A Professional PDC:
The internationally-recognized
Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) course has been taught around the world for almost four decades. Given permaculture’s early emphasis on agriculture, most of these courses have been oriented primarily towards an audience interested in homestead and farm design.
But as
permaculture has been applied to an increasingly wide array of problems, the demand for PDC’s tailored to other audiences has also exploded.
One of the key emerging challenges is how to apply permaculture’s regenerative design tools in professional design contexts. To meet this need,
Wheaton Labs has teamed up with
Alan Booker from the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design to present a PDC specifically targeted for design professionals such as engineers, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, and those interested in pursuing
permaculture design at larger scales.
The 2023 Wheaton Labs PDC is structured to meet all of the requirements for the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certification while also being aimed at a professional audience. The course is presented at a graduate school level, meaning that students are expected to already have undergraduate-level knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biology.
Many of the permaculture concepts have been updated and expanded using the latest in peer-reviewed science and professional practice.
Topics include:
Understanding the climatological, hydrological, and ecological context of your projectsWorking with the emergent properties of complex systemsDesigning in nested wholes to create systems that behave like ecosystemsUsing GIS and other geospatial tools to perform hydrological and geotechnical analysis of large-scale projectsUsing next-generation tools such as SFG Maps and the Regenerative Scales of PermanenceCreating designs that regenerate watersheds and restore soil fertility, produce nutrient-dense real food, and support healthy human communities
Since this is a design course, students will be assigned to small design teams and start working on design exercises on the first day. During the second week, students will transition over to working on their final design projects individually. The capstone of the course involves each student individually presenting their design
project to the
class.
Students from previous years, many with several decades of professional
experience, have commented that this course completely reframed the way they view design. Download the full course outline for more details on course content.
For all the details, download the PDF outline
Instructors
Alan Booker -- Instructor
Alan Booker is the founder and executive director of the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design, which trains professional design practitioners to create systems that are ecosystemic, biocompatible, and regenerative. With a degree in electrical engineering, he has over 30 years experience in systems engineering and 20 years in
sustainable and regenerative design.
With deep hands-on experience designing large-scale sustainable systems, Alan is a LEED AP™ BD+C (LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction), WELL AP, Accredited Green Roof Professional (GRP), holds Living Futures Accreditation (LFA) for working with Living Building Challenge and Living Community Challenge projects, and is the creator of the Integrated Regenerative Design (IRD) framework and the Biocompatible Design standards. In addition to teaching Permaculture and Integrated Regenerative Design, he also provides consulting and workshops on
earthworks, watershed management, soil remediation, composting, forest
gardening, holistic management of pastureland, keyline design,
aquaculture and aquaponics, Net Zero buildings and off-grid
energy systems, and natural building systems.
Chase Jones -- Instructor
Chase Jones is a permaculture designer and consultant with a background in anthropology, conservation archaeology, ecology, and geospatial analysis. He is the co-founder of Biodesic Strategies, a permaculture design and construction service that offers ecological design and green infrastructure installation. Working throughout northwest Arkansas and surrounding areas, Biodesic Strategies also hosts educational and community events that promote the wider adoption of regenerative and sustainable design approaches.
For the PDC, Chase will bring both his practical consulting experience and background in the geospatial sciences to the process of helping students understand the tools needed to capture site data, synthesize an accurate base map, and develop a working understanding of any design site.
Paul Wheaton -- Host/Instructor
Paul Wheaton is the founder of Permies, the world’s largest online permaculture community, and the founding director of Wheaton Labs.
After starting his career as a software engineer and founding Coderanch, a popular online forum for programmers, Paul decided to pursue his interests in gardening and sustainable design, becoming a Master Gardener and discovering permaculture soon afterwards.
Paul has now published hundreds of videos, podcasts, and articles promoting permaculture around the world, is the author of the book Build a Better World in Your Backyard, and is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and events globally.
Helen Atthowe -- Guest Instructor
Helen Atthowe taught Master Gardener courses for 17 years, creating the manual for the course in Western Montana. Helen studied with Masanobu
Fukuoka and has been learning how to pay attention to the
land and apply his farming principles to her commercial organic farms for over 35 years, while also adding and developing ecological farming principles of her own. She has managed everything from permaculture food forests and vegetable gardens to a 2,000 acre organic commodity farm.
She has an undergraduate degree in Agroecology, an MS in Horticulture, and research towards a PhD in Entomology, focused on how reduced-tillage affects beneficial organism populations and crop biological control.
Matthew Stone -- Guest Instructor
Matthew Stone has a BS in Biological Systems Engineering from Kansas State University. His studies focused on the confluence of environmental, agricultural, and bioprocess engineering and the interrelationships between those fields. He has worked in both a soil
water research lab and agricultural engineering research lab studying how changes in long-term weather patterns affect soil hydrology and agricultural yields.
He has over 3 years of experience in the landscape construction industry and currently works as an assistant project manager for a high-end residential landscaping firm, executing the construction of multi-million dollar installations in New England.
Matt received his Permaculture Design Certificate from Alan Booker during the 2021 Wheaton Labs PDC and is now returning to help out with the 2023 course.
2021 Participants!
Tickets
Work Trades for Permaculture Technology Jamboree, PDC, and SKIP
Work 8 weeks in Bootcamp for a ticket to the PDC!
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