Product Description

David Holmgren brings into sharper focus the powerful and still evolving Permaculture concept he pioneered with Bill Mollison in the 1970s. It draws together and integrates 25 years of thinking and teaching to reveal a whole new way of understanding and action behind a simple set of design principles. The 12 design principles are each represented by a positive action statement, an icon and a traditional proverb or two that captures the essence of each principle.

Holmgren draws a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. For students and teachers of Permaculture this book provides something more fundamental and distilled than Mollison’s encyclopedic Designers Manual. For the general reader it provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening. For anyone seriously interested in understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture, this book is essential reading. Although a book of ideas, the big picture is repeatedly grounded by reference to Holmgren’s own place, Melliodora, and other practical examples.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67672 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 286 pages

About the Author
David Holmgren is best known as the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the Permaculture concept put forth in "Permaculture One" in 1978. Since then he has written several more books, developed three properties using permaculture principles, and conducted workshops and courses in Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. He has also consulated on and supervised urban and rural projects in Australia and New Zealand.

Customer Reviews

Permaculture or PhD Dissertation on Systems Theory?
I was looking to expand my understanding of permaculture with Holmgren's latest work, where he seeks to "directly explain the principles of permaculure" (xi). However, the useful and coherent information seemed to get fewer and farther in between the more I read into this book.

It's not just that I found Holmgren's prose to be extremely wordy and circular, but his writing seemed to focus less on permaculture and more on validating his take on Systems Theory where everything is composed of energy. This supposed all-encompassing worldview leads Holmgren to make some grandiose generalizations, like a "Maximum Power Law" which shows that "comfort and excessive protection from challenges and competition can lead to self-satisfied, lazy and eventually dysfunctional behavior" (pg. 56). Huh? So traditional hunter-gatherers who cooperated together to produce stable, sustainable food systems were lazy? Holmgren doesn't explain further. How about the even more absurd and equally unqualified statement that because fossil fuels have a low "embodied energy," they are not "bad, inefficient, and immoral.. [but] are very useful" (pg. 50). What?! Has Holmgren ever seen the coal mines or oil refineries in his own country? It's a hugely intensive process that seems anything but "beyond sustainable" to me.

I'm not sure who Holmgren's intended audience is, but "Principles and Pathways" seemed like a very abstract PhD dissertation to me. His sweeping generalizations, buttressed by his Systems Theory that can supposedly explain everything, make him come off as arrogant at times. Maybe some people like this detached academic writing, but it's not really my cup of tea.

I found "Gaia's Garden" by Toby Hemenway to be a very accessible introduction and overview to permaculture with lucid examples. I've also begun to read some works by Bill Mollison and found them to be inspiring and easier to grasp. While the so-called "bible" of permaculture, "A Designers' Manual," remains college textbook-like expensive, many of Mollison's other writings can be found online for free.

Good information but hard to read
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

I found this book incredibly hard to read.

I couldn't wrap my head around Holmgren's style of prose, and the layout and ideas in this book. It is wordy, meandering, and confusing - and I found myself lost in chapter after chapter as Holmgren's explanations went way over my head, leaving me confused and befuddled. This would not be a good introduction to permaculture, and no good at all as a teaching book or textbook.

I wish I could have given this book a higher rating than two stars, but I simply wouldn't recommend it to any but the diehard permaculture enthusiast who feels s/he must have every book on the subject in her/his possession.

I feel that Holmgren has somehow missed the simplicity of permaculture and become bogged down in unnecessary complexity, taking his readers with him. He presents a neat little set of diagrams, but I lost touch with what to do with them early on, and it was all downhill from there. Maybe the book improved towards the end, but as I never finished it I shall never know. Which is a shame.

Holmgren has done wonderful work in the field of permaculture and sustainability. His record in the field is commendable. I feel sad I can't recommend this book. I hope his next venture is more readable.

From now on, I'll stick with Mollison (the father and founder of permaculture) whose books I have found to be all incredibly readable, intelligent, and action-provoking.

More numbers, less wisdom please!
In purchasing this book, I'd hoped to start learning the strategies and techniques for transforming a piece land into an environmentally sustainable legacy for future generations. Perhaps, I misunderstood the book's description when it specified that it would teach me the foundations of permaculture design and the 12 permaculture design principles.

Instead of providing a useful guide to designing a more sustainable environment for someone who wants to change their lifestyle for their own philosophical and ethical beliefs, the book takes one on 277 page New Age ramble. Rather than offering sound scientific reasons why permaculture offers a reasonable path through climate change and likely energy declines, the author offers platitudes and dubious claims.

I was bounced from preferences for traditional cultures (never mind traditions like female circumcision or traditional building methods that collapse in earthquakes) to citations of Hari Krishna practices as something to emulate to anti-patriarchal graphs and ending with a profound sense of disappointment. Yes, Mr. Holmgren, you can be a male Western scientific materialist and still want to create a sustainable environment and society for your children.