Cincinnati Permaculture Institute’s growing community of permaculture design graduates has been asking us for implementation opportunities and continued education that will give them skills beyond just designing systems and experience actually building them. In other words: you’re ready to get your hands dirty!
In permaculture, one element can serve many functions. As our board brainstormed different ways we could meet this emerging need in our community, we discerned that an output that our classes already produce - student design projects - could become the input for a new implementation education initiative. By selecting a student design project from each year’s class to begin implementing, we create a natural pathway for succession while creating opportunities for our community to come work together and stay engaged with each other past the completion of the class. Our hope is that the selected sites become part of our larger network of educational sites throughout the region that future students can learn from.
Choosing the Pilot Site
Six designs were presented at the end of the most recent yearlong PDC for six very different sites across Cincinnati. The CPI board reviewed and discussed these designs and narrowed down the selection to one project to sponsor a Phase I implementation at that site. We considered factors such as the scale and scope of the project, the location of the site and access for the surrounding community, and the types of projects that our organization could best support with materials and funding.
Jess Rinehart presents her segment of the group design for The Shire.
With so much appreciation for the efforts of all of our students this year, who made our job incredibly hard by submitting six excellent designs, we are pleased to announce that the selected site project is "The Shire" - a half-acre suburban homestead in Boone County Kentucky, designed by Jess Rinehart, Jeremy Janson, and Shaher Banu Vagh.
For more than 25 years, this site has been home to PDC classmates David and Nora Brown, who affectionately call their home “The Wallace Avenue Center for the Reality Impaired” and regularly host gatherings there. The group's proposed design includes a food forest, a meditation garden, water catchment solutions, and a passive solar greenhouse.
Nora and David Brown watch the presentation of the group who designed for their site.
CPI will work with the Browns to determine an implementation plan for part of this design in the coming year. Look forward to future announcements of our plans and opportunities to get involved!