to insert new requirements or move them around. For a project of this scale, Word should do just fine – once we start designing entire communities, however, we may need something a little more robust to handle the complexity.)
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