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"I think it was an incredibly valuable experience and an excellent supplement to a conventional design curriculum."
—ALUMNUS


Above
2009 Workshop project complete







workshop slides

Images from the current permaculture workshop. Click on slides to enlarge or for slideshow

The permaculture workshop has been busy working on learning the basic principles, visiting examples and creating diagrams for designing a permaculture site. Work with Karma farms, an innovative concept pioneered by Thomas where unused plots of land are cultivated to provide food for those in need. Participants helped create a plan of one of these plots, sort and properly store seeds and install a water catchment systems to sustain the garden.

Preparation for the collection system
Cutting Pipe to length
A rough layout describing the pipe locations and lengths for a water harvesting system
Sketch of the water catchment system
Seed harvesting and proper storage management is an important part of permaculture
Learning about sorting and storing seeds
The first step in designing a permaculture layout and part of a site analysis
creating a sector diagram
Thomas is the creator of the Karma Farms concept of local agriculture in donated lots
Thomas
Thomas' note books detailing activity on this lot in the Karma farms system
Karma Farms notebooks
Making sure the hopper is well supported on the wall
Drilling to attach hopper
Checking the water tank after making all the water connections
500 gallon water tank in place
Map of this Karma Farm's lot created by the workshop
Map of Kathy's garden
Modifying the existing gutter system to clean debris
Locating water hopper

The following images are from the construction workshop which ended with a visit to arcosanti


Leah enjoying straw

playing with cob

Framing Amy

Ramming earth

Teamwork

Trowelling poured earth

Sasha working on cob

Carrie testing the cob bench

Tom strapping bales

Sasha finishing plaster

finishing poured earth

Priyanka, Ryan splitting bale

Philip fixing lunch barbeque

Rachel finishing earth plaster

Ryan mud foot

Petra mixing mud

Earth materials lab

Leah shredding straw

Sewing straw

Images from a few field trips


House owner answers questions

Leah with arcology model

zero net energy habitat house

Arcosanti exhibit

Finishes on Sip's

Tony Graham at Habitat house

Viewing Arcosanti

HIghlands Center

House renovation Phoenix

Full SIP's mockup

paper house

Rammed earth house

Tom Hahn explaining wall system

Rammed earth house visit

Trailhead shelter Phoenix