Permaculture is the harmonious integration of all life kingdoms into agriculturally productive ecosystems and socially just environments producing sound economic outcomes through systems management. It is a regenerative design intention reflecting patterns in nature that seeks to build functional interconnections allowing for energy efficiency and abundance of yield.  It involves an inclusive, simple and universal life ethic of returning surplus into nature’s systems to promote the care of our earth and its inhabitants.

The schedule for our PDC’s is made up of four main class times during the day and one evening session to extend the days learning or weave in elements from related but extended ideas.  The evening sections are usually focused on movies, presentations, skill-shares or participatory activities.  We extend the traditional PDC curriculum by integrating continual community building and self- leadership development to leave participants with tangible skills to support their continued work in their own communities after the course.  We have found this to be very effective to support the learning environment during the course, as well as witness the valuable work students go on to do.  Many past students are engaged full time in deeper study, research and project development all over the world.

We dynamically weave lecture story- telling with hands on practicums and design exercises designed to leave students tooled up with the skills and techniques to leave the course fully prepared to apply PC design to all aspects of their lives.  Action Learning, learning by doing, is core to our courses, and combined with thorough and effective design methodology participants will leave confident and competent in applying these tools in any area of their lives.  With experience and deep passion in all aspects of regenerative design, combined with extensive self- study into Anthropology, Cultural History and Sociology our courses offer a rich holistic backdrop to this engaged and far- reaching un/learning.

The primary aspect of courses by Integralpermanence that set them aside is the commitment to returning the DESIGN to the Permaculture Design Course, through engaged participatory design exercises regularly throughout the course.  This is a response to observing other courses with 1 or perhaps 2 design exercises that in our minds do not leave students competent or confident in applying this beneficial system throughout their lives and communities.

The course schedule is an ever-evolving entity because we are always re-evaluating to utilize any opportunity to improve our curriculum, and as Permaculturists we apply design process to our work continuously.  We also recognize the uniqueness of each site (due to factors such as culture, climate, and resources) and adjust the schedule accordingly.   We have functionally interconnected our ongoing learning to our course development and as such can bring participants the latest developments in regenerative agriculture and design.  Our global systems research gives windows into living and truly regenerative solutions.  We integrate Holistic Management decision- making frameworks as well as Keyline design as an organizing framework for effective and integrated design.  Our experience shows this to be very effective in student’s uptake and synthesis of the diverse information covered in the course.

This course has a pre-set curriculum based on the content of Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designers Manual. During the course, we will touch on every major topic in the book, combining dynamic lecture- storytelling and hands on practical/ demonstration exercises.  A brief outline looks like this;

1. Philosophies and Ethics underlying permaculture.

2. Basic permaculture principals and how they shape things in general

3. Patterns in Nature, and how to use that in design

4. Methods of design. How to go from a damaged piece of land to having an idea for how to move forward with it.

5. Climactic factors. We will cover all the major climates and how to work with them.

6. Trees, forests, and why we want to mimic their systems.

7. Water: catchment, usage, importance, and conservation. Also waste treatment.

8. Soil, minerals, microorganisms, building new soil, and preventing erosion

9. Earthworks: How to shape the land to help it acheive the goals we are aiming for.

10. Aquaculture

11. Natural Building

12. Alternative systems: community living, and other ways of choosing to live differently that works well for people and the planet.

For all the info please check out our website.