Blog Tree

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Videos

A couple of videos from the BBC via YouTube. One on moving sculptures, taking inspiration from movement and animal forms. The other how looking at termites can help our building design, so if we give insects hotels they, in turn, can help us build better houses.

Fence Design

We have got the basic fence protection system designed. It is a representation of DNA and will act as a barrier and provide support for the planting scheme some of the students have developed.
Once the structure is up we plan to have a community sculpture workshop, so people can make sculptural elements to be attached to the structure. These elements will be based on the native flora and fauna of the Kaipara region.

Insect Hotels

Another application we have completed is for insect hotels. Our local council have a small biodiversity fund and we decided to apply to start building the insect equivalent of The Vegas Strip at Gordon St. Once insects in the neighbourhood hear about it, there will be no stopping them!

Bioretention Scheme

We have just put in an application into the Where There's Water fund for our bioretention scheme.

'The Fun Theory'

I showed students two of the videos from 'The Fun Theory' site, the bottle bank and rubbish bin, which they enjoyed seeing. After further discussions with the group, they felt that they would like to try their own ideas of making something following the simple statement from The Fun Theory site.


"This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better."

They have worked on some ideas and we hope to get these going later in the year.

It is also a theory we shall test out on a number of other parts of the project, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

New Year New Update

The summer holidays have been hot and dry, hot and humid and lots of wind. So it has been good to test out the vertical garden and how it holds up in the conditions. Still plenty of salad, but I have transplanted the grasses and the spring onions are a little large!

There has been a bit of a problem with a black slime, which I have cleaned off, but have not got to the cause of yet. The whole thing probably needs cleaning out and starting again in the spring. But I also hope with applications for funding, that the idea of the community vertical garden can be realised.

Plans are at the engineers for the DNA fence system and hopefully we shall be getting that sorted soon. Other applications are underway for the various separate elements and we plan to develop an application for the Community Environment Fund. This would enable us to expand ideas that have been developed at Gordon St. to the wider region.