I am an Architect / Designer by practice (and choice), and I understand many of the tenants of Permaculture Design as some of those ideals were / are reinforced by some architects living and deceased. However, there is one major element in the 20th and 21st century that is the antithesis of permaculture design – Planned Obsolescence.

After WWII the United States and the world at large had a major economic and infrastructural shift with how cities, neighborhoods, and buildings were produced. Just as the industrial revolution completely transformed the idea of craft into easily created objects devoid of the human hand, the by-product was consumerism. Thus we can easily buy or replace objects with such disregard to waste because access to objects (cars, clothes, electronic devices, etc.) are so accessible that their life spans of the objects are planned to be obsolete. Now if we take that exact same concept and increase the scale to infrastructure, cities and neighborhoods have been created and destroyed with such ease because we think they are easily replaceable. One perfect example was Levittown,which was a response to the population influx of returning soldiers from WWII. Levittown took the modern concept of modularization of the home, replicated it 1000x into a monotonous and banal landscape of homes with no human interaction to the exterior environment. The Levittown model soon replicated itself across America and other parts of the world as “created” environments i.e. suburbs, which have completely alienated the human from the natural and social environment.

What is daunting is that the majority of people living in developed countries are okay and even desire living under these standards. Furthermore, the general population practices Planned Obsolescence on a daily basis, whether it’s buying a new cell phone, lap top, shoes, clothes, car, food – we easily disregard daily elements of our lives because they can be easily replaced, without really thinking WHY we need new items and WHY we should sustain our current items and/or modify them. Many Americans live in suburbs, but hardly any of them produce their own food in their backyards. Even agriculture in the US, which was spectacular, has fallen victim to “agro-business.”

What is worse is that if we observe the current urban conditions in the Middle-East, it’s frankly pathetic. People litter, dependence on fossil fuels is outrageous, no emission testing for cars, no heavy use of public transportation, smoking laws are too forgiving, no response to sustainable design, and no clear infrastructural plans. As much as people marvel at Dubai, it’s a monstrosity and embarrassment both at an aesthetic / design perspective, but more so at an environmental standpoint. Dubai is rapidly densifying but many of the buildings still depend on natural gas for electricity and their water supply is next to nothing. We also cannot neglect the fact of how horrendous the labor laws are for construction workers (mainly Southeast Asian), which is a by-product of Dubai’s densification initiatives.

I highly recommend a book called “Architecture for the Poor.” It was written by Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian Architect. I consider this book the magnum opus of sustainable and humanitarian architecture and planning. Fathy aided the Falahees in the relocation plan from the Valley of the Kings / Queens to West Luxor, “New Gourna.” The majority of settlement was self initiated where Fathy taught the people how to build their own homes, canals, rivers, stalls, bathrooms, etc. The project was both socially and environmentally sustainable and renewable. Fathy goes into great detail about the entire project, from start to finish, and does not hide it’s ultimate failures – which was a cultural failure.

This is a cultural issue. If people are not willing to reorient how and why they need to live in a more sustainable manner, they are going to continue in this self inflicting tragedy of consumerism and obsolescence. Especially in the Middle East, where Islamic Architecture once reigned (and still does) as one of the most rational and advanced engineering of its time, has been completely neglected and traded for a “western” aesthetic of design and building.The Qura’an teaches us to look around and ponder the creation of Allah (SWT); the world is a living miracle on a daily basis; its function and resources it can provide to the human is endless.

Salam and Allah (SWT) Knows Best.

Thanks for the sharing on the important topic.
Dr Adi Setia is a big intellectual proponent of permaculture masha Allah