I recently completed an assessment with recommendations for a 66 acre site in the stunning Mohican River watershed of North Central Ohio. It got me thinking about scale. Here I am at home on my 1/6 of an acre putting in a suburban homestead and there I am on 66 acres looking at a large scale landform, keyline, contour, blueberry business, ecovillage model, etc. I think much about this issue of scale. How are these two properties so different or the same? We are still attempting to hold water and nutrients in the landscape. We are still taking a close look at climate, topography, water catchment, whether in the soil or in a tank. We are still seeking strategies for non-invasive access and circulation of the property, what will we put in and save in terms of vegetation and wildlife, how the built environment can serve the landscape as much as it serves us, how the perimeter of the property is not isolated from all the neighbors and the bioregion in which it sits. And ultimately we are still looking to build topsoil, hey topsoil! The scale of permanence is a device I use in order to organize my thoughts about a design. If we look closely at climate first and foremost this will tell much about a region and a site. Then we look at landform, water supply in general, access and circulation and roads, plant systems, wildlife, microclimate, buildings and infrastructure, subdivisional zones of use, soil and aesthetics. PA Yeomans of Australia was the first to delineate the parameters of this idea. Then Bill Mollison and then Dave Jacke added to the initial process. This is a procedure for design that works. This gives us a read on what is more permanent in the landscape and aids us in deciding how to make the least amount of change for the greatest affect. Whether I am strutting around my small suburban holding or strutting around on 66 acres of prime real estate it is all the same to me. The only difference is size, and in this case, hey, does size really matter?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXBBZlOPFjM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]