Welcome to the Diploma portfolio at Beyondbuckthorns.com. Dominik is a diploma holder since October / November 2021. His tutor was Cathrine Dolleris.

On this site you can read through all of Dominik's 10 designs. The content below is in chronological order. The latest content is at the top. 

Credits go to Lumia Huhdanpää-Jais (my wife), Dan McTiernan, Wilf Richards, Tomas Remiarz, Erkki Pöytäniemi, Mihaela TzarchinskaAndreas Jonsson and Moritz Holzinger.

Nick's diploma presentation is at Youtube

The slides are at https://diploma.beyondbuckthorns.com

AI generated of an image of a person walking on a path

Thoughts about Artificial Intelligence in permaculture in context of the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design

In 2021 I came across generative AI, first image, then text. This article is for my colleagues, the tutors at the Permaculture Association Britain in order to give them some insights into my thoughts about AI.
This article was co-written by… more

Eutopia borealis - aerial image

Eutopia borealis

When Lumia and I moved to Finland in 2016 we started observing right away. We discovered micro climates, areas where edible fungi grew, natural trees nurseries, etc. We also noticed one particular area. An area that somehow seemed out of context… more

PermaPuheet

PermaPuheet

The PermaPuheet is a design for a series of lectures for the Finnish Permaculture Association. It was well received by many members and helped to more than double the number of members within 3 month.

Water - element of live

Catching the rain

At Beyond Buckthorns we have our own well. It is 12 – 13 meters deep and is connected to a pump that starts when there is demand. Well water is our drinking and washing water. In 2017 we got hit by 2 droughts. Both together made it necessary to… more

Ice on a window

Communications at the Finnish Permaculture Association

The idea for this design started in 2017 during a meeting of the Finnish Permaculture Association. When I became chairman of the board in 2019 I was in a unique position. The association was in transition towards sociocratic circular method. The… more

Biogas workshop at Beyond Buckthorns

Templating a workshop

Designing a biogas workshop that can be delivered over and over again. Creating a workshop blueprint.

first designCamp at Beyond Buckthorns - participants

Permablitz designCamp

In early 2020 we bought the neighbors 0,5ha pine forest / recreational spot that was years back sold to them by Lumia's, my wife’s parents. The neighbors wanted to sell and for us it was a good opportunity to buy. Lumia then started the process… more

Introducing the PermaCafé at the associations meeting

Welcome to the PermaCafe

Over the past years the Finnish permaculture association used all kinds of different tools and processes to get members involved. The following design used permaculture ethics and principles to introduce a new social design tool called PermaCafé… more

Permaculture tomato house

Ritvas Permaculture Garden

Designing a permaculture garden for a friend of mine in Finland was fun. I appreciated been given that opportunity. Read about the entire Permaculture design process using Looby's design web.

Introducing the Jean-Luc - the biogas digester at Beyond Buckthorns

Introducing the Jean-Luc

Since I got dropped into biogas, working with Prof. TH Culhane on different biogas projects, I always wanted to have a biogas system on my own. When I came to Finland I finally got the space to build a biogas digester and then actually experiment… more

A shed at Beyond Buckthorns

The Biogas Shed

It is 2017 and my parents were on holidays at Beyond Buckthorns and they told me during a walk that something needs to be done with one of the sheds, especially with the color of the walls, which was already coming off. A confession: the color of… more