April 4, 2018

Name : Paul Jennings

Organisation : Criafolen Permaculture

Lecture title : Permaculture Design for Builders

Brief description : Permaculture design offers a whole site and beyond basis for builders looking to fit their projects sensitively and sustainably into the landscape and community. This lecture will provide a brief look at the application of Permaculture to building, site and settlement design.

Paul’s Bio :

Having trained as an academic in Modern History, I realised that I’d be much happier growing lettuces than working in a university. Thanks to a well placed Permaculture course or two, I moved into organic agriculture and worked for a number of vegetable growing operations and organic gardens over more than a decade. In that time I also built with my partner Sarah my first straw bale house, a very low tech place, and I achieved my Diploma in Permaculture Design.

We moved to  France in search of land in 2007, and spent 6 years building in stone and slate,  and bringing a mountain farm back to life. One Planet Development brought us to Wales in 2013, and we now live in our second straw bale dwelling, a little bit of an upgrade on the first one, but still built with an eye wateringly low budget. We’re developing our project, Criafolen, as a Permaculture teaching and demonstration site, working on a range of crafts and growing plans. I write  fiction, non-fiction, teach Permaculture whenever I am invited to do so, and can be hired out at a very reasonable rate for Permaculture consultancy.
By Cypren Edmunds • September 24, 2026
How much UK housing could be built using available straw?
By Cypren Edmunds • August 3, 2026
Bringing together ecological design, natural building and regenerative practice
By Cypren Edmunds • July 29, 2026
Discover straw building projects from across Europe
By Cypren Edmunds • July 6, 2026
Five days of international collaboration, technical exchange and innovation
By Cypren Edmunds • May 6, 2026
Measured performance in a lived-in load-bearing straw bale home
By Cypren Edmunds • May 6, 2026
Why long-term housing quality depends on widening the way we think about delivery, regulation, retrofit, and responsibility across the built environment.
By Cypren Edmunds • March 24, 2026
School of Natural Building – Practical Natural Building Course
By Cypren Edmunds • February 22, 2026
Measured performance in a lived-in load-bearing straw bale home
By Cypren Edmunds • February 10, 2026
ASBP Material Mornings - Natural fibre insulation in practice
By Cypren Edmunds • December 8, 2025
The December 2025 issue highlights the UK resource and the low embodied-carbon values set out in the straw EPD.
More Posts