Oliver Moore: Permaculture: A design for living

Imagine designing for living, based on how nature functions? Permaculture — based on “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture” — does just that. 

It’s an intricate, carefully planned ecology of life, of you in all your surroundings, using 12 design principles and five zones.

If that sounds a bit highfalutin, it isn’t, in practical terms. Permaculture can also just about making sense of living — your house, your food, your energy, your work and leisure as well as your community and surroundings. It’s fundamentally collaborative and respectful of nature.