Talk: 8th October > ”How it all began – meeting Bill Mollison”
Declan has been using the Covid months with his living-in Assistant Jörn Strauss to document the experiments he has been doing over the 40 years of practice in his interpretation of permaculture in northern European countries, for instance, building sun-trap up to 40 meter wide in our climate, building lean-to greenhouses with reflecting ponds, using the earth magnetism for solving the otherwise impossible task of getting fruit-trees going in fine sandy soil in the extensive zones of permaculture plots, etc. In his talk he will also describe how David Holmgren’s 12 principles can apply to non-physical permaculture designs (in communities, businesses, etc). Always holistic solutions.
Biography
Prof. Dipl.Ing. Declan Kennedy is Irish Architect, Urban Planer, Mediator, Spiritual Healer and Permaculture Designer. He has been teaching and practicing urban design and permaculture, landscape and agricultural planning, coupled with holistic strategies, in Germany since 1972, and recently in special intensive seminars – organized in many countries.
From 1972 to 1990, he was Professor of Urban Design and Infrastructure at the Architectural Department of the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.
He is founding member of the Permaculture Insitute of Europe, which he chaired until 1988.
Since 1985, his work has included the conversion of a former Nazi and then British Army barracks into an ecological settlement in Lower Saxony, Germany.
In the early 1980‘s, he worked on the integration of ecological design into horticulture and agriculture in many countries, based on permaculture principles, a concept he learned in Australia in 1981 and which he introduced to Europe immediately following.
Since its foundation (in Findhorn, Scotland in October 1995) until 1999, he was on the board of the Global Eco-Village Network (GEN) and ran their European secretariat and its association GEN-Europe from the ecological community LEBENSGARTEN – STEYERBERG, Lower Saxony, Germany in which he lives.
With his wife, Prof. Dr. Margrit Kennedy (Prof. emer. of Ecological Building Techniques, Department of Architecture, University of Hanover), he has had an architectural and planning office in Hanover and Steyerberg until 2001.
The project at hand PaLS (Permaculture Park at Lebensgarten Steyerberg) is the self-organized food-security extension of the community Lebensgarten, designed according to permaculture principles and implementing Bioland criteria.
Webpage Links
https://permakulturpark.de/ (Germany)
https://declan.de/en/home-new/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Kennedy
Upcoming events
Check out the programme on https://declan.de