Permaculture design course outline
Permaculture Design Course Modules
Introducton to Design
Adopting a systems-based approach
Low input systems: a tale of two chickens – battery chickens versus extensive rearing
Analysis of inputs and outputs
How eco-systems work – diversity and efficiency - a model for the future?
The importance of observation and surveying in land–use planning individual and group practical
Sustainable, community-based futures – adopting an ethical approach
Using resources – doing more with less, strategies for a low-carbon future
Permaculture design defined
The art of placement – case study exercises
Lessons from Eco-systems – stability, diversity, resilience
Use of natural resources for a sustainable future, bio-mimicary
Carbon in biology and chemistry – the carbon cycle
Introduction to polycultures, the concept of “yield”
Emergent systems and their properties
Soils and Cultivation
Composition of soils – soil and nutrients
Soil, plants and human health
Life in soil – organisms, fertility and pests
Soil-building in Nature
Soil structure and cultivation regimes
The nitrogen cycle
Compost and mulching
Cultivation by zoning
- Home gardens
- Market gardens
Small-scale agriculture
Holistic management – permanent pasture and rangelands
Soil in building and construction
Polyculture systems
Water and Aquacultures
Water as a vital resource
pH and nutrient availability, acid rain
Water in the landscape
Terracing and swales
Drylands and flooding
Water for settlements
Water and energy
Climate factors
Ponds and Lakes
BOD, COD and pollution
Aquacultures mimicing natural systems
Trees and forests
The uses of trees
Energy transactions of trees
Photosynthesis
Forest gardens
Agro-forestry
Jean Pain mediterranean brushwood composting and Hugel mounds
Trees and shrubs as shelter
Climatic factors and the creation of microclimates
Design
Observation (several exercises)
Design cycle and design strategies
Working with both concepts and materials
Design in land-based and non-land-based settings
On growth and form
How to make biodiversity pay for itself
Design methods:
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Zones and zoning (spatial)
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Zones – social and informational zoning
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Sector analysis and planning
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Design by overlay
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Use of flow diagrams
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Random assembly
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Options and desisions
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Incremental design
Systems analysis by elements, functions and events
Relative permanence
Design by limiting factors
Edge
Stacking
Succession and emergent systems
Cycling of nutrients and energy
Design as a system itself
Design and planning
Client management and the brief
Pattern in design – spirals
Pattern in design – branching
Pattern in design – social, cultural, artistic
Uncertainty and ambiguity in planning
Non-linearity, “power laws” and self-organised criticality in the economy and society
Pattern in design – fractals and a general model
People and Settlements
Permaculture design and "Transition"
Innovation in food production, the supply chain and distribution systems
Patterns of Association
Teamwork observed
Bioregionalism – evaluating and valuing our heritage
Settlements and village life
Tribal societies and sustainability
Work, livelihood and portfolio opportunities
The rise of civilisation and the resulting challenges
Economics and the firms of the future
Communal organisation and governence, traditional and modern
Project work and financing projects
Effective aid
Permaculture training – beyond this foundation course
Design Project
Practical design work and presentations to “the client”
