1. The Design Web

Permaculture, a design framework drawing on the principles & patterns of nature has been acclaimed to support the design of anything and everything. The resources available to help designers re-design their gardens or farms are abundant; processes are clear & methods are well tried and tested. So how does one design for Zone 00? Where do you start & how can you begin to process the multiple layers of your life from your love life to your livelihood?

During this output period I was gifted with the opportunity to review a new upcoming book about People Care - the third permaculture ethic packed full of resources & activities to craft designs for your self and people based systems.

In Looby Macnamara's book 'People and Permaculture - caring and designing for ourselves, each other and the planet', she presents a tool called the Design Web, which is illustrated to the right. The web has 12 anchor points, each focusing on a different area to build up a detailed, holistic picture of where we want to go and how we are going to get there. 

On a workshop Looby presented at the National Diploma Gathering she explained the webs purpose is to create a space for a non-linear design process. My Zone 00 design has definitely been a spontaneous mixture of emotions, patterns and thoughts but the web has created a supportive structure to weave logic & ensure design decisions are made.

This section aims to illustrate the activities undertaken at each point of the design web, to give a picture of the design process & hopefully inspire others looking to develop Zone 00 design. These activities were in no particular order, some were triggered by reactions to people & events, others were established exercises from self-development texts.