The Permaculture Design Innovation

Wiki Resource: http://www.answers.com/permaculture

Permaculture can best be described as an ethical design system applicable to food production and land use, as well as community building. It seeks the creation of productive and sustainable ways of living by integrating ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture is also about careful and contemplative observation of nature and natural systems, and of recognizing universal patterns and principles, then learning to apply these ‘ecological truisms’ to one’s own circumstances.

The core of Permaculture has always been in supplying a design toolkit for human habitation. This toolkit helps the designer to model a final design based on an observation of how ecosystems themselves interact. A simple example of this is how the Sun interacts with a plant by providing it with energy to grow. This plant may then be pollinated by bees or eaten by deer. These may disperse seed to allow other plants to grow into a tall tree and provide shelter to these creatures from the wind. The bees may provide food for birds and the trees provide roosting for them. The tree's leaves will fall and rot, providing food for small insects and fungus. There will be a web of intricate connections that allow a diverse population of plant life and animals to survive by giving them food and shelter. One of the innovations of Permaculture design was to appreciate the efficiency and productivity of natural ecosystems and seek to apply this the way human needs for food and shelter are met.

Permaculture design includes but is not limited to the principles and practices of sustainable development of soil, water, crop, forest, architectural, business and financial systems, domestic food and water security, community development and micro-banking. By understanding Permaculture one can create a self-sustaining environment in any situation, whether it be a large tract of land or a small urban setting.

 The conventional industrial engineering mindset that pervades most of our designs follows a one time use, short term gain, cycle that ends in waste and begins again with a heavy dependence on resource use to re-create and sustain against natural processes. This method or mindset is referred to as “cradle to grave”. If you think about it, much of human activity is predicated on this mindset, or mental model constructed from linear thinking.

Permaculture on the other hand utilizes ecological design, which follows a cradle to cradle evolutionary process. Every interaction, or relationship is an extension of a life giving or sustaining cycle that works with natural processes in order to evolve to higher states, or organizations. Consumption in this cycle is not an end, but the process of fortifying the building blocks that will regenerate system strength and health.

Following Permaculture design principles, the placement of system components is determined by the needs of each component and the use of its produce. For the system to be sustainable all components must provide or conserve sufficient energy over their life span to build and maintain themselves as well as produce excess yield, which can be returned to the system.

Recommended Resources:

McDonough, W. & Braungart, M. (2002) Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way we Make Things

 

 

Edited by rachel - 08 Jul 2006 at 10:10am