Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In recent weeks, we commoners have lost three great visionaries. Each spawned robust institutions and movements to carry their visions forward; the continuing vitality of their projects confirm that their spirits remain very much with us. We should pause to reflect on and celebrate their towering contributions.
The word that was in my mind the most as I walked Venice’s narrow streets was ‘curiosity’. No conversation about imagination can happen without an exploration of curiosity, as it is the precursor to imagination. I had travelled to Venice reading Ian Leslie’s book ‘Curiosity: the desire to know and why your future depends on it’, and it turned out to be the perfect reading material, better than any Venice guidebook.
Carrying on from the previous post, here we share an experimental example of permaculture design when conducted explicitly as a process of differentiating a pre-existing whole into parts.
This post continues and deepens an inquiry into two contrasting understandings of design process.
Dave Jacke has contributed the most comprehensive, conscious and clear treatment of sound design process yet seen in the permaculture literature.
I find it curious that permaculture authors…don’t acknowledge Alexander’s critique of their core understanding of design….
Smothered beneath the dunes that blanket 150 miles of the Oregon coast are ancient, dead forests. Yet on these same dunes, the crumbling of delicate mosses and lichens on naked sand builds new soil, launching new forests.
There is now overwhelming evidence that humanity is living beyond its means, consuming and polluting in ways that are exhausting and degrading the natural world and impacting on the lives of the most vulnerable.
How can permaculture help underpin a pattern language for women?
Why are most meetings, conferences and other deliberative processes so bad?
The good thing about losing everything is that it forces you to become flexible and to search for new opportunities.
We have embraced a degree of urbanism in our towns and cities. It’s part of an ideological battle that the New Urbanists have won. But, we aren’t all the way there yet.
