Urban Permaculture With Rico Zook

This short course is an intensive introduction to Urban Permaculture and how to live an urban life that minimizes the negative environmental and social impacts while contributing to a more vibrant and communal urban landscape and culture. We begin by understanding how life works and utilizing that knowledge to design and act for our own life and needs. Following this we give brief overviews of Water, Food production, Soil, and Appropriate Technologies in the urban landscape. We look at these both from the individual/family level of interactions to community strategies and processes. We conclude by giving a step-by-step approach to changing your current practices and day-to-day life to a more Environmentally, Climatic, and Community affirming approach. In this course we will present these topics and understandings via Lecture, Photos, Group Discussions, short videos, and exercises. If you want to contribute to solving many of the challenges we are facing today, or simply to have a more meaningful and engaged life, this course is for you. 

As part of this course we will provide up to 16 gb of resource material and data. 

TOPICS

Morning Session 9:00 to 1:00 (4h) Lunch 90 min Afternoon Session 14:30 to 18:30 (4h)

Day 1

Intro to Permaculture & Urban Pc

MORNING SESSION: Understanding Where we are starting from

Introduction

2 weeks into 1 Day

THE CONCEPTS

What is Sustainability?

  • Intro Regenerative Systems & Permaculture
  • Systems Thinking and Cycles

Introduction to How Life Works: ‘How to create Regenerative systems’

  • Flows and Nodes
  • Creation and Destruction
  • Edge

TEA BREAK

Permaculture Principles

How to Make Things Happen

  • Observation and Discernment
  • Patterns
  • Regenerative Systems are not Installed
    • Grow Systems
  • Indirect Manifestation
    • Going Meta
  • How We Structure Reality
  • Summation: Making Things Happen

LUNCH

Systems Exercise

Goldilocks Zone/Point

Energy Storage & Resources

THE ELEMENTS

Water , Soil, Plants, and Animals

Appropriate Technologies

  • What is Technology, The Challenge of High Tech
  • What is Appropriate?

TEA

Microclimates and Buildings

Buildings, Nodes, McC’s, Social McC’s, Shaping Experiences

Invisible Structures

WHAT IS DESIGN

  • Intro Design & Design Process
  • Site Assessment
    • Sectors, inventories, Mapping, etc.
  • Design Methodologies
    • Zones and Other Tools

Immediate Practical Actions to become more Regenerative

See Doc, ‘What to Do, Practical ……Human’ in Shared Folder (Urban Short Course)

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

EVENING PROGRAM: PHOTOSHOW: URBAN PERMACULTURE

A Semi-World tour visiting cities to see Urban Sustainability practices, including,

Food Production, Community Gardens, City Repair, and Living Architecture

Day 2

Question and Answers from Yesterday’s Curriculum

Soil

  • Introduction
  • Building
    • Composting and Vermicomposting
    • Compost Tea and Soup
  • Indigenous Micro-Organisms (IMO’s)
  • Toxins and Bio-Remediation

Integrated Pest Management

what is it? + formulas

TEA BREAK

Water In Urban Landscapes

  • Living
  • Harvesting and working with
  • Greywater
  • Business and politics
  • What’s Happening in Turin

Urban Food Production 45

  • Introduction
    • Food Kilometres
    • Challenge of Soil
  • Plants
    • Basics
      • Soil, Tiny Soil, Light,
    • Annuals v. Perennials
    • Companion Planting & Guilds

LUNCH

Urban Food Production cont.

  • Planting in Communities
    • Growing in Containers
    • Vertical Gardening vs. Vertical Farming
    • Mixed Plantings

hedges, jungle garden, windbreaks

PHOTOSHOW: Urban Plantings

Climate Change and Urban responses

  • What is likely to Happen Where
  • Strategies and Adaptations

TEA BREAK

Tea & A Movie: Global Gardener, Urban Pc with B. Mollison 45

WHAT TO DO NOW

Final Discussion: What to do Now? INTRO

  • If we have enough people can break into smaller groups for discussion and Ideas
  • Groups give ‘report’ of their ideas, and we can try to get commitments for people to follow-up on a potential project

Invisible Structures & Creating an Urban Network 15

  • Reference Transition Movement

Retrofitting the City

Urban Agriculture & Other Urban Strategies

  • Landscape of the City
  • Community Gardens
  • Suburban Micro Farms
  • Terrace gardening
  • Animals in the Cityscape

Final Discussion: What to do Now?

Groups  give ‘report’ of their ideas, and we can try to get commitments for people to follow-up on a potential project

Form: form: tinyurl.com/mrx2mf3b

Ciao Torinooo