With a design process underway, turn your attention to the household and the work that sustains it. The home-system reading asks you to consider domestic activities as part of a design, connecting the people who use a place with its buildings, growing areas, and resources.
The zones reading and videos give you a way to examine where those activities happen and how they relate. Use them to think through the placement of paths, storage, vegetation, and infrastructure before discussing the relationships shown in your own plan.
Topics
Patterns and elements of domestic self-reliant economies
Distribution of economic function by zone and sector analysis
Transition from consumer to producer households
What you’ll learn
Learning goals
Understand the pivotal role of household capacity in resisting economic predation
Design an example home system by placing buildings, vegetation, and infrastructure
Read, watch & explore
Getting the books · access & editions
Use your own copy, buy the book, or borrow it through a library when possible. If you are local to me, contact me about borrowing a copy. You can also contact me for information about digital or other access to assigned readings.
If your edition uses different page numbers, contact me and we can match the correct section.
For articles, excerpts, videos, and other resources, use the links in the lesson. If a video player does not load, try its source link. If you cannot access a reading or media resource, or it has no link, contact me with the module number and resource title.
Pages 427 to 430: assigned in Module 21 (Household-money reading)
Pages 21 to 24 and Pages 30 to 37 were introduced in Module 1. Apply them here to household activities and placement. Page 427 belongs to this module's reading; Pages 427 to 430 are assigned in Module 21 for the household-money discussion.
Watch how the farm connects household work with landform, water, plants, and animals. The Permaculture Zones reading and Zone 1 and Zone 2 videos develop the placement question through frequency of use and care.
Develop these relationships on your Module 6 site map. The same map supports the zone and sector overlay in Design Exercise 4. Show how buildings, growing areas, storage, paths, and household work connect. Where your chosen site has no house, show its relationship to the people and facilities that support it.
A path runs beside low-growing plants and taller vegetation in this garden. Consider how you would reach plants for harvesting and care as you work through the Zone 1 and Zone 2 examples.
Source: Living Landscapes Design portfolio.
Exercise & discussion
Discuss aspects of your design with me: buildings, vegetation, and infrastructure
What to prepare
The design drawing showing the relationships between buildings, vegetation, infrastructure, paths, storage, and household work.
Brief notes explaining these relationships, including the supporting people and facilities if the site has no house.
Save written notes as a document or PDF. For paper maps or handwritten notes, use a clear photo or scan. You can combine related work in one file.
Share & discuss
Attach your home-system drawing and notes.
Email the address listed under “Get In Touch” on my contact page. Do not use the contact form. Include the Permaculture Design Course, Module 7, and “Home-system relationships” in your subject or message.
The Resilient Farm and HomesteadBen FalkPages 21 to 24: Household-system discussionPages 30 to 37: Household-system discussionPages 61 to 79: Household-system discussionPage 427: Household-system discussionPages 427 to 430: assigned in Module 21 (Household-money reading)In lesson ↑
