Function, System, and Elements is a foundational permaculture framework that emphasizes interconnectedness in design:

  • Function refers to the purpose or need being addressed (e.g., water storage or food production).
  • System represents the broader arrangement that fulfills the function (e.g., water catchment systems or food forests).
  • Elements are the individual components within the system (e.g., swales, ponds, or trees).

By aligning these layers, designers create systems that are efficient, resilient, and tailored to the specific site and its requirements.

Design Tools

Articles tagged with Function, System, Elements

Food forest at Beyond Buckthorns - red currants

Food forest at Beyond Buckthorns

by Lumia
on
at Lumia's diploma

This design is about curating a food forest at Beyond Buckthorns into an area which has been a garden in the past but has since grown pretty wild, located in Zones 2 and 3. The design aims to increase biodiversity, get yields and enable teaching… more

Beyond Buckthorns wood resilience coppicing

Wood resilience at Beyond Buckthorns

by Lumia
on
at Lumia's diploma

Regenerative woodland management design at Beyond Buckthorns. Lumia Huhdanpää-Jais' Diploma Design 5/10.

A shed at Beyond Buckthorns

The Biogas Shed

by Nick
on
at Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design

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