Envisioning Permaculture Palace

So I've been thinking, that in center of Warsaw there is a piece of postcomunist leftover block of cement called
"Palace of Science and Culture", which is very much orwelian nightmare style architeture without style,
which now serves for cultural events concerts, exhibitions etc, and its ugly, big in the middle of over congested
traffic with little nature to found around… yet it happened that nature has nested on top of it anyway:

“The 42nd floor of the Palace is a nesting place for peregrine falcons. In 2009, cameras were installed at the site, with a live view from the nest being available on the website of the Association for Wild Animals Sokół.[33] In 2016, after a five-year break, a pair of falcons had offspring there. In a competition of internet users, the young falcons were given the names Bazyl, Orion and Wawa. In 2017, due to the maintenance works on the spire of the building, the falcons were moved to the highest floor of the Warsaw Trade Tower skyscraper. They returned to the Palace of Culture and Science after the renovation of the spire was completed.[34]
Cats live on the second basement floor, with the administration of the Palace of Culture and Science responsible for their care. In the past, there were several dozen of them, while in June 2015 the number of these animals was 11.[35] Since 2015, an apiary is kept on the roof of the Studio Theatre at the Palace of Culture and Science.[36] ”
more on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science

So... I'm just asking myself how a reversal of that could look  like - hence "Permaculture Palace" - Maybe a researcher and application institute build of natural materials with  earthship principles incorporated into architecture from the start, also the planning that would from the start integrate the natural landscape into the design, firelines, swales, great water management, sustainable forestry, utilizing solar, geothermal and compost energy for water and heating so I humbly ask here for your thoughts and contribution of your imagination in unfolding the subject – how would you imagine an exemplary building, site, educational institute that would be leading and inspiring exemplar of what can be accomplished in terms of sustainability and human invention of constructing something inspiring that is
a living breathing educational permaculture organisms of sorts, that trains people on the site,
invites number of visitors every year(=sustainable financing in form of “green tourism”).
many thanks for your consideration

I'm thinking the word for this is biophilic design? Looking forwards to seeing what people may suggest.

biophilic design - I looked it up on wiki and its like reading a healing literature, which also takes me to  ask me some question in general on more primal level: Should we live as careless hobbits? Was a community life richer in Paleolithic? How deeply rooted in us are behaviors around work, sharing food, community living, hunting, living in small tribes? I’m asking myself how to reflect about human origin in the consideration of human condition at its primal level and what could it be a viable societal structure that takes into the account the past, the history, the biology, the culture, the use of stone tools, how deeply rooted in biology are our societal structures really? Does the artificiality of the condition of large urban settlements(Today or in Ancient Rome or in Ancient Greece) blinds people to their origin and their true nature? Did we get too comfortable somewhere along the way and got disconnected from what we are and where we came from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples

Marko, are you familiar with Bill Mollison? He's pretty much considered the father of permacuture, and his book, Permaculture: A Designers' Manual addresses all aspects of permaculture including house and community design. This topic is also discussed in his permaculture design course (highly recommended).



His book is pricey, but priceless. (If you hit the link, it will take you to its Permies book page, where there is information about discounts.)

Our Wofati Forum would be another place to browse for ideas.

yes Leigh I'm familiar, I've listened to some of his lectures that were on youtube, and I got overall grasp of permaculture, but as I imagine to build a project it would take a circle of experts, I just dont seek such great detail of knowledge for myself, what I'm more interested it - is the social aspect of it, maybe teaching at schools could be interesting, large scale water management practices, what would it be like to have permaculture a widespread part of culture? there is a lot of stupid policies and wastfullness, and permaculture pays attention to the fundamental basics from which better systems could be build - that's how I think about it.

Here are one that was recently been on Zillow:

Marko Peter wrote:"Palace of Science and Culture", which is very much orwelian nightmare style architeture without style,

Actually it has tons of style. It's a social realism version of US interwar Art Deco with Polish accents. So it's a little bit eclectic in this regard. A lot of European capitals have eclectic architecture, because it was the trend in Belle Epoque times. I'm not saying that I like it, because I don't like skyscrapers in general.

Thank you Anne, looks awesome, thats what I'm talking about, do you know any more details about it? a name of the project? a website? Is it private property or more of a community/education center?

Cristobal, "tons of style" of "social realism"...hmmm its a way to put it especially in the context in which it was build

"affordable housing" with unaffordable heating is not a rare phenomena, there is those big companies building entire neighborhoods like this,
I guess it takes a shift in culture before we can see much shift in how business operates, actually I think there was once a project to put
entire Manhattan under a huge dome, who knows what large scale effects of that would be?
"Fuller expanded on his earlier work designing geodesic domes and advocating for decreased use of resources,
and made a variety of claims to support the "Dome Over Manhattan," such as that it would reduce energy usage in NYC to 20% of what it was in 1960"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_over_Manhattan

Marko Peter wrote:Thank you Anne, looks awesome, thats what I'm talking about, do you know any more details about it? a name of the project? a website? Is it private property or more of a community/education center?

Sorry, Marko

I meant to give the Source link:

Per the listing here’s a “stunning Monolithic Dome home property nestled at an elevation of 3680 feet on top of a mountain ridge leading to Cherry Valley Peak, offering breathtaking 360 degree of panoramic views of Yucaipa, Calimesa, Cherry Valley, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio Mountains, San Bernardino National Forrest, Lake Perris and Lake San Jacinto; as far as the eye can see towards Palm Springs.”

$2,999,999. Yucaipa, CA. 3 bd, 4 ba. 3,895 sq ft. 43.80 acres. Built in 1997.

https://zillowgonewild.com/2024/04/03/13600-diamond-point-dr-yucaipa-ca-92399/

Here is another one: The Tatooine Earthship:

The listing notes that the unconventional home has been used successfully as an Airbnb.

“Experience the peace and quiet of living sustainably with nature,” the description reads.

“Earthships are homes that are in harmony with nature,” Bomhoff explained to The Post. “The roof is a giant teacup that catches 5,000 gallons of water, which flows from the sinks and shower into the greenhouses to water the plants so you don’t have to, a permaculture concept.”

She added: “The electricity is from the sun (1.5 kilowatts of solar panels), as is the majority of heat for the home. This is not only satisfying, but it means there are no monthly water, heat or electricity bills.”

https://nypost.com/2023/07/07/desert-earthship-home-straight-out-of-star-wars-listed-for-360k/

Lets say that the service design of Permaculture Palace would include yoga studio, for lets say 150 people,
as part of “permanent culture”, cos FARMERS NEED YOGA – what I mean is that when working in the garden and with animals, there is a lot of bending and kind of crumbling-curling movements, and I know many farmers work all day long if you let them and don't have time for anything, but good posture is essential and opening up the body after hard day at the field is essential, prevention is better then recovery. Namaste 🙏

so I would see regular yoga classes provided as part of integral part of such a permanent cultural center,
which would also host regular events, classes, workshops, permie-based art exhibitions etc

there can be swimming in natural pool too, or a lake, as an integral part of the landscape