Location

The 2006 Summer Programme

provided a Permaculture Design Course for local people, certified by the British Permaculture Association. The project linked up with local campaign group, Friends of Birley Fields, and participants worked hard to develop sustainable urban designs for the 40 acre site, as an alternative to the commercial regeneration strategy that had been proposed by the council.

The pictures above show participants from one of the two design teams, working on a design for an area of the Birley Fields, which is known locally as Birley Common.

One second design team worked on a broad brush plan for the entire 40 acre Birley Field site, incorporating many features, including community allotments, an eco-hostel, and a living machine waste water treatment system. The picture to the left is a small extract from one of the designs produced on the course.

Download PDFs of the designs created during the course:

• The 'Hulme Common' design
• The design for the entire 40 acre Birley Fields site
• Also download a vegetation plan of the Common land

The Summer Programme was not all work. The picture to the left shows Julia Frankel, who was one of the teachers, and course participants, 'on safari' at Middlewood Permaculture Trust, near Lancaster.

The course was taught by Julia Frankel, Rob Squires, and Fraser How, with support from lots of other people and organisations.