Design Cover Sheet

Title of Design Dates of Design Design Brief

Zone 00 Design November 2011- February 2012

This Zone 00 Design was an attempt to re-design my life using permaculture principles to enable me to feel more focused, balanced and productive. It came at the end of an extremely busy year, abundant with opportunities and projects however stretching my comfort zones in terms of burnout and re-stimulating me to explore if I was being effective and if my choices were congruent with my desires and beliefs. The design was a way to structure this inner work and use analysis tools to support decision-making. The design web developed by designer Looby Macnamara was a key framework used to support this non-linear design process. Permaculture thinking has been integrated from the beginning, providing structure & logic for deeply unlinear emotional, spiritual and social layers

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: Demonstrating Design Skills Overview of Design Process
The Design Web: Vision: used design questionnaire as key survey tool & explored past vision statements Helps: created web of support diagram Limits: undertook STEEPLE analysis and explored limiting beliefs Patterns: undertook PNI analysis of various areas of my life Ideas: Used design questionnaire and processed diary entries Principles: explored how permaculture principles can be applied to zone 00 Integration: created a table linking all of my projects to see connections and then applied further analysis to test congruency with holistic aims Action: created table of habits to anchor and refined long term goals Momentum: identified positive energy and self care practices Appreciation: created a photo collage of what I appreciate Reflection: reviewed 2011 and reviewed zone 00 design after implementation

Use of Permaculture Ethics, Principles & Theory

See final design report. In summary: Observe & Interact observing my own patterns Catch & Store energy personal energy levels, drains & nourishers/energisers Obtain a Yield looking at yields in my life, how to increase flows to be more effective & productive Apply self regulation & accept feedback burn out, reflections on my roles Use & value renewable resources & services exploring my relationship with technology, diet, valuing personal energy Produce no waste exploring where I am wasting time, energy, money and if any outputs can feed other parts of my life Design from patterns to details looking at the meta-level of my life e.g. overarching visions & goals Integrate rather than segregate addressing the compartmentalisation I have felt by applying the integration analysis tools

 Ethics

Use small & slow solutions implementation plan with long-term habits & practices to anchor Use & value diversity recognising different sides of myself and how to optimise them Use edges & value the marginal exploring my radical edges, optimising the edges between different areas of my life and work Creatively use & respond to change exploring my personal resilience in my STEEPLE analysis Earth care the earth care element of this design related to how I choose to take action for my land base e.g. which action is most effective for the land, human and nonhuman communities in terms of community organising, growing and so forth. I did also look at my life patterns and how I can reduce my impact e.g. traveling. People care this design was about people care in relationship to myself e.g. zone 00 and ultimately how I can be a nicer human being that is more balanced, rested and effective in service for others and the land Fair shares linked with people care, this ethic is also manifested in the decision making process for my work organising for social justice and how I can increase my effectiveness Design Web Positive, Negative, Interesting analysis STEEPLE analysis (Social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, ethical) Integration tables (see Zone 00 Integration for the tools I developed) Venn diagram Design Questionnaire Applying David Holmgrens principles Resources audit

Design Tools & Techniques Used

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: Learning from, and developing your permaculture practice Effectiveness of Design & Design Outcomes
In terms of refining my direction, this design was hugely effective. The on-going reviews of this design can be found on my blog, and it is clear that the implementation has been an ongoing process, which has been highly effective in some areas and still a challenge in others. In terms of design outcomes, there are many: Personal: Massive gains in focus & direction Holistic integration of multiple interests Genuine deep self-empowerment & re-charging Deeper embodiment of the design process Developed a baseline for my post-license organiser strategy

Professional

Design added to my design portfolio for my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Will aid my learning pathway in supporting apprentices to design their zone 00s New gains & skills in self care measures such as 'tuning in' & vision questing

Project

Have developed some new creative design tools, such as the integration table, which will hopefully aid other learners & designers The design can be shared with others to support their Zone 00 work

Evaluation Summary
What went well: I feel it is clear that I have demonstrated deep internal design processes and these really made the permaculture principles come alive to me on another level. The integration aspect of the design process I hope will now lead to a new era of feeling whole, unachieved in my life to date. Using a bit more left brain analysis to these decisions was very empowering and useful. Through giving my Zone 00 concerns the attention & energy they require through design, I have manifested a new period of abundance, joy & productivity. For someone like myself who is incredibly project/external focused, to dedicate time and energy to myself was a big empowering step. What I would have done differently: In hindsight I feel it would have been beneficial to spend more time on the implementation aspects in terms of deciding more SMART targets, processing my goals into smaller steps and so forth. Without this attention patterns continue to repeat and therefore to identify more of the interventions would have made a difference. This is a very intimate design, if I had more time it would have been good to decipher between public and private material. I have uploaded and shared it as it is however I do feel a little vulnerable and web-ready versions could have reduced this. If this had been done during the design process it could have saved work, whereas to return to it and go through this process would be a massive energy investment. It would have also been useful to design myself a review process so that I could track the design implementation more systematically. In terms of challenges, this was quite deep and challenging personal work scrutinising limiting beliefs, historical patterns and deepest fears. Perhaps more peer support during this process could have been beneficial.

Costings Summary
Please see the uploaded costings spreadsheet.

Learning Pathway Reflections

This was the first non-land based design I had really invested significant energy and time in, and as such it really proved to me the power of design and how the process can support us in our lives. It is also one of the designs that I refer back to regularly and I continue to be amazed by its content and the amount of processing. This design also brought me a greater understanding of the power of documentation by processing my internal thoughts, worries, observations and so forth on A3 paper with graphics and structure, it in turn really helped me to structure all of the information and stimuli in my heart and head. Above all this design helped me to place permaculture in my life path to understand this new systems role in my life that had changed my way of thinking, it was the design process that helped me to see its connections to my animal liberation, social & environmental justice work, so that I could see the interconnections of my efforts and finally see clearly the toolkit in front of my eyes that I can use to compliment my lifes work.

How this Design Meets the Assessment Criteria

Applying permaculture in your own life

This design is my key project that meets this criteria as it focused solely on my zone 00 and its intimate interactions with others in my lifes path. By applying the permaculture principles and ethics during my design process, the design decisions made I feel have brought me closer to a more sustainable lifestyle in terms of personal sustainability staying rested, healthy and happy while working for social and environmental justice and the manifestation of earth care, people care and fair shares. Please see the design process section above detailing Holmgrens principles and how I have processed and integrated them into my life.

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: Applying permaculture to your work and projects
Assessment categories engaged with through this design: Personal development and the inner transition as evidenced in my design documentation, which explored my behaviours (via the PNI, design questionnaire and so forth), attitudes (looking at my limiting beliefs, opinions via design questionnaire and so forth) and outlook to enhance my personal wellbeing Art, Media, Culture and Communications this design has been disseminated via my website, uploaded to the Permaculture Association website so forth.