DESIGN AS NATURE

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Elegantly Merging Form & Function

GUILDA creates landscapes and human habitats that capture and enhance the power, efficiency and beauty of Nature by designing as Nature, with Nature. Our designs function as whole systems that provide abundance and are self-sustaining. Elements are strategically placed and structured in relationship to each other and their position in the ecosystem to ensure a functional whole. This optimizes mutual benefit, productivity and ergonomics while minimizing energy demand and expense. The overall capacity of a landscape is elevated and expanded as it becomes more and more resilient over time. 

  • ECOLOGICAL SURVEY
  • CONCEPTUAL PLAN
  • MASTER PLAN
  • CONSULTATION

ECOLOGICAL SURVEY

Discover your land's potential

The best approach to ensure the most efficient, effective and beautiful outcome for any development project (especially those requiring interdisciplinary collaboration) starts with an Ecological Survey. In order to do this, we rely not only on the Triple Ethic (Earth Care/People Care/Fair Share) and Core Principles of Permaculture but also on a design tool called the Scale of Permanence. This scale divides a whole system into 10 equal functional components:

  1. Climate
  2. Landform
  3. Water
  4. Vegetation & Wildlife
  5. Access (Physical, Legal & Cultural)
  6. Microclimates
  7. Buildings & Infrastructure
  8. Zones of Use & Circulation
  9. Soil Fertility & Management
  10. Aesthetic

This is the MOST POPULAR option!

CONCEPTUAL PLAN

We design, you implement

We will go through a design process with you from identifying your vision, mission and goals, analysing and assessing your property, to identifyng zones of use and drawing a final conceptual plan.

  • Site visit & interview
  • To-scale base map
  • Assessment & research
  • Zonation Plan
  • Plant & Materials suggestions
  • Up to 2 Adjustments
  • Final Conceptual Design

The conceptual plan will give you enough information to prioritize projects and guide implementation strategy.

 

MASTER PLAN

Get it all done

We go through a design process with you to form your vision, mission and goals, to analySe and assess your property, to identify zones of use and from that we will create a final design plan.

  • Site visit & interview
  • To-scale base map
  • Assessment & research
  • Conceptual Sketch
  • Plant List
  • Up to 2 Adjustments
  • Elevation sections
  • Full Implementation Phasing Plan
  • Maintenance Plan
  • Final Design
  • Estimate for Installation

A master plan will provide you with all the detailed information for any contractor to install.

CONSULTATION

Walk & talk solutions

Our team members will walk with you through your property and in an informal conversation get an idea of the vision and goals you have for your own life and land.

Together we will read the landscape and discuss potential solutions within a whole systems design approach.

At the end of our time together, we will have gathered a list of tips and strategies on how you can apply permaculture design to your specific situation. Be it your garden, orchard, water systems, built systems or whatever you want to know. For small-scale properties, we can summarize all the important information in a basic design map.

The client most suited for this design package is someone who is a do-it-yourself and just needs some fresh eyes on the land and a whole systems design approach.

Sample Designs

Why Permaculture?

SECURE icon

Secure

Optimize your personal independence and prepare for economic uncertainty and climate change by building a secure source of food, materials, income and community.

RESILIENT icon

Resilient

Ensure that your way of life will quickly recover from inevitable economic, social and environmental disruptions by integrating food, water, energy and waste systems into a multi-functional network (a whole system) that becomes stronger with every passing day.

BEAUTY icon

Beautiful

Imagine a landscape that uses the wisdom of natural systems to attract wildlife, promote native and endangered vegetation, and create amazing complexity.

NUTRITIOUS icon

Nutritious

Produce delicious, healthy, nutritionally-dense food that is free of chemicals and genetic modification, edible forests, biodiverse pastures, abundant gardens and vibrant oceans empower all of us to feed ourselves and our communities without having to rely on global corporations and fossil fuels.

ECOLOGICAL icon

Ecological

The solution to problems like climate change, poverty and inequality starts in your own backyard. Heal the environment and be a steward of the place you live by simply living your life in harmony with nature.

AFFORDABLE icon

Affordable

Conventional landscapes and heavily engineered infrastructure are expensive to implement and maintain. Stop wasting time, money and labour. Instead increase wealth, health and abundance for everyone with permaculture design!

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Energy efficiency

Effective stormwater management emphasizing earth shaping and water storage (roof water catchment/habitat ponds/ recharge local water table/soil health)

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Biodiversity & healty environment

Zoning for energy efficiency (reduce labor/expensive infrastructure/demand for inputs)

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Climate Change
Resilient

Climate appropriate design
that wnhances the existing
landform

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Pleasant & beatiful throughout all four seasons

Site specific growing zones (sustainable land management practices, resilient crop production, organic agriculture, holistic grazing, soil regeneration, etc.)

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Ergonomic ease & comfort

Minimize expensive infrastructure
including roads, pathways & utility lines while optimizing their functionality

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Reduced implementation & maintenance cost

Multi-functional wildlife zones for ecological balance and stategically beneficial microclimates (wind/ privacy/pest management/beauty/low maintenance)

What people are saying
about out work

logo Kat Lavers Permaculture Designer & Teacher The Plummery, Australia

"Eunice's Permaculture Research Tour presents a comparative study of mature permaculture and land regeneration projects of different scales and contexts. This research gets behind the cliches to offer real insight into the logic behind each design, with a depth and rigour that would be difficult to match even by taking a tour of each property. Best of all it is presented in ...  

logo Graham Brookman Permaculture Designer & Teacher The Food Forest, Australia

"Designing holistic systems for a complex world​ is avoided by most researchers and designers as it requires the incorporation of a myriad of variables. But that is how nature works and succeeds, providing for redundancy, allowing genetic adaptation to occur as the climate changes, and accepting the consequences of change in the deep cycles of oceans and planets. Permaculture design ...  

logo Oliver Holmgren Permaculture Principles Pty Ltd

"Nice's research in documenting pioneering permaculture people and their projects looked really thorough and standardised. I was very impressed. I have not seen any research of this scale and quality in the field of Permaculture. I have seen some great research but it has been on small scales into particular projects or elements of permaculture. You have put so much ...  

logo Rosemary Morrow Permaculture Teacher & Designer BMPI, Australia

"Permaculture is always being asked for ‘evidence’ i.e. does it work? There are some cogent results but usually on an individual scale. Permaculture has long lacked a systematic body of comparative data.Without it, the case for permaculture as an alternative to industrialised agriculture, or being sufficiently productive, is weak. Eunice Neves in her three year detailed study of ten ‘organic ...  

logo David Holmgren Co-originator of the permaculture concept, Melliodora, Australia

"Ever since the publication of Permaculture One in 1978, the documentation of the results of my own practice in permaculture design and implementation has been a personal and strategic commitment to validating permaculture innovation and communicating the results. Through that process I have been painfully aware of how a lack of independent and supported research has held back the potential ...