Hooke Permaculture

Hooke Park Permaculture Sessions 2012

In a collaboration between MArch Design & Make and the AA’s Community Cluster, the Permaculture Sessions are a new initiative that aims towards a self-sustaining productive landscape at Hooke Park. By structuring this within the principles of permaculture (permanent-agriculture; permanent-culture) the intent is to develop a built environment at Hooke Park in which an expanding human settlement – the growing campus that D&M students are designing and building – and the woodland ecology are mutually supportive and productive.  Ultimately, as Hooke Park becomes home to a community of visiting and residential students, tutors and staff, the only acceptable outcome must surely be that the AA has responded wholly to the environmental imperative: to demonstrate our capacity as designers to build our own environment with total consideration and intelligence.

The opportunity presented is unique: as AA students create new buildings on a yearly cycle, a new rural landscape will emerge and the design of the in-between spaces becomes as important as the buildings themselves. The stable provision of human needs (food, shelter, light…) in reciprocation with the ecology of the immediate campus landscape, the ‘green fingers’ of the masterplan, and the surrounding forest, is a remarkable architectural design challenge. The permaculture sessions are the first step towards this, engendered through the collaboration of D&M’s Dorset-resident students and visiting London-based students who share the commitment to respond to this challenge.

As step one, volunteers are invited to help establish a new kitchen garden within the development masterplan. With input from D&M students, the garden site and design should be integrated within the emerging schematic and landscape design for the 2012 building project: new student accommodation. The sessions are:

21-22 January 2012: Session 1 (Planning)
This first weekend session at Hooke Park will include a permaculture masterclass by visiting qualified tutor, local visits, and a planning workshop.

24-25 March 2012: Session 2 (Planting)
The second weekend session will consist of workgroup activity to build, prepare and sow the Hooke Park kitchen garden beds.

Apply to participate:

AA student volunteer participants are invited to apply, on a first-come-first-served basis, to join the sessions. Those at session 1 must also join session 2. Participants will be accommodated and fed for free at Hooke Park on the Friday and Saturday nights (in Westminster Lodge, two people per room), with food provided on site Saturday and Sunday (with the exception of one pub meal). Participants are responsible for arranging and paying for their travel to and from Hooke Park – to arrive on Friday evening and depart on Sunday after 5pm.

To apply, please email your name, age, unit and gender to (deadline 13 January 2012):  communitycluster@aaschool.ac.uk

People:

Coordinator and host: Georgie Corry-Wright – a medicinal herbalist, grower and fantastic cook for students at Hooke. Having lived in Hooke Park for over 15 years, she knows the woodland, and its productive value, intimately.
Permaculture speaker : TBC
Community Cluster coordinator: Clem Blakemore
D&M representatives: Elizabeth Cunningham, Natalia Iliadi
Hooke Park Director: Martin Self