Avenir Permaculture

Organisation description

Avenir Permaculture (France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine) designs regenerative landscapes for municipalities, companies and private clients, drawing on 20 years of field practice in permaculture and participatory design.

LOWASIS is our nature-based urban cooling island. Cities send their rainwater to the sewer every time it rains; LOWASIS stores it on site and uses it to keep a planted climate refuge alive and cooling during heatwaves.

Each island combines:

• underground rainwater storage sized for about 75 days of drought autonomy,

• a four-layer edible food forest and a biodiversity pond,

• smart, vandal-resistant drip irrigation driven by soil-moisture sensors (LoRa),

• co-design and planting with local residents.

Every component has been tested for about 20 years on our experimental site in Vienne (France). The integrated island is now moving to its first pilots, including one with the University of Poitiers with scientific monitoring of thermal comfort.

Offer

• Turnkey design and project management support for cooling islands from 100 to 600 m²

• Rainwater-based irrigation design and smart control

• Participatory design and planting with users

• Scientific monitoring protocol (thermal comfort, surface temperature)

Request

• A local partner in Catalonia/Spain (municipality, landscaper or school) to host a Mediterranean LOWASIS pilot

• Partners for EU funding consortia (LIFE, Interreg, Horizon)

• Researchers working on irrigation and plant response to extreme heat