Days 12 and 13 - Design project

After nearly 2 weeks of information overload it was time to put some of the information into our first design. We were split up into groups of 5, and had all of day 12 to work on the plans for our sites. Our group had a good mix of people, and we seemed to get into the 'zone' fairly quickly and came up with a phased plan for our urban site in Seymour. As well as the presentation we put together a folio of drawings (done by the drawers in the group - I can't draw a straight line even with a ruler!!) for our client.

Group work has never been one of my favourite things, but the process seemed to go reasonably smoothly - and it was a really good exercise to bounce ideas off other people, and to try and incorporate everything we've learned about the principle in a practical way.

Day 13 was presentation day, where each group presented their designs to our 'clients' and the rest of the class. It was fascinating to see the different directions each group took - even though two groups had the same client. Some really creative ideas, and even a mini practical water demonstration using green cordial (nice one Dan!).

By the end of the day it was time to relax and chill out - everyone was glad it was over! Time for pre-dinner drinks in the sunshine, another fab dinner, and then the end of course quiz night. Highlight of the quiz night was the various caption competitions using photos taken on the course. Some very creative responses!!

Day 10 - animals, urban retrofitting and design projectwater,

Lots happening today! We started with a session on greywater - reviewing a range of systems from commercial to DIY home based ones. I'm very excited by some of the possibilities for a simple system at our place. I definitely want to get one of these happening in the next few months. We also talked a bit about simple aquaculture systems.

The next session was looking at options for 'retrofitting' the urban landscape - including treasure in skips, options for guerilla gardening (LOVED this part of the session) as a community building exercise helping to reclaim unwanted urban spaces.

This afternoon we had the intro to our design project - we'll be working in groups of 5 on 2 real life design projects for members of commonground. My group are looking at creating a permie-plan the urban house (run down) and land in Seymour town. I've got a great group with diverse skills and experiences so I'm really looking forward to working on our design. Lots of exciting possibilities. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with the site visit and talking to our 'client' about his plans and visions for the site.

Tonight is a night off (bliss) so will probably do some notes / planning for the project. Tomorrow is another site visit to Violet Town.

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.