Scale of Permanence Revised

I’ve upgraded the scale of permanence diagram. It’s a little more readable and a little more interesting to look at. See the tiny cows? I continue to see folks start their designs somewhere in the middle of the scale, being concerned with soil, vegetation or even aesthetics before they’ve considered climate, landform, water, or access. …

Scale of Permanence

I’ve seen a fair amount of folks reaching out on the internet for help with permaculture design. “How do I add permaculture to my property!” “Help make this more permaculture!” The one thing that I most often recommend to them to give structure to their project is the scale of permanence. It lets us know …

Iterative Design Process

Simple in it’s form, complex in it’s function. The iterative design process (IDP) works recursively and is best used fractally. Fundamentally it is observation of all interacting parties to find leverage points that move us in the direction of goals, the greater the depth of the observation the more accurate the design. Goals & Ethics …

Baseline, Altered & Chaotic States

In addition to holons and quadrants, integral theory brings another useful concept to permaculture: states. Simply defined, a state is a mode or condition of being; its nature can be either baseline or altered. In order to bring the concept of states into permaculture, we have reframed the scale of permanence as the baseline state …