Land Use
The major land using components of any permaculture
design are elements that consume area and elements that
are lines along which we move. All design surface may be
delineated as either an area use or a circulation use. There will
be no 'left over' surfaces on a drawing. Land surfaces without
a designation are places for which no decision on use has been
made.
In a permaculture plan, typical area uses might be buildings,
various gardens, composting piles, orchards, pasture, fowl yards,
ponds and wild zones. Circulation for people and animals consists
of roads and walkways. These paths may be highly defined or create
more random patterns across open areas such as meadows. But, even
in meadows, there will be 'desire lines' or paths along which
people or animals will normally move. Movement patterns are not
fully random as observation of any open space will show. We may
also include water circulation and infrastructure patterns in
our land use scheme since they are linear movement systems.
Once major areas are determined, they too may be further subdivided.
With each change in scale there is a repetition of the area/circulation
use pattern. A garden may be divided in areas where there are
peas, corn, potatoes, herbs and so on. The garden may be served
by its own internal circulation and water delivery systems.
Designers normally work from the largest scale down to the smallest
detail in developing the nested relationships of various parts
of the design. At the largest scale, the design will look like
the general land use plan illustrated below. At each level of
detail the design becomes closer and closer to 'reality' until
finally materials and specific plants are specified.
Regardless of scale, be it region, city, farm or backyard, the
area/circulation pattern approach can help us. It provides a method
of approaching land use arrangements and helps us put the design
together to achieve connections we have identified as important
and avoid conflicts among various uses. Thinking in land use terms
allows us to see the big picture of our design scheme and develop
patterns that are visually coherent, understandable, and at their
best, artistic while providing sustenance.
from: Basic Elements of Landscape Architectural Design, pg. 295.
