Monday, October 20, 2008

Day 9 - Introduction to design & earthworks

Today we've had 4 sessions (one more to come after dinner) with David Arnold about designing - focussing on principle 7 - design from patterns to detail. I found today great - things just started to fall into place. Lots of outdoor work looking at patterns to work out sectors (eg fire sector, winter sun, summer sun, wind) that need to be considered when doing a design. We also talked a bit about mapping, and the various tools available to map

We also had a discussion about the design consultation process - things to think about / look for / ask about when working with clients (something we have to do for our final project, although the clients are people from commonground - so friendly!!).

Last thing this afternoon we looked at earth works and looked at various way to find contours and levels - including an a frame with plumb line, and a bunyip. We they wandered around looking at various earthworks at Commonground, and did some practical work with the bunyip trying to look at how we might extend drainage ditches with the right gradient. Very useful.

The last section of earthworks was a discussion about the keyline concept developed by yeomans, and how that can be used to keep water in a landscape - either just by ditches / keyline riplines and/or keyline dams.

Lots of food for thought - and possibilities for practical application to our place.

1 comment:

gary said...

Sounds like Jerry's going to be busy ;)

Regards, Gary