permaculture_functional_design.mdwn (3884B)
1 * Principle #1: Observe and Interact 2 * Principle #2: Catch and Store Energy 3 * Principle #3: Obtain a Yield 4 * Principle #4: Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback 5 * Principle #5: Use and Value Renewable Resources 6 * Principle #6: Produce No Waste 7 * Principle #7: Design from Patterns to Details 8 * Principle #8: Integrate – Do Not Segregate 9 * Principle #9: Use Small and Slow Solutions 10 * Principle #10: Use and Value Diversity 11 * Principle #11: Use Edges and Value the Marginal 12 * Principle #12: Creatively Use and Respond to Change 13 14 ###Primary Principles for Functional Design: 15 * **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 cultures. 16 * **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. 17 * **Catch and store energy and materials.** Identify, collect, and hold useful flows. Every cycle is an opportunity for yield, every gradient (in slope, charge, heat, etc.) can produce energy. Re-investing resources builds capacity to capture yet more resources. 18 * **Each element performs multiple functions.** Choose and place each element in a system to perform as many functions as possible. Beneficial connections between diverse components create a stable whole. Stack elements in both space and time. 19 * **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. 20 * **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. 21 * **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. 22 23 ###Principles for Living and Energy Systems 24 * **Optimize edge.** The edge—the intersection of two environments—is the most diverse place in a system, and is where energy and materials accumulate or are transformed. Increase or decrease edge as appropriate. 25 * **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. 26 * **Use biological and renewable resources.** Renewable resources (usually living beings and their products) reproduce and build up over time, store energy, assist yield, and interact with other elements. 27 28 ###Attitudes 29 * Turn problems into solutions. Constraints can inspire creative design. “We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities.”—Pogo (Walt Kelly) 30 * 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. 31 * The biggest limit to abundance is creativity. The designer’s imagination and skill limit productivity and diversity more than any physical limit. 32 * Mistakes are tools for learning. Evaluate your trials. Making mistakes is a sign you’re trying to do things better. 33 34 ###Rules for resource use: 35 Ranked from regenerative to degenerative, different resources can: 36 37 * Increase with use; 38 * Be lost when not used; 39 * Be unaffected by use; 40 * Be lost by use; 41 * Pollute or degrade systems with use. 42 43 44 45 ###Permaculture and computing 46 * Computing as a support system for living organisms 47 * Plants as a support system for computing (there is no computing on a dead planet, binding carbon emissions etc.) 48 49 50 ####Links: 51 Based on Toby Hemenway https://tobyhemenway.com/resources/ethics-and-principles/ 52