Use Small and Slow Solutions

Definition and orientation

Use Small and Slow Solutions favours human-scale, locally manageable interventions and paced expansion where learning can influence the next commitment. Small is relative to the function and context; slow refers to considered development, not inactivity. Some risks need rapid containment even when the durable response is incremental.

What it guides: the principle helps frame design judgement through questions such as:

• What is the smallest scale that can perform the function effectively?
• Which reversible trial would produce useful learning before expansion?
• Is the proposed pace reducing risk, or merely postponing necessary action?

Origins, lineage and attribution

This wording belongs to David Holmgren’s twelve-principle formulation. Holmgren published the set in 2002 and describes the principles as memorable thinking tools that open different perspectives into whole-systems design. He also states that methods vary with place and situation and that principles do not substitute for practical experience or technical knowledge.

The Academy’s explanation is an attributed teaching interpretation, not a reproduction of Holmgren’s icon or a claim that Mark originated the principle. Other permaculture lineages may organise similar ideas differently.

Ethical and principle context

Observation and feedback make a small trial informative; Obtain a Yield keeps pace connected to present needs; Change supports staged adaptation. SADIMET can hold the implementation and evaluation loop, while the Mă-Kè Bonsai Way’s patience remains Mark’s separate synthesis.

Use Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share to test purpose, consequences and distribution. Apply this principle with at least one counter-question, relevant evidence and a named review point. It should influence judgement without becoming a slogan that certifies a preferred decision.

When and how to use it

1. Name the decision, scale, affected people and living systems.
2. Turn the principle into one or more open questions suited to the context.
3. Add a counter-question that could expose harm, urgency, maintenance or a conflicting principle.
4. Use a relevant framework or tool to gather evidence; do not mistake the method for the answer.
5. Choose a proportionate action and state what remains uncertain.
6. Record what evidence or feedback would trigger review, adaptation or stopping.

Application in Mark’s Diploma and at Vila Pinheiro

Design 05 proposes phased initial trials using intermediate bulk containers and a swale near a drier vegetable area, followed by incremental expansion only after observing performance. Larger earthworks, ponds and storage appear as later possibilities. The source verifies a phased plan, not implementation or successful scaling.

Evidence boundary: this representative connection was checked in Mark D’Cruz, Design 05: Water Self-sufficiency with Attachments, controlled Diploma PDF, PDF page 25. The master register also records broader use across Designs 1–10; those additional declarations are not converted here into unverified public case claims.

Limits, critiques and common misuse

• Using smallness as a virtue when the intervention cannot meet the function or need.
• Using slowness to defer an urgent safety, welfare or legal duty.
• Running informal trials without consent, stop conditions or records.
• Scaling after a promising first result without allowing for seasonality and delayed effects.

A principle cannot replace consent, law, site-specific evidence, competent technical advice or accountable maintenance. When principles pull in different directions, make the tension visible rather than selecting only the phrase that supports an existing preference.

Where this material comes from

This page follows Principle 9 in David Holmgren’s twelve-principle formulation, published in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002). Its principal sources are Holmgren’s Essence of Permaculture and the author-led Permaculture Principles publication. Holmgren presents the twelve as connected systems-thinking and design-thinking tools whose expression varies with place and situation. Related phrases and overlapping ideas appear in other permaculture traditions, but this page neither transfers their authorship to Holmgren nor flattens their differences. Mark D’Cruz used and interpreted this principle in his Diploma work; he is not its originator, and the master register records it as LIB-036. The authoritative formulation has been checked against Holmgren’s published explanation. The representative Diploma connection is verified at PDF page 25, with proposed actions and outcomes kept explicitly distinct.

Related entries

• How to Use Principles Without Turning Them into RulesPair the principle with evidence, a counter-question and a review point.
• Comparing Permaculture Principle TraditionsKeep Holmgren’s formulation distinct from other principle traditions.
• Principles, Patterns and Systems ThinkingUse several principles together inside whole-systems judgement.
• David Holmgren: Permaculture PrinciplesFollow the author, publication history and wider body of work.
• SADIMET: A Practical Permaculture Design ProcessLocate the principle within survey, implementation, evaluation and tweaking.
• Mindfulness and PatienceConnect proportional pace with attentive restraint while preserving separate authorship.
• Designing an Action Learning PathwayConvert feedback and reflection into the next responsible action.