Kids Restore New Zealand

We had a visit from KRNZ Trustees, Ruud Klienpaste and Scott Bremner on Tuesday. They were coming to look at the work being done and talk to students about their ideas. It was really helpful to meet with them and it has generated more ideas as to the work we can be doing.

Fence

The first stage of the fence protection system is up. We now need to decide on whether to paint the exposed fence before we begin the planting along the fence line. Overtime the plan is that the plants will use the fence sculpture as a support to grow up, so adding a further barrier to stop the graffiti vandalism. Also if we can raise further funds we will begin adding more sculptural elements to the fence reflecting the biodiversity of the region.

Workshop Information

We have been running workshops this week, so students can develop an application for funding. They looked at a wide range of insect and environmental based work as well as visiting Gordon St. Staff from the school worked on drama, poetry and discussion based work exploring environmental issues. Students made some short films, took 100's of images and tried out some mobile apps.

The following links and information are taken from the workshops and made available for the students to further develop their ideas.

Insects Hotels, Motels, Holiday Inns

Insect Hotels

These are some of the ideas we have developed for insect hotels in Gordon St. As the area has a storm drain running through the middle, it seems appropriate to use some concrete pipes. We are still working on various size options, the square culverts and large round pipes look good, but they will take a lot of filling with insect friendly materials. One option is to get lots of hollow bamboo pieces to fill them, they would look great but take a lot of work to complete, it may be a case of experimenting to see how it works. We shall try out various other materials and monitor which insects like what material best.

The square culverts are used round here for cattle underpasses, amongst other things, but maybe a little on the expensive side, unless we can find some old ones somewhere? One set on the photo are actually a Donald Judd sculpture, not concrete culverts, but no doubt they would be even more expensive.

Fence Protection

Continuing the theme of looking at the natural world and deriving ideas from it to inform our designs for Gordon St. We are looking at using a DNA structure to act as protection for the fences along one side of the space. This will act as both protection and over time, when the planting is in place, as a support for the plants. It also fits in with the students developing the playground area, as they are planning a dna structure. It is also possible that we can follow on the dna structure on the fences to flow into a dna bridge across the storm drain. You can never have enough dna!

The photo is just a first attempt to visualise what it might look like. I am looking at the structure being made of rebar, and being a bit rougher than design in the photo, and costs permitting or at a later stage adding various laser cut shapes to the structure. These would represent various natural forms of defence that we have looked at during the project.

Vertical Gardens Update

I have just tided up the vertical gardens and over the summer test out some other plants and herbs. As we are in the middle of a drought at the moment, the vertical gardens come into their own, with the salad crops. Though I am topping up the water supply with approximately 10 litres of water per day and we have just had the water tank filled with 20,000 litres, so hopefully we will make through the summer. The gasses will need to be planted somewhere else as they have out grown the garden.

Having a test garden has been useful to work out how such a garden might work in a public space, an one mostly unattended. The initial idea was to provide the community with a series of gardens which they could plant and tend, so you could pop down to Gordon St. and pick yourself a few herbs or some salad to go with your sandwich and eat it in the space. It just might need some more thought and tweaking to make a workable solution, to avoid any possible vandalism, but we will keep working on the idea.

Spider Web Drain Cover

The storm drain which runs through the site ends at an unsightly grate over the tunnel, which captures rubbish, well some of it.

The students who have taken on this problem have been looking at spider webs as way to design a grill to stop the rubbish entering the pipe. As well as being a great idea, they are looking to extend the design as to act as a focal point for the area, by making the web cover the ugly bit of fencing above the drain. They will be looking at various webs from native spiders over the next week as they refine their design and also thinking about the possibilities of including a filtering system to improve the quality of the water before it enters the Northern Wairoa river.

Super Furry Fence

Through our work looking at ways in which animals, plants and insects protect themselves, these students have been developing ways to protect the fences from graffiti. This is example is using nylon bristles and they are going to try out a range of materials to see what works best. It is not just protecting the fences but also to make them look aesthetically pleasing as well. next week we hope to try out various materials on a full scale mock up. The top image as been photoshoped as we are also looking at including light into the design as well.

Mini Golf Course

What every town needs is a mini golf course and hopefully these are the boys who will be providing Dargaville with its very own course. Work is ongoing but they have been working on designs for the 9 holes and the first is based on the clock tower on the old post office building. Other ideas are to use aspects of the landscape and buildings in the region to include in the course.

Green House

This group have been looking at seating and shelter in Gordon St. In the past a house stood on the site, but due to flooding, hence the storm drain, the house was moved. So the idea will be to recreate a room of the house as the seating area. The image shows the idea, but also to offer shelter it is hoped to build a structure based on the outline of the old house. The roof will then provide a space for a living roof, which is another one of their ideas. I will post the house image when it is completed.

Playground

The playground design has been updated and now includes the worlds only DNA slide/ladder, well we think it is the worlds only one. There are more things to add including incorporating the periodic table into the design, chromosomes, molecules and many other things. One thing I found when looking at playgrounds was a very interesting project in Ghana, where a push roundabout has been built, which not only provides children with fun, but it also generates electricity to charge up LED lamps for use in the school and home, brilliant. We shall keep you posted. Also in researching playgrounds I have found some interesting sites and will list them for your information.

Vertical Garden Update

Students Ideas for Gordon St.

I have been working again with Year 10 science students and Mr Barnes their teacher. We have started by looking at a number of ideas and designs which have been inspired by nature, for example camouflage. We looked at a short film on biomimicry,

There are lots of interesting videos on YouTube and sites such as AskNature, which provide more information on biomimicry. 


I have added some of the students early work, so we can see how it develops overtime, we hope to have the design stage finished before the end of the year, so we can move on to the fun stage of writing funding applications.

Vertical Test Garden Update

Long weekend, so it will be time for some vertical gardening, and maybe our first vertical salad? Some plants need replacing and others need some trimming, but overall they are doing well. There are a few bits that need tweeking but it has been useful as a test garden to see what works and what needs working on.

I will probably need to make a new application for funding to build a more substantial and hopefully vandal proof garden. But that will have to wait until we have started work on the fence protection work.

Vertical Gardens Update Photos

Gordon St. Trip 2

Completing the data gathering and water testing at Gordon St.

Gordon St. Trip

Some photos from the trip to Gordon St. to compare and contrast it with last weeks trip to Waipoua Forset. We will have a look at the test results after the school holidays, but it isn't hard to see some visual differences.