When permaculture designs cities

Permaculture in urban planning and city design

A few weeks ago a friend told me what thepermaculture and how it can benefit current and future cities from a different perspective.

In truth, it literally sounded like "Chinese" to me, although it is a term that I had sometimes read in passing, I never paid special attention, until my colleague who works at Viviendo Gota a Gota began to reel and explain the necessary symbiosis between urbanism + permaculture with the aim of protecting the survival of cities and their sustainability.

To understand this article, we must start from two realities:

Cities will concentrate most of the world's population (United Nations indicates that 70% of human beings will inhabit urban centers in 2050)
Food and food have always designed the urbanism of cities. Although this statement seems crazy, I hope that after reading the article the perspective begins to change.

Given the trend of cities that will present a large urban volume and excessively populated, we will have to give a series of solutions and guidelines to create livable and sustainable cities.

Human societies must learn to satisfy their needs within certain ecological and coherent limits.

Among many problems that these "mega cities" face and will face is both the relationship that we must establish with nature, both inside and outside the city, and an important point and at the same time forgotten by many planners, how to feed a city of "X" million people and be in balance with the environment … This is where the principles of permacultara!

What is permaculture

The concept of permaculture is based on the assumption that if we wish to subsist as a species, it is essential to change our mentality from the current culture of "consumerism" towards a more sustainable consciousness, that is, Phrases such as local self-sufficiency, living in harmony with nature or sustainable production come into play, seeking the progressive reduction of resource and energy consumption.

Human societies must learn to satisfy their needs within certain ecological and consistent limits. For this, it is essential to recover and develop a plurality of both ideal and practical skills to find a balance with nature, with the different permaculture examples with the intention of giving a reasoned answer.

Permaculture principles

Ethics is based on three initial principles:

Take care of the earth (Conservation of soil, forests, animals, plants, water … etc)
Take care of people (It implies the satisfaction of our basic needs of a social and environmental, physical, spiritual type, establishing relationships of non-exploitation and solidarity)
Distribute the surplus (Apart from its ethical meaning, it forms an invitation to react. Allocating our surplus time, products, money and energy to the care of other people and the environment that surrounds us, implies putting limits on consumption and pollution that are generated when, a Once basic needs are satisfied, they are used to satisfy artificially created needs.)

A clear objective … «Combine in a harmonious and respectful way the life of plants, human beings and animals, satisfying the needs of all»

The aim is to develop respect for the environment, through the design and practice of conscious strategies, environments and spaces built by humans with the ability to adapt and recover from changing situations, which natural systems have. (See also resilience)

One of the fathers of this philosophy that began in the 70s, David Holmgren, coined a scheme called"The flower of permaculture" where those key areas necessary to achieve a culture of sustainability are highlighted.

Although we may be more or in accordance with some of the principles that we have presented, a point of importance must be highlighted. The sustainable development goals officially established by the UN are 17 key points:

If we look at the last two images, we will notice a significant similarity of ideas and concepts, that is, we are actually talking about sustainable and sustainable development at its best for a respectful use of natural resources and for the benefit of all parties. .

What happens in the cities

Although we think that the growth of cities will not be so exponential or so exuberant, in the following image corresponding to two graphs we will corroborate the opposite.

As we discussed from the beginning, one of the main problems will be to supply the inhabitants of future cities. Finding the balance between population and food production it will be a necessity if we want to survive in a sustainable future and this is where the principles of permaculture applied to urban life come into play. We will need to develop strategies at different levels in cities and to be able to develop a consonance with per capita food supplies.

We know that we are what we eat, but we need to know that the world is also what we eat. If we adopt this idea, we can use food as a powerful tool that will improve the world.

Why food designs cities

Historically, access to food has led to the development, design and growth of cities. I think the best way to explain it is through a lecture by TED, coined byCarolyn steel expert in "Food Urbanism"

"Food shapes our world, if we realize it we can use it as a powerful tool, a conceptual and design tool to give the world another shape."

Permaculture examples applied to the city

Although it is evident that there are many projects and permaculture examples in Spain, Argentina, Chile … etc and many other countries on urban life or house design. It interests us more from the perspective of the city.

Other permaculture example It is an urban project that has attracted special attention due to its uniqueness from an architectural perspective.

A project for the reconquest and remodeling of a specific area of the city of Alicante (Spain) on urban architecture and urban planning for the benefit of food sustainability designed through different strategies. Made by an architect named Irina del Olmo Leung (University of Alicente)… Clicking on the image enlarges the infographic.