ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES OF PERMACULTURE
Ethics:
• Care for the Earth • Care for People
• Return the SurplusPrimary 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
6. Make the least change for the greatest effect. Find the “leverage points” in the system and intervene there, where the least work accomplishes the most change.
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 for 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.
9. Collaborate with succession. Systems will evolve over time, often toward greater diversity and productivity. Work with this tendency, and use design to jump-start succession when needed.
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.
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
12. Turn problems into solutions. Constraints can inspire creative design. “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.”— Bill Mollison
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.
14. The biggest limit to abundance is creativity. The designer’s imagination and skill limit productivity and diversity more than any physical limit.
15. Mistakes are tools for learning. Evaluate your trials. Making mistakes is a sign you’re trying to do things better.
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.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Toby Hemenway—Principles
Friday, February 12, 2010
natural architecture - an emerging art movement that is exploring mankind's desire to reconnect to the earth, through the built environment.
natural architecturethe natural environment still manages to fill us with a sense
of awe and amazement. despite the amount of scientific
knowledge mankind has gathered, nature still holds great
mysteries that we may never be able to unravel.
this complexity has continually daunted man. in frustration, we
try to control nature by enforcing order. as a result,
we have distanced ourselves from the earth, even though
our survival is completely dependent on it. we are now trying
to regain our close connection to nature.there is an emerging art movement that is exploring mankind's
desire to reconnect to the earth, through the built environment.
referred to as 'natural architecture', it aims to create a new,
more harmonious, relationship between man and nature by
exploring what it means to design with nature in mind.the roots of this movement can be found in earlier artistic
shifts like the 'land art' movement of the late nineteen sixties.
although this movement was focused on protesting the
austerity of the gallery and the commercialization of art,
it managed to expand the formal link between art and nature.
this has helped develop a new appreciation of nature in all
forms of art and design.the 'natural architecture' movement aims to expand on 'land art'
by acting as a form of activism rather than protest. this new
form of art aims to capture the harmonious connection we
seek with nature by merging humanity and nature through
architecture. the core concept of the movement is that
mankind can live harmoniously with nature, using it for our
needs while respecting its importance.the movement is characterized by the work of a number of
artists, designers and architects that express these principles
in their work. the pieces are simple, humble and built using the
most basic materials and skills. because of this, the results
often resemble indigenous architecture, reflecting the desire
to return to a less technological world. the forms are stripped
down to their essence, expressing the natural beauty inherent
in the materials and location. the movement has many forms of
expression that range from location-based interventions to
structures built from living materials. however all of the works
in the movement share a central ethos that demonstrates a
respect and appreciation for nature.these works are meant to comment on architecture and provide
a new framework to approach buildings and structures.
they aim to infuse new ideas into architecture by subverting
the idea that architecture should shelter nature. instead,
the structures deliberately expose the natural materials used
in the building process. we see the branches, the rocks and
all the materials for what they are. we understand that these
structures won't exist forever. the materials will evolve over
time, slowly decomposing until no evidence remains.
these features are intentional, provoking viewers to question
the conventions of architecture. the designers aren't suggesting
that architecture must conform to their vision, they are just
providing ideas that they hope will inspire us all to rethink the
relationship between nature and the built environment._____________________________________________________
natural architecture (the book)
author: alessandro rocca
publisher: princeton architectural press
year: 2007
ISBN: 1568987218
ISBN:13 9781568987217designboom rating:
a collection of works reflecting the ideas of this movement
have been compiled into a book written by alessandro rocca
(architect and architecture critic and a professor at the
milan polytechnic). the book, due out in early november 2007,
features sixty-six projects from 18 artists and architects
by way of 250 photos and illustrations. each project reconsiders
designing with nature in mind. projects by olafur eliasson,
patrick dougherty, nils-udo, ex. studio, edward ng, n architects,
and many others. more infonote:
the work featured in this book was first published
in 2006 in the book 'architettura naturale'
(italian language) by 22publishing_____________________________________________________
designboom ratings:
I found this article about a year ago, and its subject continues to bubble just beneath the surface of my consciousness, emerging unexpectedly every once in a while...