Dates: 23-25 March, 2012

Course Objective: 

Students will engage in a 3-day intensive participatory design charrette, or intense period of design activity, to explore several permaculture design concepts for the Race Brook Lodge.

Schedule:

Friday 10am-6pm: Data collection

Saturday 9am-5pm: Filter and Design

Sunday: 9am-5pm: Refine and Present

Costs include: accommodation Friday & Saturday nights, 3 meals on Friday and Saturday with breakfast & Lunch on Sunday. (See fee information below)

To enroll, write to: [masked]

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About the Site and Project: Race Brook Lodge is a 30-room Bed & Breakfast, restaurant and retreat center spread over 5 acres at the foot of the Taconic Range in Sheffield MA. The principle structures at RBL are two hundred-year-old “post and beam” barns and one old stagecoach station which now houses the restaurant and bar. From the lodge, a hiking trail runs directly along the Race brook, past Race falls, up to the top of Mt. Race where it connects with the Appalachian Trail. Many other nearby great hiking, biking and historic sight-seeing locations, along with all the great cultural and artistic attractions in the Berkshires add to the draw for weekend tourists coming from New York, Boston and other places.

Planned projects include a new green septic system, possibly using “living machine” technology, a greenhouse and a small farm to grow food for the restaurant, and a system to heat the buildings and run the vehicles using the leftover vegetable oil from the restaurant. The proprietors of the lodge are open to new additional ideas about how to make their business run in a way that is in harmony with their land and the surrounding ecosystem, creating a unique destination by incorporating the most progressive permaculture design solutions in an integrated way. In this way, Race Brook Lodge could also function as a place of education for these practices. This 3-Day Permaculture seminar will begin to develop an overview of the different possibilities for an integrated permaculture solution for the future of property.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Prerequisites: All course participants must have completed a certified Permaculture Design Course, or have equivalent experience. If you would like to enroll in the course but cannot meet this prerequisite, please inquire to [masked].

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Costs:

Single Room: $630

Shared Room: $560

Dormitory: $450

Local Students: $400 (no accommodation or breakfast)

Costs include accommodation Friday & Saturday nights, 3 meals on Friday and Saturday with breakfast & Lunch on Sunday.

To enroll, write to: [masked]

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About the Instructors:

Lisa DePiano is a certified permaculture designer/teacher and faculty member for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. She is co-founder of the Montview Neighborhood Farm, a human powered urban-farm and edible forest garden in the Connecticut River Valley, and runs the Mobile Design Lab. She received her masters degree in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts and loves working with communities to create the world they want to live in. She discovered permaculture while working on a food forest in Guatemala and was immediately drawn to its systems and solutions-based approach. For
the last decade she has been sharing this passion with others. She has studied permaculture with Starhawk, Penny Livingston Stark, and Dave Jacke and has taught all over the United States, including the Menominee Nation, Homer, AK, New York City, Miami, FL the University of Vermont, University of Massachusetts, and Wesleyan University.

Sean Walsh is an ecological designer and graduate of The Conway School. He studied ecologically and socially regenerative land-use planning and design that integrates natural processes and whole systems thinking across scales. Sean's project work at Conway included local food systems planning for a remote desert community, developing a master plan for a regional permaculture education and
demonstration facility, and a land reuse study for a former nuclear power station. Sean earned his Permaculture Design Certification through Green Phoenix Permaculture.