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["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: [permaculture] Where I am stuck in my permaculture
Date:   Mon, 28 Mar 2005 09:25:34 -0800
From:   tim <timb@asis.com>
Reply-To:       permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To:     <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>



I have had an almost existential difficulty with design as well.  My self
imposed woowooisms make me somewhat hesitant to impose my will on the
landscape. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the violence involved in simple
things like digging a foundation trench or cutting down 30 year old Douglas
firs. Also I think one of the worst things for the long term credibility of
permaculture and sustainable design in general, is creating a menagerie of
poorly executed, rusting, eroding, or otherwise decaying design
monstrosities littering the landscape. In this part of the world one could
make some very uncomfortable comparisons between the ecologically inspired
back to the land movement homesteads built since 1965 and the ranching
culture that established dominion here around 1915.  Would you rather live
in a 90 year old ranch house or a 40 year old geodesic dome?  I know what my
choice would be.

In order to avoid the same sad fate that awaits all but the most hardy
utopian movements, I try to implement designs that are modular, compact,
maintain a high level of flexibility, and can achieve full design function
within an achievable budget of time, money, water, etc.  Instead of taking
the role of the great architect expressing sublime ideals in space I think
that permaculture is encouraging us to be humble groundskeepers slowly but
persistently improving the habitat by finding simple, novel solutions.
Stewart Brands book How Buildings Learn is a really remarkable argument for
integrating the design process into the maintenance.  Designers that get too
far ahead of the implementation are short circuiting evolution and feedback
loops. 

Doing a thorough site map that is reproducible can greatly facilitate
graphic communication and imagination. I will usually make a scale map with
perhaps ten to twenty Benchmarks that are well distributed across the site.
These are durable point features that become local points of reference for
future mapping so I designate an (x, y, z) coordinate grid. Usually I will
set my datum so that I will never have negative numbers. If the legal survey
pins are known it is useful to include them. Generally speaking there will
be a few scales that are particularly useful.  
 
Then I will create a hierarchy of layers that corresponds to different map
elements.  Layers can be lumped or split depending on what medium you use.
I regularly use a computer, for mapping and so my layers tend to
proliferate.  I have one design which has 80 layers including the ghosts of
rejected plans.  Acetate sheets, tracing paper, photocopiers and light
tables are all quite useful manual mapping tools.
 
The Yeoman Scale of permanence is great place to start dividing your map
elements.  As I remember it is 
Landform		
Climate
Water features
Roads 
Buildings
Vegetation 
Soil

When design mistakes are made near the top of the scale the costs are
continually compounded (note to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers).  Thus
early recognition of problems and solutions pays off for a long time.
Finding and altering the high level site limitations that bleed money, time,
and enthusiasm have a huge affect.  

Tim 
timb@asis.com