"Our world is made of systems within systems, an interconnected web of life more complex than humanity has the capacity to grasp all at once. It took me ages to realise that design was the main subject and that network science was the key to it all." Rosemary Morrow "In many ways, the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used." Sim Van Der Ryn & Stuart Cowan

1. Introduction to
permaculture
part 1: designing systems within systems

4. Permaculture: A Beginners Guide’ by Graham Burnett

5. Permaculture: A Beginners Guide’ by Graham Burnett

6. In many
ways, the
environmental crisis
is a design crisis. It is a
consequence of how
things are made, buildings
are constructed, and
landscapes are used.
Sim Van Der Ryn & Stuart
Cowan

7. permaculture design

8. Defined as
the “shaping of
matter, energy, and
process . . . a hinge that
connects culture and nature
through exchanges of
materials, flows of energy,
and choices of land use,”
design is all around us.
Sim Van Der Ryn and Stuart
Cowan

9. Differing Worldviews, Rebecca Martusewicz et al. 2021
Design
manifests culture,
and culture rests
firmly on the
foundation of what we
believe to be true
about the world.
Sim Van Der Ryn &
Stuart Cowan

10. Differing Worldviews, Rebecca Martusewicz et al. 2021
We need to realize
that this is a world of
relationship, of an ethics of
care, and of love. It is
Indigenous wisdom, Indigenous
people, who are standing,
defending the rights of nature
to coexist with humanity.
Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa
Traditional Custodian from the
Mardoowarra, lower Fitzroy River, in
Western Australia

12. It really struck me
being in an agriculture
faculty in a major university
there was no teaching about
design. Design was taken as
given. Which was monoculture or
very very simple rotations based
on inputs and extractions and
no attention to maintenance
of the system.
Stuart Hill

13. natural
farming’s true
benefits requires
us “to become
partners again with
other forms of
life”
Larry Korn
A farmer
does not grow
something in the
sense that they create
it. That human is only a
small part of the whole
process by which
Nature expresses its
being.
Masanobu Fukuoka

14. Our world
is made of systems
within systems, an
interconnected web of life more
complex than humanity has the
capacity to grasp all at once.
It took me ages to realise that design was
the main subject and that network science
was the key to it all. My background in
agricultural and environmental science
and horticulture helped me to make
sense of it at a deeper level. It was
very attractive because it put all
these in the same frame.
Rosemary Morrow
Earth Restoration, Rosemary Morrow

15. A basic
question that can
be asked in two ways is:
"What can I get from this
land, or person?" or "What
does this person, or land, have
to give if I cooperate with
them?" Of these two
approaches, the former leads
to war and waste, the
latter to peace and
plenty.
Bill Mollison

16. As a system based on
cooperation and solidarity
among humans and non-human
nature, permaculture offers a radical
reimagination of the possible — a
philosophy and set of practices based on
cooperation, co-creation, and solidarity
not just between humans but with extra-
human nature… Permaculture teaches
that the norm within healthy ecosystems
is that animals, plants, fungi, and
bacteria form co-operative – not
competitive — relationships with
one another.
Rebecca Ellis

17. David Holmgren, Permaculture Flower
Permaculture offers a
radical approach to food
production and urban renewal,
water, energy and pollution. It
integrates ecology, landscape,
organic gardening, architecture and
agro-forestry in creating a rich and
sustainable way of living. It uses
appropriate technology giving high
yields for low energy inputs, achieving
a resource of great diversity and
stability. The design principles are
equally applicable to both
urban and rural dwellers.
Bill Mollison

18. The difference between organic gardening and permaculture, permaculturevisions.com

19. Home Gardens in Nepal

20. While
[regenerative
agriculture and
permaculture] both borrow
practices from Indigenous
cultures, critically, they leave
out our world views and
continue the pattern of
erasing our history and
contributions to the
modern world.
Whitewashed Hope
thisismold.com/event/education/indigenous-leaders-why-regenerative-agriculture-is-not-enough
The Honorable Harvest, Robin Wall Kimmerer

21. But what are soils’
needs though? It depends on
how we interpret the meaning of
soil. If we see it as a crop producer,
then what it needs is the ingredients for
production, that is, chemical fertilizers or
organic compost. But if we see it as a web of
relationality, then what it needs is the
interconnectedness among beings that makes
soil, soil. In other words, what soil is or
becomes is what soil needs, which would
have to be understood through our
conversations with soil, and these
conversations will also help us
understand what humanity is
and what humans really
need.
Zhuonan Liu
Zhuonan Liu, Environmental Ethics and Permaculture: Can Permaculture Heal Our Relations to Soil?

22. Through design we have
the opportunity to participate in
this relationship with nature by
applying the ethics we hold toward the
earth as a whole, or macrocosm, to our given
site, or microcosm. When these ethics are applied
correctly, the design, once realized, is synaesthetic,
eliciting a sensory response from its human
occupants. Nature responds to the human input by
taking on certain forms (growth). Humans respond to
nature’s input by experiencing joy and a heightened
awareness (growth). When this level of interaction with
nature is achieved, human intervention is not so
apparent, and appears to be ‘naturally’ occurring.
Examples of this are visible in the habitats of many
Indigenous peoples who are truly ‘one’ with their
environment. The degree of beauty inherent
in functional design is evidence of how
closely connected the designer is
with nature.
Patty Ceglia

23. As a system
based on
cooperation and
solidarity among humans
and non-human nature,
permaculture offers a
radical reimagination
of the possible
Rebecca Ellis
La Ferme du Bec Hellouin