Identify Key Functions (Unmet Needs)
What functions do we want/need to adress?
- children are invited to play and discover the property (areas for children)
- provide habitat and biotopes for rare species, contribute to nature conservation
- a high degree of food self-sufficiency
- create products which we can sell to earn a regular income
- inspire other people
- catch and store water on the property
- easy and beautiful access to the most important parts of the property
- extend growing season
- building soil
- create a beautiful and relaxing home for our family
OPTIONAL
List of biotopes:
- pond (aquatic biotope)
- marsh bed (Sumpfbeet)
- hedges with native plant species
- drought biotopes: rock garden, sand bed
- wildflower meadow, bed with wild perennials
- deadwood (standing and lying)
- pile of stones
- dry stone wall
- temporary water basins
Elements of Analysis - Optional
In the phase of "Analysis", the assessment of land and people gets attention. In Analysis many tools can be helpful.
For our analysis the following elements were useful
- Identifying Key Functions and the creation of a function-system-element table
- Zoning
- Limiting Factors & Points of Interventions
- Analyzing the available budget
Identify Purpose and Focus of the Design
Purpose:
Create a Pattern Design of the property that shows where we best place different interconnected systems. Create a timeline when we want to implement what.
Focus:
1. Designing and implementing a herb field with the aim of selling herb products.
2. Pattern Design of the steep slope to the south which will include different systems.
3. Rough design of the vegetable garden.
Function-System-Element-Table
Zoning
This zonation map is a snapshop of the current divison of our property. Becase we already started with a vegetable garden and a herb field, I can arrange them into zones.
Here is the legend that defines the different zones:
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Zone 0 + desire lines: House, kitchen for processing, cellar, garage, Tiny House
Aranya defines desire lines as pathes that are constantly walked and where changes nearby are perceived. -
Zone 1: Plastered terrace, intensive vegetable garden, greenhouses, area for children
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Zone 2: Herb and flower field, less intensive vegetable garden,
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Zone 3: Areas that are in process to be cleared from undergrowths
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Zone 4: Easily accessible land (e.g. meadows)
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Zone 5: Forest and bushwood
Zonation Map
Key Limiting Factors
Steep areas: a lot of manual labor is necessary, water runs down the slope (but not off the property)
Damson trees on the slopes: partly thick brushwood, spread by stolons/root shoots
Economic limits: limited money is available, but not enough to externalize much of the work
Time Limitations - Optional
Right now time limitation is the biggest limitation next to the financial limitation. Fabian will reduce his external work, otherwise, he has no time for our family and working on the land. I am taking care of our two children and I will not be able to contribute much to the physical work on the land until both children are in kindergarten.
That is why we clearly need to set priorities for the next years and work with a clear focus.
In the pattern design, we are planning various systems and elements but we do not expect that every system is fully implemented in a fixed time frame. We rather prefer a continuous and slow development of each system, which will hopefully save some money, too. As an example, the children area can be attractively created by using natural or second-hand material as we find it over the course of the next years.
For the more important systems, we do not want to take too much time to implement them. For example, the earthworks for designing and modeling the slope. Without this work, we cannot implement systems and elements on the slope, because the earthworks need to be ready first.
Hopefully getting our priorities straight helps us to creatively work with our limited time budget.
Financial Costs
So far, we plan to finance everything through Fabian’s employment. We have no alternative options to get money for our project. Slowly we will sell products and we will be able to reinvest the earnings into the slowly growing company.
Furthermore, we have an idea of how people may help to finance our project. One idea is to start a crowd-funding campaign: people finance a basic income for us so we have time and resources for creating biotopes.
This way people can directly contribute to nature conservation. We design and create biotopes on our land. People who contribute to our basic income can choose a “thank you gift” from our herb products or receive a consultation on how to implement a biotope on their own land.
Points of Intervention
Steep areas: terraces, tree rows along the contour lines, the steeper the less intensive
Water: terraces, increase organic matter content, keyline design, swales, water retention basin
Damson trees: take them out with as much roots as possible, maybe with the support of a winch
Appropriate Scale - Optional
The property is big enough to implement all the systems we are currently planning for.
Most biotopes have a minimal size which they need to fulfill their function.
We are also planning for buffering space between the zones and biotopes. This way thriving biotopes can be enlarged without decreasing the size of the less vigorous ones.
Some elements may not be suited for the slope (e.g. a big pond).
The area that is a forest right now needs to stay a forest. But still, it is possible to integrate elements that increase biodiversity or the possibility to harvest food or energy.
It is actually not the size of our property that limits the implementation of systems, but rather our available resources (time, energy (People Care!), money). If you are motivated and you believe you are doing something positive, the danger of overworking yourself is high.
Interconnectedness - optional
Web of connections
In the beginning, I was not sure which category to use: systems or elements? Then I decided to use both because then I could see how the best connections between systems and/or elements look like.
