Permaculture Children's House

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      • Backyard Community Garden in Berlin – Final PDC Project by Mark Bost, Dec. 2019
      • Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia Final PDC Project by Lizeth Andrea Bohórquez Bohórquez, Jan. 2020
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Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia Final PDC Project by Lizeth Andrea Bohórquez Bohórquez, Jan. 2020

16/01/2020 by xavier

Final project Permaculture Design Certificate
Final project Permaculture Design Certificate

Download the Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia Final PDC Project by Lizeth Andrea Bohórquez Bohórquez here

Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia – Final PDC Project by Lizeth Andrea Bohórquez Bohórquez, Jan. 2020
Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia Final PDC Project

Download the Urban Permaculture Rooftop in Bogota Colombia Final PDC Project by Lizeth Andrea Bohórquez Bohórquez here

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Backyard Community Garden in Berlin – Final PDC Project by Mark Bost, Dec. 2019

29/12/2019 by Mark Bost

After two months of studying and practical work at Xavier’s Permaculture Children’s House I am glad to successfully complete the free Permaculture Design Course (PDC) with my own project design for a backyard community garden in my hometown Berlin. I am very grateful to Xavier and his wife Natalie for their hospitality and the great opportunity to do the PDC for free. I am also very grateful to the local staff and the many other volunteers on the farm – especially Lian & Harold – for their support, knowledge, high spirits and humour, resulting in a wonderful experience during my time there!

Project Vision & Outline

The project’s main focus is to convert the backyard of our living place in Berlin Weißensee into a productive permaculture garden, with a strong emphasis of building up a community among the tenants of the building, who are currently living quite anonymously next to each other. The project should offer all tenants the possibility to participate in it, thus creating the opportunity for cross-generational interactions, community belonging, escape of isolation, creativity, exchange of knowledge and skills, learning, meaningful leisure activities, and – of cause – healthy and nutrient-dense local food supply. It should also raise awareness about the problems of industrial agricultural systems and it’s alternatives, especially the principles of permaculture – earth care, people care & fair share (return of surplus), as well as the 7 R’s (Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, Rot) – and to spread this awareness beyond the boundaries of the house.

We are living for rent in a large apartment building in the suburbs of Berlin. The building has a backyard of 51×10 = 510 m² which would serve as a the main site for the permaculture project. The building has a height of about 22 meters, 5 stories, 45 flats and approximately 90 inhabitants of all age and social background. Accordingly, the realization of the project faces many obstacles and it’s final design might differ greatly from this first draft because many people might influence it substantially. Therefore, the function of this first design draft is to draw a vision of what might be possible, of the potential benefits and preconditions, in order to gain the consent, support, and commitment of the landlord and the tenants. Apart from that, this design draft should also show that I understand the principles of permaculture and can apply them to real world projects.

Right now, the backyard serves mainly as a recreational retreat for the tenants. It is used mainly by children to play during daytime and by adults for barbecue in the afternoon or evening. It is quite obvious, that these recreational functions must be sustained or enhanced to gain consent of all inhabitants. Furthermore, the use of animals is quite restricted, because people might have concerns about hygiene, smell and noise (esp. shift workers), and because proper treatment of the animals must be ensured.

The PDF files below provide the full details of my design, which includes the conversion of an old existing chimney into a water tower for irrigation, a pond, a greenhouse, tree guilds, herb spirals, composts & worm farms, window planting boxes, lawns and rabbits – just to name some of the major elements…

The overwhelming feedback of Xavier and the many volunteers motivates me to seek the realization of this project after my travels, although there are several obstacles. I hope my design might also serve as an inspiration for similar projects as there is a huge potential in urban permaculture and backyard gardening!

Project site – satellite view
Design of the backyard
Backyard Community Garden – Final PDC Project Mark Bost – ReportDownload
Backyard Community Garden – Final PDC Project Mark Bost – SlidesDownload
Mark Bost receives his Permaculture Design Course Certificate from Xavier on 29/12/2019

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Children are change makers

29/08/2015 by xavier

Our Mission:

Permaculture Children’s House brings global sustainable life solutions bringing self directed education to children and adults. We are in Chiang Mai, North of Thailand.

Permaculture Children’s House apporte une solution globale et durable d’un mode de vie par l’éducation des enfants et des adultes.

Our Vision:

Children will change the world using Permaculture ethics and principles:

  • Care the Earth

  • Care the People

  • Fair share

Les enfants changeront le monde en utisant l’éthique de la Permaculture.

Follow us and help us to develop this education project.

Permaculture Children’s House is a Thai Foundation and will be an academy and education center based on:

  • Permaculture
  • Self directed Education (PCH is member of ASDE)
  • Sociocracy or dynamic governance as a form of governance and decision making
  • Collaboration instead of competition
  • Agile learning principles (PCH is member of Agile Learning Centers and AERO)
  • Dynamic and creative way to teach / learn
  • PCH own 7 R principles: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, and Rot.
  • Montessori inspired education
  • Arts
  • Cooking and Languages
  • Zero waste
  • STEAM

Some references, inspirations and our support network are:

  • Permaculture as ethics, values and principles: https://permacultureprinciples.org
  • Peter Gray and his blog: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn
  • Free range – freedom education: http://www.self-directed.org (support network) and http://alternativestoschool.com
  • Sociocracy as a form of governance: Sociocracy For All (SoFa) (support network)
  • Agile learning center: http://agilelearningcenters.org/ (support network)
  • Alternative Education Resource Organization: Aero (support network)
  • Zero Waste: http://www.zerowastehome.com/
  • Montessori education

Our Permaculture learning center is located in San Kamphaeng 20 minutes South East of Chiang Mai city.

The academy has the potential to be a model or example – possibly a global model that can be used in other communities and other countries.

Based on a collaborative work using Creative Commons license a pool of knowledgeable, talented and specialist persons are building the project.

After establishing the first model it will be a blue print that can be used every where in the world under every latitude.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Children, education, House, montessori, Permaculture, School

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