Permaculture project in Mongolia provides low-energy solutions —on Transition Voice.com

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Final Design Presentations: 'Gugan' hasha (Day 18)

Photos: Tilyeubek's design team (L to R: Janibek, Ardakh, Tilyeubek, and Khulanbyek)

Students demonstrated a solid understanding and integration of permaculture principles and concepts (especially in the small-scale-intensive designs), good creative thinking in attempting to design for a large-scale site, and made a strong attempt at integrating a 4-year succession plan into their design.

However, this group struggled somewhat with the larger-scale application that this design brief required, due in part to the focus of the Permaculture Design Training course on the small-scale-intensive application of permaculture (to more closely match the project beneficiaries' needs), and in part to students' lack of experience in working on a large scale.

We were satisfied with the competence demonstrated in the small-scale-intensive systems they presented, and based on the level of improvements from the first design task to the second design task, are quietly confident that the lessons learned from mistakes made in this design exercise will contribute to a much stronger design the next time they are required to apply their knowledge to large-scale design.

 

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Highlights from the design:

•     Brilliant passive composting toilet design which found a use for coal ash (insulation) and dung ash (cover material).  We hope to see this design implemented on a Bayan Ulgii demonstration site soon.
•     Net-and-pan water catchment & distribution system.
•     Beehive nestled in keyhole flower garden.
•     Mobile chicken tractor design which self-waters.
•     Summer shower attached to greenhouse for greywater catchment.
•     Clustered animal shelter design to maximize heating efficiency.
•     Swale system to catch and store water on-site.
•     Summer ger (yurt) pad surrounded by insectary/bee fodder flowerbeds.
•     Succession plan to establish windbreak for apple/berry tree orchard.
•     Grain plot for winter animal fodder.
•     Efficient and user-friendly root cellar design.
•     Recycled car tyre potato stack garden.
•     Creative attempt at using dam retaining wall as thermal mass (and rear wall) for passive solar greenhouse design.
•     Creative attempt at utilizing electricity pole into garden design.
•     Creative attempt at re-using plastic water bottles as irrigation system.

 

Improvements suggested by Instructors: 

•     Digging well not immediate option for client with limited resources (water table is 18m deep!).
•     Precautionary principle: greenhouse built against retaining wall in dam is creative but risky (no team member has experience of knowledge necessary to implement this idea), so we must proceed with precautionary principles and opt for a simpler design instead.  Safety first.
  
•     Trees in retaining wall of dam are unsafe and will compromise structural integrity of the wall.
•     Earthen block wall around site would be too costly and energy-intensive for this site, instead look to biological resources such as planting a living fence.
  
•     Electric pole garden: water and electricity do not mix, so precautionary principle applies here too.  Also, electro-magnetic fields can negatively impact plant health.
•     Succession planning: address immediate needs (such as establishing windbreaks) and areas closest to house first to use energy most efficiently.
•     Design succession plan in time for entire site (intead of drawing a line down the middle to separate years 1-2 from 3-4).
  

 

Final Design Presentations: 'Tilyeubek' hasha (Day 18)

Photo: Mereut's design team (L to R: Altangerrel, Janargul, Mereut, Bakhitgul, and Makhabbat)

This design demonstrated a solid understanding and integration of premaculture principles and concepts, with some creative flair thrown in for good measure!

 

 

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Highlights from the design:

•     Vegetable garden beds in shape of Eagle and traditional Kazakh dombrah design, to increase edge & beautify space during winter (when gardenbeds are bare).
•     Greenhouse attached to house to create warm airlock to home entry, and utilize household heating system to potentially extend growing season year-round.
•     Basic preliminary composting toilet design separating liquids and solids; liquids are diluted and used in drip irrigation system as fertilizer.
•     Rainwater catchment tanks from rooftop.
•     Clustered animal shelter design to maximize heating efficiency and manure collection, including baffled-wall-and-stove backup heating system.
•     Composting area next to animal shelters to provide additional biological heating.
•     Manures stored on animal shelter rooftops for easy access & insulation (this is common in Kazakh family compounds).
•     Chicken run opens to mini food-forest and mini apple orchard.
•     Flowerbeds surrounding shopfront entrance to entice customers and differentiate from competitor's shop across the street.
•     Greywater mulch pit system in 'dead space' behind house.
•     Super-efficient rootcellar layout and design including portable worm farm which can remain active during winter.
•     Summer greenhouse / coldframe attached to summer ger (yurt).

  

Improvements suggested by Instructors:

•     Triple-check with client before deciding that old buildings on-site can be replaced with gardenbeds! (we found out that it was an option he was considering)
•     Build Eagle-gardenbed on mound to eliminate parallax error and create additional microclimate for apple orchard.
•     Use appropriate design conventions to convey information effectively (3-D view is appropriate for only certain scenarios).
•     Umbrella shading wormfarm is cute, however a stronger design is needed to prevent your worms from taking an unplanned Around-the-world-in-80-days type journey with the next gust of wind.
•     Improve chicken shelter design with deep mulch self-composting system, and do not place food and water under roost!
  

 

Final Design Presentations: Bastama School (Day 18)

 

Superintendent Bolathan was so pleased with the design that Dr. Beket's team presented, that he asked if he could take the plans back to Bastama School with him.  Of course we said yes!

 

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Highlights from the design:

•     Flower beds planted along school entry to attract beneficial insects and prospective parents.
•     Experimental summer veggie garden plots for all grade levels, including outdoor learning areas.
•     Stone pathways laid along major energy flows to beautify, and increase thermal mass on-site.
•     Greenhouse built onto south-facing wall of school gym to tap into existing heating system for possible year-round production.
•     Chicken house (complete w/ incubator) installed adjacent to gymnasium furnace room.
•     Winter chicken run opening into heated greenhouse.
•     Ideas to integrate learning from classroom to greenhouse, including ecology, maths, science, biology, geography and social studies.
•     Mini-food-forest windbreak long sheltered western perimeter.
•     Rooftop water catchment to feed flowerbeds, tree crops, veggie beds, and greenhouse.
•     Detailed, 3-year rotation composting toilet system designed.

 

Improvements suggested by Instructors:

•     Flowerbeds extended to any available edge to increase insect diversity and visual appeal.
•     Summer vegge gardens planted with IPM species around perimeter.
•     Consolidate composting area and root cellar into heated greenhouse to maximize efficiency.
•     Create mobile chicken tractor using rope netting to weed & fertilize tree plantations and summer growbeds.
•     Extend food forest into northwest corner, which is empty if composting area & root cellar are consolidated into greenhouse.   
•     Composting toilet system simplified to better match local culture.

 

Student Designs, take 1 (Day 11)

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This preliminary design task is a review mechanism for the instructors to check in with students, and monitor their understanding of key concepts we have been teaching for the last 5 days (and how effective we have been as teachers). 

In this case, the strongest group was assigned the client with the least resources, and the weakest group was assigned the client with the most resources, so that we could most accurately gague individuals' progress (Design Task 1 (Day 10) for client profiles).  Adjustments can be made mid-course to teaching methodologies, content, and team groupings (matching stronger students with weaker students to facilitate mutual learning) as needed.

Photos: Student designs for small-scale intensive farming systems in the family compound. 

Highlights from designs presented today:

• Summer shower attached to a greenhouse to direct greywater for plant irrigation.
• Intensive animal shelter design w/ backup heating stove that can be used to heat 2 animal shelters, plus winter coldframes / greenhouse on extreme cold days.
• Root cellar located under goatshed for security, insulation, and biological heating (from the animals' body heat & hot compost piles made from their manure.
• Stones from root cellar excavation re-used on-site to create attractive and functional pathways throughout family compound.
• Greenhouse attached to house, and plumbed with hot water from the house to provide heat for potential year-round vegetable production.
• Water system (well) backed up with multiple tanks centrally located to distribute water via drip-irrigation systems to every growbed.
• Multifunctional concrete summer ger-pad / winter ice-skating rink surrounded by beautiful (and beneficial-insect-attracting) flowerbeds (my personal favourite).

Well done to all students for demonstrating such a quick uptake, understanding, and integration of the many principles, concepts, and ideas your instructors have thrown at you for the last nine days!