Students Present at NZILA Auckland Branch Event

(Post by Peter Griffiths)   The Unitec X-section journal team presented at the annual 2x2 event held by the NZILA Auckland Branch on the 6th August.  The team was there to encourage industry contributions to the journal - which aims to present a collaborative student/staff/industry view on this year's topic of Exchange.  We look forward to exciting things to come from this years journal.

Kingsland Pocket Park Competition

(Posted by Renee Davies)
Unitec BLA students from all years have the exciting opportunity to enter design ideas into a competition organised by Alsco (landowners) and supported by Urbanlogic landscape architects, Kingsland Business Association and Auckland Council.

The competition is to design a small pocket park in Kingsland and the winning design will be built this year!  The winning student designer will get to work with Urbanlogic and contractors on the implementation of the design on the ground - a great opportunity to work through an entire design process.

About 10 groups of interested students met on site in Kingsland today to be briefed by the client.  Its a challenging site with a number of constraints, but students are all excited about the potential to create some exciting and innovative responses for the site.

The competition closes on 29th August - so we'll keep you posted on the outcomes and results!

Gardens for SuperLot 8 at Hobsonville Point

Rod Chadwick (AV Jennings) presenting Jiachen Xu with his award for innovative design.

Diploma in Landscape Design studios had the opportunity to come up with garden designs for terrace houses at Hobsonville Point this semester. AV Jennings generously arranged judging, and a prizegiving for top second year student designs from Jiachen Xu, Catherine Civil, Anna McCormack, Leigh Nicholson and Vanny Tirta Sari. 

Department Bicultural Strategy

A Bicultural Strategy for the Department was given the ‘green light’ by staff after being supported by the Maori Advisory Group (MAC) early in the New Year. The purpose of the Strategy is to expand and contribute to mātauranga Māori by providing facilities, research, support and advocacy for staff, students and visitors. This is to align with and support the developing landscape architecture profession’s bicultural strategy.

There are several key aspects of the strategy aimed to bring about changes. The first is to open a resource office in the centre of the department for staff, students, and kaumātua who are invited to visit the Department (more about that below). The Strategy also provides for mentoring of Māori students, support for the MAC group, two seminars or hui on Māori topics per year, and improved Māori practices, knowledge and curricular content. Copies of the Strategy are available from the Department.

The contribution to the Strategy of one of our students needs highlighting. Tosh Grahame took on organising three (one extra) seminars this year, which will be a major asset to the Department. The seminar series kicks off Māori Language Week for the first seminar, and the series is notified separately. In short the dates are:

·       July 24 Haare Williams on Whenua: Kaitiakitanga;

·       August 7 Pita Ture on Whenua: Wairuatanga; and

·       September 18 Malcolm Paterson on Whenua: Mauritanga.

Each seminar is on Thursday 12.30- 1.30pm and they will be popular events for landscape architects seeking to expand their knowledge of mātauranga Māori, as well as with other colleagues.

The Resource (whanau) Room

Centrally situated this room is now ready for gatherings and other use. Equipped with two desks for staff or students, it also has a comfortable sofa, with room for small meetings. Māori resource material for inspiration and research is beginning to expand through donations. We anticipate a motif to call attention to the room, on glass to be designed by student Natalie Couch. In addition, students will be called to a meeting to discuss and provide information for the Maori carver who has agreed to prepare a lintel or other carving for the room. The MAC members, students and staff will also be asked to contribute research on Unitec and ideas to formulate a name for the room, which we would then submit to authorities for agreement. The intention is that this room will be a physical base to provide support for students and staff and will encourage expansion of research and knowledge. Join us there.

Teaching in China

By Susannah Kitching

Over 3 weeks in May the department presented courses, commissioned by the Landscape Bureau of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Wuhan is the fifth largest Chinese city of approximately 8 million, growing at an extremely rapid pace, with aspirations to join the first tier cities of Beijing and Shanghai. It is an industrial city, with a new focus on the production of optics.

Leo Zhang, who invited Renee Davies and Ian Henderson to Wuhan last September, had organized these courses. Ian, Susannah Kitching, and Yue Yu, of Xanthe White Design, who translated, delivered them. The focus of the modules was on planting design, green infrastructure, low impact design (LID), and new management technologies. This teaching was done in collaboration with Chris Bentley, director of Boffa Miskell, Shanghai, and Swallow Wang, who presented their Chinese projects.

The Landscape Bureau has 1400 employees, with 13 district offices, a Design Institute of 180 and responsibility for the management of many parks, streets, nurseries and even a bonsai department. 

In total 120 Landscape Bureau employees attended the presentations, received

course books, which had been produced by Susannah, and were presented with attendance certificates. 

While in China staff had the priviledge of visiting some of the famous traditional gardens of Suzhou - images follow of these inspiring Chinese gardens.

A Great Read...

Wicked Plants – The weed that killed Lincoln’s mother & other botanical atrocities

by Amy Stewart

A delightful little book which explores the ethnobotany of poisonous plants “…an A – Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate and othewise offend”  and the cultural and historical impact these have had on humans.  The book is beautifully illustrated with etchings of each plant and provides a unique insight into the role of plants in human society and the often fine line between beneficial and deadly.  A fascinating journey, the style of the book allows you to pick it up and read about one particular plant at a time and the historical examples of the impact of each plant are insightful and sometimes shocking.  A must for anyone who is interested in the power and mystery of the botanical world.

Book Review by Renee Davies

2009 Algonquin Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-683-1

Rainforest Journeys

Traditional boat transporting students down river

(by Renee Davies & Students)

This years Pacific Regional Studies course took a group of students deep into the precious and diminishing rainforests of Sarawak, Malaysia to spend a week with one of the last nomadic tribes living in the rainforest – the Penan.

The journey tested students and staff physically and mentally but provided a unique cultural immersion experience and an opportunity to explore and appreciate the inter-relationships between the indigenous Penan people and their environment, and gave insights about relationships between landscape and culture.

Trekking from village to village and talking to the local Penan people showed that that there is considerable concern amongst them about their future. Concern over their rainforest that is being cut into from all sides, concern over what this was doing to their rivers and concern over the many dams being built which are flooding vast areas of land and causing the relocation of many indigenous people. The Penan were keen to tell their story and to let the world know that their environment and way of life was being threatened.

In the words of Vanya, one the students, “Our trip raised questions of cultural sustainability and importance of preserving cultural diversity and recognising indigenous values. We were also reminded of the importance of protecting ecological diversity and educating others about the importance and value of conservation. The trip encouraged us to reconsider our own values and beliefs and whether we would be willing to work on projects that are known to cause massive environmental and cultural damage”.

A SCALA seminar - Revealing the Rainforest - by the students and staff discussing  the trip, cultural landscape and rainforest conservation issues will be held on 21^st August at Unitec.

The following are some images from the trip.

Traditional Penan house built from local hardwood timber

Butterflies gather to drink at edge of river

Students have a go at using Penan hunting blow-pipe

A night in the rainforest during trek to Penan village

Fern fronds gathered from forest on menu for dinner

The Penan Peace Park - locals to try and save their forest

Older Penan who grew up as full nomads in the forest 

Traditional craft still used for everyday functions in the village

An open fire in the Penan house 

- rainforest food and rice for dinner 

- we all loved the home-grown

and gathered array of mainly vege food

Numerous river crossings to get to the village

Gathering our own food for dinner 

- tapioca leaves -

River trips were a highlight

Orangutan in wild at rehabilitation centre