The first Permaculture Design Principle is Observe and Interact.
This principle reminds us of the importance of observation. Observing from different perspectives gives us insight into the different pieces of the system that we are interacting with. What is it like to be the mouse? Or the tree? Or the soil? How does the sun move through the property. Etc...
How often do we attempt to build or create something without taking any time to observe that which is around us?
I think of suburban housing developments. Instead of observing the particulars of a place, including the various flows of energy like sun and wind, the whole area is levelled and the houses are just plopped down.
This sort of design instantly prevents smart and energy efficient planning. There is no way for these houses to capture passive winter solar heat or deflect harsh winds. On the other hand, by observing and interacting, a house designed with permaculture principles may look like this:
This house has been designed by first observing the energy flows that influence the site that it is being built on.
By Observing, we allow ourselves to make informed decisions relating to the system we are designing.
The principle, Observe and Interact, also invites us to interact with our surroundings and observe the income. Starting small and making curious interactions with the place and things around you allows us to learn more about how to proceed.
Making smart and thorough observations is the first step in holistic and permaculture design. Bill Mollison once said that permaculture is about Long and Protracted Observation followed by swift and intelligent action. Most of the time, it seems that people act the other way, swift (or non-existent) observation, followed by long and protracted action, attempting to solve new problems that are often created by the lack of observation and planning. Hope this helps.
And as always, this list of 12 Permaculture Principles was given to us by the great David Holmgren, co-founder of Permaculture.
https://permacultureprinciples.com/
Note: The first picture is created by us at Atitlan Organics. The next two pictures are not ours, and are available under fair use.
The rest of the post is proudly original content!
