Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Design 4 Action Permaculture course Spring 2017


London’s Permaculture Design Course – Design 4 ACTION (Active Community Transformation In Our Neighbourhoods) is a different kind of permaculture course – positive design for your life, your community and your world by empowering the genius inside all of us! D4A is about regenerative learning, enabling individuals, organisations and communities to come together over six weekends to create empowering solutions to the real world challenges we are all facing in these times of change. Adapted from the Permaculture Association (Britain)’s PDC core curriculum, this is a person-centred, fun, lively and inclusive course, exploring and utilising concepts such as Systems Thinking, Holistic Design, Community Empowerment, ‘Whole Person’ Health, Skill Sharing, Critical Thinking, Appreciative Inquiry, Right Livelihoods and much more.
The format is participatory and dynamic using diverse visual, audio and kinesthetic learning methods such as individual and group work, games, problem solving, discussion, observation, field trips, practical activities, lectures and slideshows. This course will be hosted at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park, a new and exciting partnership project at the cutting edges of dynamic cultural change: “We believe that through creative and critical engagement with practices in art and technology people are inspired and enabled to become active co-creators of their cultures and societies.”

Design 4 Action courses can now be booked directly through Spiralseed. More info here.

Wednesday, 25 May 2016



Graduates of the 2016 Spring into ACTION! Permaculture Design Course which ended last weekend with some fantastic design presentations and some impromptu scything.

Our next course will be the Design 4 ACTION! Permaculture Design Course one weekend a month October 2016 - March 2017 at Furtherfield Commons, Finsbury Park, London.

29 - 30 Oct 2016
19 - 20 Nov 2016
10 - 11 Dec 2016
14 - 15 Jan 2017
11 - 12 Feb 2017
11 - 12 March 2017
 
Book here

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Spring Into Action 2016 – Permaculture design in London – LAST PLACES AVAILABLE!

Last weekend 15 new design thinkers were unleashed on the world! End of course presentations of Designs for Active Community Transformation In Our Neighbourhoods from the students of our last London-based PDC have included the redevelopment of a community food growing space in Camden; a dog, person and wildlife friendly small garden in Bethnal Green; a sensory garden for an elderly grandfather; a proposal for turning the anti-social practice of peeing in public places into a pro-social way of generating power and fertility for the borough of Hackney; a forest garden in the south of France; a food growing, skill sharing and time bank project supporting refugees at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park; kinesthetic sculptures as wind generators; a proposal to turn Clissold Park in Stoke Newington into a healing garden based on Ayurvedic medicine and sacred geometry principles and many more!

It's been an amazing experience and a real joy to work with such a positive group of creative people. Our next course begins very soon at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park, an exciting new partnership exploring some highly creative edges, and is getting near to selling out, so if you want to be a part of generating more solutions based thinking for sustainable and regenerative futures, sign up now to ensure your place!!!

"I feel less like a consumer, more like a designer equipped with tools and skills to create bespoke solutions" - Hagop Matossian, Passive Natural green building consultant.


The Spring into Action! Full Permaculture Design Course will take place in Spring 2016
fortnightly over six weekends:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May





Monday, 11 January 2016

Going further




We are excited to announce that the 2016 Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course will be hosted at furtherfield commons in Finsbury Park. We feel a lot of commonality with the furtherfield vision:

'We believe that through creative and critical engagement with practices in art and technology people are inspired and enabled to become active co-creators of their cultures and societies.'

A vision that sits well alongside our action-orientated approach to permaculture design.






The Spring into Action! Full Permaculture Design Course will take place in Spring 2016
fortnightly over six weekends:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May


Last weekend on our current Design 4 Action! course Marc Garrett introduced us to some of the work constellated with furtherfield - intersections where art, technology and social change meet. We also asked 'Can Britain feed itself?'; thought about, with and like fungi with a session on mycorrhiza; considered edges, hedges and windbreaks; and did some scenario thinking - four-dimensional design with a look towards the future(s).

Book your place on our Spring course here






Sunday, 6 December 2015

Winter to Spring



As we approach the shortest day, the darkness tends to draw us inside. With the turn of the year a few weeks away it can also be a reflective time, thinking about what we'll do next in our lives.

In permaculture education, one of the models we use is the 'action-reflection' cycle - this recognises that learning about anything is improved when we do stuff, think about what happened, identify things we could have done differently, design a new approach and then act on it - as we go around the cycle again we improve each time - getting closer to our goals and perhaps changing them!


The next opportunity to engage with our action-orientated approach comes in the longer days ahead with our Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course in east London. Book here

This course will be 6 weekends fortnightly on the following dates:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

If you want to see what our courses look like, check out these photos from our current Design 4 Action course, we're half-way through already!:


Thursday, 3 September 2015

Spring into Action 2016

We're currently getting excited about the Design 4 ACTION permaculture design course (PDC) which starts in 3 weeks time (as of today a couple of places remain so get in quick if you want to start a course this year!)

But we're also planning ahead for our next PDC: Spring into Action 2016 which commences in March 2016.

This course will be 6 weekends fortnightly on the following dates:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

Find booking forms for both courses here

Friday, 17 July 2015

What are our courses like?

Participant feedback on the 2015 Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N.


Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N (Active Community Transformation In Our Neighbourhoods) - A different kind of permaculture course - positive design for your life, your community and your world!

The Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N course is participatory and dynamic, using diverse visual, audio and kinesthetic learning methods such as group work, games, problem solving, discussion, observation, field trips, practical activities, lectures and slideshows during course sessions. 

Participants are encouraged to further their learning through home study during the breaks between modules, which can include further research, personal reflection, and application of what’s being learned in practice. Participants will also work together on applied design projects relevant to their own situation that will consolidate the learning content and empower students to take solutions-based thinking back into their own homes, gardens, lives & communities, providing essential skills for effecting positive change whatever their concerns. 

In addition to 6 core weekends that will cover permaculture fundamentals, design methods and applications to the natural world and built/human environment there will be additional optional days on forest gardening, holistic health, green building, community development and more.

The course will be taught by Graham Burnett (Dip. Perm Des), Claire White (Dip. Perm Des), James Taylor (MSc. Human Ecology) and some great guest teachers. 

The 6 core weekends will take place between September 2015 and February 2016 on these days:


Sep 26/27
Oct 10/11
Nov 7/8
Dec 12/13
Jan 8/10
Feb 13/14

We are pleased to announce that we are holding our course fees for another year:

£380 - Individual, concessionary rate (unwaged)
£580 - Individual, waged (income less than £25k)
£780 - Individual, waged (income more than £25k)
£780 - Sponsored/organisation rate

The booking form for the course is now live and we are accepting participants.

[In Spring 2016 we will again be running the Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course - 6 weekends fortnightly March-May contact James if you would like to know when booking for this course opens)

Monday, 18 May 2015

Permaculture Design Courses: Autumn/Winter 2015/16 and Spring 2016


The Spring into Action! 2015 Permaculture Design Course came to a celebratory close yesterday with three great design presentations from the students.

The Spring into Action! teaching team is dissolving for the Summer, but we will be coming together again:

  •  in the Autumn for a new format Permaculture Design Course: Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N! (1 weekend a month over 6 months - September 2015-February 2016 - with optional add-on Practical Workshops in Green Building, Holistic Health and Forest Gardening)
  • and again next year for Spring into ACTION! 2016 (6 weekends fortnightly March-May 2016)

Further details and how to book will be posted here shortly!

[If you can't wait that long, check out Graham Burnett's Summer courses at Spiralseed.]



Thursday, 15 January 2015

Spring in Action! in 2015


Six weekends fortnightly:  7/8 March, 21/22 March, 4/5 April, 18/19 April, 2/3 May, 16/17 May
Tutors: Claire White, James Taylor & Graham Burnett

Thursday, 9 October 2014

2015 Permaculture Design Course in London


We are pleased to announce Victoria Park Community Centre in east London as the main venue for our 2015 Permaculture Design Course.

Victoria Park is one of London’s most important historic parks and its oldest public park, visited by millions of Londoners for nearly 170 years as a place of healthy recreation, sports, play and relaxation.

Victoria Park is also a key link in a green corridor that stretches from the River Thames at Limehouse, along the Regents Canal and through Mile End Park, along with the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.



5 Gore Road, E9, by St. Agnes Gate, Victoria Park.

Monday, 1 September 2014

2015 Permaculture Design Course



The Autumn 'Fall Forward' London Permaculture Design Course is about to begin, but we've already begun planning the 2015 Spring into Action! course based in glorious East London.

Contact Claire White to ensure you're the first to know when booking goes live and for any queries.

Over six weekends between March and May 2015 we will be introducing the application of permaculture tools and solutions, taking in ethics, principles, design methods and techniques. To get a flavour check out these photographs from the course we ran earlier in the year.

In 2014 we were based at Spitalfields City Farm, an agricultural site in the heart of the City of London's financial district and visited Queen's Wood, the Meadow Orchard Project and Mudchute City Farm.


 
   
   
 

Tuesday, 25 March 2014