What will a successful sustainable city based on the philosophy of permaculture look like?
what will i see? what won't i see?
Answer:
The now possible. Post card from Hull.
I arrived at Hull City Train Station early this morning. At first glance most things seem the same only with lots more trees and a lot greener. There are bat boxes, bird feeders, lots of benches. Everywhere is teeming with life. All the buildings support food producing plants. There is no pollution. Few people drive into the city now, there is no need with the new train/to tram to car pool linked vehicles. Only a few people own cars as a lot more people work from home. The ornamental fountains and water features are full of fish and wild life. It is hard to remember that they are reed beds; all of the water/sewage is processed in city. Hull is fortunate it has lots of water in the city, Marina's and Docks so it is able to produce all of it's own electricity. Backed up of course by the new super efficient low cost solar panels most buildings have on their roofs. Of course the Humber Estuary Wind Farm generates most power.
There is too much food choice. Hull grown honey and wine. What were once department stores in Princess Quay now has fresh local grown food markets. You won't find the same stall twice as everyone comes a long and sells their food excesses on the market on that day. The variety and choice is amazing, takeaway food is made fresh from local grown products. There is a small livestock market and a thriving second hand market too, much on the lines of a car boot sale. If you get tired of shopping you can have a pedicure, massage or reflexology in the day rent beauty units. There are still plenty of shops that sell high end luxury manufactured products, those who want them don't mind the high tax.
There are beautiful hand crafted items too. New legislation encourages people to sell their own locally grown products and it is not taxed if sold locally, everyone has so much more free time.
NHS costs are going down and people are relaxed so even friendlier. They don't have to work to pay so much on electricity, food, water treatment, car, entertainment etc.
Hull has always been an amazing place for free open air concerts, free museums, for the art gallery, the theatre. Now they have fewer concreted areas, and even more parks in the city center. There are fruit and nut trees, perennial food plants such as raspberries, rhubarb and everyone is encouraged to pick and eat the fruits. Most people have their own Permaculture garden so few do unless they are picnicking, watching wildlife. I am going to eat lunch in the city center, watch the wide screen TV or sit in the amphitheater and watch an outdoor play.
Wish You Were Here?
Calcutta, India
I'll check out the link properly later but they look like a bunch of vegetable cropping fruit and nut tree growing hippies to me at first glance... :-)
A sustainable city based on permaculture will look very different to the images indicated. The land mass for development of an entire city of that style would by completely inappropriate and unsustainable. Unless there is a catastrophic event ridding the world of a large volume of the existing population, to be sustainable housing will still need to be high density unfortunately.. but in my opinion, it can still involve permaculture philosophy and be at a high density.
This will mean less reliance on individual's transport systems, intensification of the streetscape as a pedestrian precinct with share cropping, meaning mutual caring and substantially diversified gardening within the street itself, more "home" offices and telecommuting, less carbon gas omissions, more passive energy sources and passive devices for stabilising the built (internal) environment, the advent of swap and go food stores, clothing stores, the advent of the neighbourhood milking cow... perhaps a ritual pumkin toss and a regional stone henge lamb roast... an emphasis on courtyard and rooftop gardening... the empowerment of pedestrians, bicycles, skateboards, recycled stormwater and rainwater harvesting at a local level, less reliance on water to make our sewerage systems operate (we have been using fresh water for this long before ancient roman times - and now is a good time to think about stopping it don't you think). Permaculture is the next step in the garden suburb idea of the early 20th Century that made American cities sprawl so. It is inevitable.
What you posted is an Eco village. Key word, "Village". For small rural communities that will work just fine. For an example of large scale urban environmentalism, take a gander at:
Curitiba, Brazil.
http://www.curitiba-brazil.com/...
One of the most environmentally progressive cities in the world.
I recommend buying some of Bill Mollison's books on Permaculture particuarly Introduction to Permaculture.
I would love to see a city based on permaculture as it means humans and wildlife will coincide and there will be plenty of fruit and vegetables for all....
You will see localised everything and an abundance of awesome nature.....
The one thing we would see a lot less of is consumerism, unemployment, homelessness and hunger.. and of course a lot less damage to the environment while promoting living in harmony with it.
I recommend having a look at Ceres... http://www.ceres.org.au
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