A permaculture design helps people develop the specific lifestyle they wish to live in a specific place. Permaculture design clients typically are environmentally concerned people seeking increased self-reliance.
The design is a written report of recommendations for achieving specific goals such as energy independence, food self-reliance, alternative incomes and so forth. The report compares the stated goals, preferences and resources of the residents with the potential and ecological needs of the site.
The design provides the residents with a plan by which they can meet their objectives by constructive development of the site as a whole system. In fact, the design process and the design itself are based on the principles by which Nature designs her ecosystems to efficiently utilize conditions of soil, moisture, climate, sun, orientation and available species to make most efficient use of them and produce as much life as possible both in quantity and in diversity.
Permaculture designs take a wholistic approach--everything is connected to everything else in the design for maximum efficiency. Conservation of resources--the client's and Nature's--is the overriding principle of permaculture design. Change for its own sake is avoided and designs strive to become increasingly self-regulating and self-maintaining as they mature.
