Date(s) - November 26, 2017
Time - 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

This is a third-party event not organised by Permablitz. We've added it because we reckon it looks pretty good!

This one-day workshop will accessibly introduce Living Design Process not merely as a compelling holistic design approach, but as a practical process well underway in the transformation of Mayberry Woodend – the 10-acre site in Woodend, Victoria, on which the workshop will be held.

So you will not only hear and read about it – you will live, breathe, feel and taste it.

“Thank you for having the courage to step up and speak from your heart and take permaculture to the next level of its evolution. Everything resonated so deeply, particularly coming from my background in performing arts, and have been rattling my brain about how I can bring the two worlds together. However, after the workshop, I realised my brain may have never arrived at the answer and it was my heart and the magic of design that contained the key! Loved it!” (Past participant Britt)

Living Design Process starts with the question of what it means to design and create human environments using a process that mimics the process nature uses to create natural systems. This question leads to a design approach very different to contemporary understandings of what design (including in permaculture) actually is.

“After this day of talking and sharing I simply feel more alive. The life and the living and the constant ebbs and flows of nature and of ourselves need to be at the heart of our designing” (Past participant Nicole)

At its core, Living Design Process is a way of working with whole systems to enhance their life and beauty through a process of continuous unfolding. When applied to landscape design, this results in systems that are not only lush and abundant, but that are deeply beautiful and harmonious to the degree that you find it hard to leave.

“This is really life-affirming for me to learn about this living design process – it resonates with my life journey and where I’m at in my architectural practice – but I’ve not heard it explained or articulated this way before. I’ll definitely be more aware of my design process with clients and be implementing more of this to enhance my life and my client’s lives!” (Past participant Talia)

A Little Background

Dan Palmer has spent the last 20 years continuously questioning and refining a systems approach to understanding, living and designing a more beautiful world.

As a permaculture designer, implementer, and educator, during the last ten years he co-founded permablitz, co-founded Very Edible Gardens (which he still co-directs), and founded Making Permaculture Stronger. Over the last six months he has been using this last project to catalyse a global conversation around constructively reimagining the foundations of permaculture design (as a globally practiced and fast growing discipline). This work has been supportively acknowledged by permaculture thought-leaders including David Holmgren, Rosemary Morrow, Dave Jacke, Toby Hemenway, Darren J. Doherty, Rob Hopkins and many others. It has also led to an ongoing collaboration with permaculture co-originator David Holmgren running four-day intensive courses on advanced permaculture planning and design process.

With this workshop Dan Palmer shares the opening of a new chapter in his career.

For his journey has recently brought him and a collaborating cluster of close colleagues to a compelling and continually evolving approach to the design and creation of almost anything. The running title for this approach is Living Design Process.

A garden in NZ Dan helped his mum and dad build using living process.

While embracing the best that both permaculture design and holistic management have to offer, Living Design Process find its primary inspiration in the paradigm-transforming work of radical architect Christopher Alexander (particularly his four-volume masterwork The Nature of Order).

During this one day workshop, Dan will not only present an accessible introduction to the theory of living design process, he, along with the wonderful Mayberry crew, will take you through the living design process that is actively transforming the property we’ll be at (you’ll see earthworks, mass tree plantings, etc etc and the process behind them). The idea is that you will feel the process in your body as much if not more than you will understand it with your mind.

Our intention is also that you will leave this day with a permanently modified understanding of what design can be.

“I feel like reading about and exploring the ideas is great – but isn’t experiencing living design process AMAZING? Actually living it and practicing it (or at least getting closer to it) – wow, that’s when it really hits home how much more alive and empowering the design process can be. So grateful to have been introduced to these ideas earlier on in my design life” (Past participant Phoenix)

Learn more at www.LivingDesignProcess.org (particularly the podcasts) and be sure and check out Mayberry’s instagram page  to catch a flavour of the amazing venue.

Register for the event here.