4 principles 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Permaculture Design Principles
MUM Permaculture Design Certification Course
April 2015
2nd law of thermoynamics a primary consideration
Energy spontaneously tends to flow only from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused or dispersed and spread out
Toby Hemenway Principles
www.patternliteracy.com.
Permaculture principles are brief statements or slogans that can be remembered as a checklist when considering the complex options for design and evolution of ecological support systems. These principles can be seen as universal, although the methods that express them will vary greatly according to place and situation. Fundamentally, permaculture design principles arise from a way of perceiving the world that is often described as 'systems thinking' and 'design thinking.’
• Responsibility to relinquish power, self regulating systems:The role of beneficial authority is to return function and responsibility to life and to people, if successful, no further authority is needed. The role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.
• Stress and Harmony:
• Stress may be defined as either prevention of natural function, or of forced function. Harmony is then the permission of chosen and natural functions and the supply of essential needs.
Prime Directive
The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for own existence and that of our children.
- Bill Mollison
Core Principle
Every function covered by many elementsEach element performs many functions
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 1. Observe. Use protracted and thoughtful observation rather than prolonged and thoughtless action. Observe the site and its elements in all seasons. Design for specific sites, clients, and climates.
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 2. Connect. Use relative location: Place elements in ways that create useful relationships and time-saving connections among all parts. The number of connections among elements creates a healthy, diverse ecosystem, not the number of elements.
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 3. Catch and store energy and materials. Identify, collect, and hold the useful flows moving through the site. By saving and re-investing resources, we maintain the system and capture still more resources.
PA Yeomans “Water for Every Farm” - keyline design
Yoemans Plow - 11 hp /tine
Pond and swale systems on contour, keypoints passively harvest rainwater
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 4. Each element performs multiple functions. Choose and place each element in a system to perform as many functions as possible. Increasing beneficial connections between diverse components creates a stable whole. Stack elements in both space and time.
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 5. Each function is supported by multiple elements. Use multiple methods to achieve important functions and to create synergies. Redundancy protects when one or more elements fail.
Local Economy:Water
36 in rain = 1,000,000 gallons per acre
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 6. Make the least change for the greatest effect. Find the "leverage points" in the system and intervene there, where a the least work accomplishes the most change.
Primary Principles for Functional Design:
• 7. Use small scale, intensive systems. Start at your doorstep with the smallest systems that will do the job, and build on your successes, with variations. Grow by chunking.
Principles Derived from Living and Energy Systems
• 8. Use the edge effect. The edge—the intersection of two environments—is the most diverse place in a system, and is where energies and materials accumulate. Optimize the amount of edge
Principles Derived from Living and Energy Systems
• 9. Accelerate succession. Mature ecosystems are more diverse and productive than young ones, so use design to jump-start succession.
Principles Derived from Living and Energy Systems
• 10. Use biological and renewable resources. Renewable resources (usually plants and animals) reproduce and build up over time, store energy, assist yield, and interact with other elements.
Chicken Tractor
Principles Derived from Living and Energy Systems
• 11. Recycle energy. Supply local and on-site needs with energy from the system, and reuse this energy as many times as possible. Every cycle is an opportunity for yield.
Attitudes
Attitudes
• 12. Turn problems into solutions. Constraints can inspire creative design: "We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities."
Attitudes
• 13. Get a yield. Design for both immediate and long-term returns from your efforts: "You can't work on an empty stomach." Set up positive feedback loops to build the system and repay your investment.
Video
Obtain a yield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSTFfKHJg4Y&list=UUszWVJMsQubTLsnYEeJ20mA
Attitudes
• 14. Design limits yield. The designer's imagination limits total yield more often than do the laws of physics.
Attitudes
• 15. Mistakes are tools for learning. Evaluate your trials. Making mistakes is a sign you are trying to do things better.
Work where you’re wanted Work where it counts
Start at your front door……
Rules for resource use:
• Ranked from regenerative to degenerative, different resources can:
• 1) increase with use;• 2) be lost when not used;• 3) be unaffected by use;• 4) be lost by use;• 5) pollute or degrade systems with use.
“
Fuller quote: Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.”
Permaculture Principle: Unmet needs or inputs = work unused inputs. Unused Outputs = pollution
Permaculture design process from foundations to solutions
Strategies
Ethics (fundamental values)
Design Principles
Techniques &
Specifications
Design Methods
DesignSolutions
Exercise
Hand out holmgren principles graphic
Apply these principles to your social relations
Holmgren Recap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_-J71k2bXE#t=144
Methods of Design
• Analysis - listing characteristics• Observation • Deduction from Nature• Options and decisions - decision trees• Data Overlay - overlay different data• Random Assembly • Flow diagrams• Zone and sector analysis
Example: Design with Zones and Sectors
Sectors: Where do influences come into the site?
Zones: Areas of Greater or Lesser Human Activity
Zone and Sector analysis
Greening the Desert
Some Permaculture Techniques(Not all applicable at every site)
Gardening:Mulch gardenKeyhole BedsBiointensive
Guilds Four Season Gardening/Harvesting
Wildcrafting/GleaningGrafting
Chicken TractorForest Gardening, Food Forest
Herb SpiralGrow Compost And Grass Barrier crops (Comfrey)
Food preservation and storageMarket Gardens, CSA
Techniques cont’d• Water:• Efficient and wise use of water• Match source of water to use• Rain Catchment Systems• Grey water systems• Earthworks for storage of water in the landscape - Swales• Ponds, Tire Pond• Natural Swimming Pool
Building:Natural Building - Straw, Cob, EarthRound Wood ConstructionPassive Solar DesignDense Human Settlements
techniques cont’d
Energy:Efficient and wise use of energySolar ElectricWind ElectricSolar Hot WaterSolar CookingBiomass systems (wood heat, compost heat)Energy systems for buildings - passive and active solarGeothermalUse of renewables for mechanical energy (Water pumping windmills)
Waste and Nutrient CyclingComposting, Sheet CompostingRecyclingDumpster Diving, GleaningCompost Toilets (Humanure)
techniques cont’dInvisible StructuresLocal CurrenciesLETS systems (Local Exchange and Trading)CooperativesLand TrustsEcological EconomicsNo interest banking systems
Natural Swimming Pools
Herb Spiral
No -Till Sheet Mulch Gardening
• Forest Gardening• Guilds
Barefoot FarmMarlin and SerenityCedar Falls Urban Ag
At the market…
Growing Power, MilwaukeeWill Allen
• Integrated vericomposting, aquaculture/aquaponics, vegetable production, greenhouses, retail sales, training/education center, livestock, tree crops - in a low income neighborhood
Mollison clip - village homes
Ecovillage clip
Imaging, creating, and advocating for these choices is the Great Work of the upcoming generations
Efforts on many scales scales
Transition TownsNatural Step
Fairfield ModelCuba
Vietnam
Permaculture Education
• Permaculture Design Certification course– First step toward becoming a permaculture design
professional– Bill Mollison owns the intellectual property rights
to the word “Permaculture”– Minimum 72 hours of instruction using a
curriculum based on the Designers Manual– Work with an experienced designer– Decentralized, self regulating structure
“The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones….” - Saudi Oil Minister
Economy of Scarcity Economy of Abundance
Nature’s Economy: Ecosystem Services
Man’s Economy
The Great Work of GenerationsMINE:
- Mall of America and suburbia“Greatest misallocation of resources in Human
history” - James Howard Kuntsler
Motto: “If brute force isn’t working we’re not using enough of it”
UPCOMING: - A delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power - economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed by all.
- Co-exist with Otherness
The Next Generation
“We are charged with designing the future,
not being victims of it”- R Buckminster Fuller
How can/should institutions like ISU inform this process?
Sustainable Design Reading Recommendations
• Ecocities - Richard Register• Natural Capitalism- Hawken, Lovins, Lovins• Cradle To Cradle - Milliam Mcdonough• The Nature of Design - David Orr• Permaculture: A Designers Manual - Mollison • Deep Economy - The Wealth of Communities and a Durable Future -
Mckibben• Short Circuit - Richard Douthwaite • Ecological Economics - Herman Daley• Community Energy - Greg PahlExcerpts and interviews available at www.biggreensummer.com (look for Iowa
Mayors Reader)
Resources
• Great web site for functional plant research - Plants for a Future
• Midwest Permaculture Education– Big Green Summer/ Sustainable Living Coalition - Fairfield– Cold Climate Peramculture Research Institute - Twin
Cities– Midwest Permaculture - Stelle Illinois
• Great web site for functional plant research - Plants for a Future
• Midwest Permaculture Education– Big Green Summer/ Sustainable Living Coalition - Fairfield– Cold Climate Peramculture Research Institute - Twin
Cities– Midwest Permaculture - Stelle Illinois
Resources
• Permaculture Activist Magazine (US)• Permaculture Magazine (Britain)• Permaculture Way, Permaculture Garden by Graham Bell• Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway• Edible Forest Garden - Dave Jacke• Permaculture - A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison• Introduction to Permaculture Design by Bill Mollison• Permaculture - Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren• Permaculture 1 &2 by Mollison and Holmgren• Natural Capitalism - Hawkins, Lovins, and Lovins• Cradle to Cradle - William Mcdonough• The Nature of Design - David Orr
Classics in Agriculture Tree Crops - J Russell SmithFarmers of 40 Centuries - KingOne Straw Revolution - FukuokaHow to have a green thumb without an aching back - Ruth StoutLiving the Good Life - Helen and Scott Nearing
Resources cont’d• www.professorlonniegamble.com• www.biggreensummer.com• www.abundance-ecovillage.com
Video (some available on Youtube or Google Video)The Global Gardener - Bill MollisonIn Grave Danger of Falling Food - Bill MollisonEat Your GrdenRuth Stout’s GardenGreening the Desert / other Geoff Lawton videosEcological DesignersThe Next Industrial RevolutionThe Man Who Planted Trees
Resources and Contact Info
www.professorlonniegamble.comwww.biggreensummer.com
www.abundance-ecovillage.comwww.renewfairfield.com
www.mum.edu
David Orr example
Mcdonough video clip - Emerson
“To the best of our knowledge, the sun is the only star proven to grow vegetables”
-Phillip Scherer. 1973
Energy
What needs to be done?
Iowa Energy Supply
• 97 % of Iowa’s electricity is generated from burning coal, oil, and nuclear fuels
Where our electricity comes from
90% of what people eat in Iowa comes from someplace else
Ecocities
Course Overview• Topics
– Permaculture ethics and principles for design
– Methods of design, what is design?
– Base maps, Overlays, Zones and Sectors
– Pattern Literacy: Patterns in nature and their application in designSpecial Guest Grover Stock
• (Grover’s wall picture)
Course Overview cont’d• Topics cont’d
– Home gardens, perennial crops, guilds, compost/fertility - Grover, Brian, Alex
– Water - Brian
– Energy - Lonnie
– Building -Brad
– Invisible Structures - Lonnie
– Saturday Evening - Films
Course Overview cont’d• Topics cont’d
Sunday - Hands-On ExtravaganzaSolar electric installation - Michael HavelkaSolar Hot water - Kevin HopfGrow Biointensive , Composting, Vermicomposting - AlexSheet Mulching, starting veggies - BrianRainwater systems -Grover, BrianAdobe Floors - John Freeberg, Susan WalshEarth Plasters, Straw Bale - Brad YoungGrafting, Plant Propagation - Sam James, Brian
Chicken Tractor
• Forest Gardening• Guilds
Herb Spiral
No -Till Sheet Mulch Gardening
Crmpi example - toby’s book
Abundance Ecovillage
Takao Furuno
Joe Salatin, Swoope, Va., moves his "shademobile" from paddock to paddock along with his beef cattle. He parks it where he feels the extra manure and animal impact will do the most good.
Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa
Sustainable Living ProgramMaharishi University of Management
The first four-year university program in Sustainable Living
Goal: Provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to design, build, and maintain sustainable communities.
Established 2003, 110 students enrolled full time in 2008
Permanent Agriculture
• Show photos chestnuts kiwi walnuts persimmon
Course Overview• Week One– SL Department Overview– Intro, Global issues and the need for change, Design and
Sustainability, Roots of Permaculture– Monday Pizza and Outdoor Film: Ecological Designers– Permaculture Design Ethics – Permaculture Design Principles – Methods of Design– Wednesday Evening at the Sondheim: Restoring
Agriculture, Community, and Economic Self-Sufficiency – Jim Braun and Kamiyar Enshayan
Ethics and Design
Design and Ethics
Suburbia
Note: Temps not on same day as house photo
The Abundance of Natural Systems: Papayas
Seeds from one papaya: 200Germination rate: 75%
2010 Sustain Angoon Project
Alaska Project
Totem Clip
Sustainable Living Coalition , est 2001Empower individuals and organizations to live fully rooted in the abundant
flows of natural systems
Edible Cityscapes
2005 - Big Green Summer
Big Green Summer provides education and practical experience in imagining, creating, and advocating for beyond-sustainable communities - human settlements that work with natures design to celebrate the abundance of life on earth. Students live in an environment that is a laboratory for what they are learning - high performance buildings built of natural, local materials, utilizing solar and wind power, with organic gardens, rain collection, and community service. Students do classroom study and hands on projects in renewable energy, organic agriculture and local food systems, perennial crops and agroforestry, edible landscaping, water and waste systems, building with local, natural materials, and using biofuels. We investigate the social service, cultural, and political institutions and organizations that make the renewable economy transition practical, possible, and desirable.
Eliot
Surya Nagar FarmClimate responsive buildings
Rainwater Harvesting
Vermicomposting sewage treatment
1956 Beverly, MassachusettsPassive Solar House
1981
1982-1997 Hampden, Maine Elements Power Company/Maine Energy Partner
Souadabsacook Stream Hydro PlantGenerated 700,000 - 1,000,000 kwh per year
Passive Solar/Superinsulated * Composting Toilet * Rainwater harvesting * solar hot water * Interior constructed wetland to treat waste water * Local Lumber * Captured waste heat from generator
*
1985 Hampden, Maine
Superinsulated house, R-40 double stud walls, R-60 roof
1992 - Carrizo Plains, Ca
1994Christensen ResidenceSun Valley Idaho
• Uncle Elmer• Dad’s Boat
1957 – The Uncle Elmer
1994 -1998
San Diego, California
Growing Food in the City Organic Hydroponics
1996- PresentHawaii
Surya Nagar Farm Hawaii - Kaimu, Big Island
Earthbag Dome
It did not look like this…..
Sustainable Living ProgramMaharishi University of Management
The first four-year university program in Sustainable Living
Goal: Provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to help design, build, and maintain sustainable communities.
Established 2003, 110 students enrolled full time in 2008
MUM Guerilla Salad Project 2003“Grow food around where you live, then the rest of the landscape can be returned to wetlands and wildlands and we will create a whole new continent for our grandchildren to explore”
- Bill Mollison
Future Campus:SEED Center
Sustainable Education Enterprise Development
Sustainability Education and Enterprise Development (SEED) Center
Community Futures Conference 2007
www.renewfairfield.com
• Community planning process for sustainability• Initiative by Mayor Ed Malloy• Facilitated by UNI-based Institute for Decision Making ,
LaDene Bowen and Bill Wood
2008 - The Fairfield Green Planning Committee
2000 - Abundance Ecovillage2000
Abundance Ecovillage
• Picture of sign
Local Economy: Water
36 in rain = 1,000,000 gallons per acre Ecovillage =15 million gallons per year
Ecovillage Constructed Wetland/Living Machine
Passive Solar Design
Media/Community Radio
Energy and Sustainability
• Everything in the human economy comes from nature or from people
• Both require energy– Energy for extraction, processing, transport– Energy for nurturing, education, and culture
• Energy is neither created nor destroyed, so it seems sustainability would be assured BUT….
……But cont’d• Energy loses it’s usefulness as it changes form (entropy)• Therefore, we need a continual source of high quality,
low entropy energy to restore usefulness that is lost as energy is used and transformed. Without this regeneration and renewal, all usefulness in nature is eventually used up.
• Solar energy provides the energy that allows biological (and human) systems to become more orderly and complex
…….even more but
• Energy is essential for the development of complexity and order in the Universe
Energy is Crucial in Human EvolutionEnergy is Crucial in Sustainable DesignEnergy considerations are primary in Permaculture
Design
The Problem with Growth
David Suzuki on Growth
• Suzuki on growth
• Wind turbine at SL Center MUM