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  • From: "L.Santoyo Designs" <santoyo@earthflow.com>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Urban Permaculture
  • Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:55:28 -0700


Robert Waldrop writes:

I think about permaculturing cities a lot. I
think that this is the upcoming great frontier for
permaculture. A major emphasis in the written
permaculture canon, the oral teachings of the
various permaculture teaching lineages, the lived
wisdom of the actual sites of permacultural
activity, and the on-going conversation in
teaching and discussion, is rural permaculture.
Having developed its roots in the countryside, it
seems to me that more needs to be done, lived,
spoken of, and written about, in urban contexts.


A great misconception about Permaculture Design being promulgated is that it is a land-based system of sustainable design, and therefore, is most appropriate in undeveloped land-rich rural areas. Using permaculture to design a sustainable homestead is only part of the picture, and people do permaculture an injustice by limiting the vision to land practices only.

The land is a metaphor; it is the most common denominator we have as a global people to understanding the workings of Nature. Lest they forget, my husband Larry Santoyo reminds all his students -that we are part of Nature too!

The EarthFlow Design Works PDC course starts with 4 days of examining natural patterns and the approach to design-then 4 days of applying those patterns and principles to the design of the natural landscape and the "home ecosystem" -and finally, 4 days of studying permaculture's applications to the larger world: the design of communities, businesses and beyond- the cultural landscape.

We can apply permaculture to the design of non-land based systems because it is a connecting science-we learn from Nature how to put things where they go and then we translate that understanding (based on caring for each other and the earth- the context of enlightened self-interest) to putting things (people, practices, etc.) where they go in other media as well.

Applying permaculture design to urban areas indeed holds great promise and great potential for rapid change- precisely because towns and cities are such resource-rich areas- both materially and socially.

We are beginning to see the rippling effects of permaculture become waves in Los Angeles since our first PDC course there in 2003.

See an article on urban permaculture appearing in HopeDance Magazine:
http://www.hopedance.org/new/issues/49/article10.html
--
Kathryn Santoyo
EarthFlow Design Works
San Luis Obispo, CA
http://www.earthflow.com



  • [permaculture] Urban Permaculture, L.Santoyo Designs, 10/14/2005

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