Project Background - Pattern Design

“Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence”,
Malcolm X, November 10, 1963

How did life guide us to the decision to buy a property?

To understand the process that guided us to buy our piece of land, it is helpful to have a look at the graphic “Our way to a place called home” that I created in OP3. Back then, I left out the information that we already had found a property. For this OP I modified the graphic and added this information.

Since 2014 my partner Fabian and I collect our visions and wishes for life. That leads us to research about possible places to live at and we visited the most realistic ones. We evaluated how we can imagine living at each place. Going through this cycle again and again shaped and sharpened our ideas. In 2017, when I was pregnant, we decided to build a Tiny House, as a temporary solution until we would find “our place”.

In 2019 we left this cycle when we decided to buy a property of 2.5 ha because we recognized that it fulfills many of our wishes.

Our Search for a Place called Home

Choosing the Property

We chose the land with the help of permaculture ethics

Earth Care: The property itself is natural, wild and diverse. We want to maintain this character. It was used to grow herbs before but was unmaintained for eight years before we bought it.

People Care Antrophosophical environment through anthroposophical companies and initiatives in the area; healthy for our children and us; it is a quiet location, but we have a connection to the village in a distance of 1 km; the small house (our future home/zone 00) is already built on the property.

Set Limits to Growth & Consumption: a good size of the property for a high degree of self-sufficiency; through the steepness, it is not interesting for agriculture with machines; local supply is easy; economic independency is realistic by selling self-made products. Because we live connected to nature, we will treat the entrusted goods on our land and everywhere else very carefully.

Permaculture Ethics

How does the property fit our visions and lifestyle?

For me, it seems that buying a property is the only way we can implement our vision. I feel that there is no other opportunity for us to be happy.

The property challenges us in many ways, but we are passionate enough to accept the challenges and we are motivated to grow personally while facing those challenges (see more about the challenges in the Client Interview that is part of the "Survey").

Choice of the Design Model

SADIM (which means Survey, Analysis, Design, Implement, Maintain) is one of the best known land-based permaculture design processes. With its clear, easy and concrete structure, it is very user-friendly.

SADIM and SADIED
The main differences between the original and my adapted design process are in the last process phases. In the implementation phase, the original process provides steps on how to implement the design. In my implementation phase, I show what we already implemented (without documented design processes) and provide a reflection on that. The last phase in the original process – Maintain – makes sense to use for small projects that can be implemented in a specific time frame. My design is supposed to be a pattern design for our property. So the result is not a specific implemented system that can be maintained. I rather evaluate the experiences we collected in the implementation phase so far. With the help of my evaluation, I can develop a specific timeline for detailed projects on the site.

Original Design Process - SADIM

Survey:

surveying the land (observations, sector analysis)
interviewing the people (client interview)

Analysis:

assessing the site (zoning, interconnectedness
identify functions and goals (points of interventions)

Design:

design approaches
experimenting with placement
draw the design map

Implement:

plan how the design can be implemented

Maintain:

what is needed to maintain the system in longterm?

Original Design Model: SADIM

CONTINUE REPORT

Goal of the Permaculture Design

Design level:
Creating a Pattern Design for our property (2.5 ha). For starters, we want to design “only” a pattern for the whole property. After that, the detailed designs for the individual systems and elements will follow. This follows the permaculture principle “From Pattern to Detail” (David Holmgreen).

Content level:

We want to produce a big part of our food by ourselves.
We plan to set up a small business that provides around 50-75% of our family income.
We are going to harvest energy, such as firewood and solar energy.
We want to harvest, store and retain rainwater, both in the soil and in containers.
We want to create biotopes that provide habitat and food for many (rare) animals and plants.

Outcome:

My goal is to create one realistic Pattern Designs for the property. That will help me to zoom into the different areas and create appropriate detailed designs.

This approach breaks down the huge task of transforming the property into manageable projects. Furthermore, it allows for the quick placement of single elements. For example, if I receive a tree from somebody, I know where to place it appropriately because the placement of the different systems (e.g. wild hedge, forest garden) is already laid out in the pattern design.

In this OP I will zoom-in a little into our just started herb project.

Adapted Design Process - SADIED

Survey

surveying the land (observations, sector analysis)
interviewing the people (client interview)