Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

incorporating eartH energy into tHe Design 223
Feng Shui Overlay
The diagram of feng shui compass orientation, called
BaGua or Eight Gates of Energy, was then located over
the topological map of the land and over the main areas
of land use. This provided information about predicted
influences on the life of the land users, on the definition
of pathways and the location of dwellings.
All the waters run to a point located toward the
south-southwest, further emphasizing a strong focus on
recognition and relationships.
Integrating
The maps and overlays were discussed by the core group
members and were essential in directing the next steps
of strategic planning. A final composite map was then
created, using permaculture zoning and sectoring, with
proposed areas for locating structures. A special intuitive
map design – channeled by Zaida after spending some
days in quiet connection with the land – is now in the
process of being implemented.
Case Study 2
Edgewood, New Mexico, USA
Designer as Geomancer – Living Design – Loralee Makela
I include here my most recent, more personal example
of a design process still unfolding. It has become a pulselike
conversation between my inner self and the outer
environment of pinion-juniper forest that surrounds me,
punctuated by long pauses and surprising events. It has
not always been a comfortable journey, but one that I
could have not made without the conscious collaboration
of Gaia herself.
Background
Summer of 2008, I was living downtown Albuquerque,
NM, in a live-work townhouse, feng shui consulting and working at
an interior design firm whose primary client was a large multinational
corporation who apparently saw the writing on the wall way before the
official ‘crash’. From one day to the next, all design work was put on hold
and I was out of a job. My decision was to either: ramp-up my consulting
business and get more involved with my clients doing urban re-development;
or drastically scale down, get simple, be closer to nature, learn to grow food
and create community. I began the requisite business evaluation and started
meditating for guidance.
Ecovillagers at Cunha
in the midst of their
site design process.