It was a real pleasure for me on Wed 6 Dec to accompany Nigel on a trip to Balclutha to visit the new subdivision named Plantation Heights with which he's involved through his company Growplan. Nigel is a Landscape Architect, based in Dunedin and actively working through Otago and Southland, and further afield by arrangement.... Continue Reading →
Nigel @ Petridish. Dunedin NZ
Petridish @ 8 Stafford Street is the shared office space in Dunedin where Nigel has his Growplan office. The resident co-workers are currently introducing themselves via the Petridish Facebook Page and this is the intro that Nigel contributed. Thought I'd share it with Growplan followers on WordPress! -- Cheers, Liz By the way, Nigel has... Continue Reading →
Giving Beauty Space and Time. Guest Post by Nigel Cowburn
Guest post that I wrote for the “Where and What is Beauty?” series on Exploring Colour -Nigel
Any aesthetic experience which leads to a loss of sense of self, a stepping out of time and just being – this is beauty to me. We speak of being absorbed in an experience and it’s as if our self – right down to the molecules – is blending with what we encounter.
Blending into our habitat
Beauty is as much about giving ourselves the time and head space to simply ‘be’ as it is about our surroundings being rich enough for our absorption. However our places don’t need to be very complex; a single tree shading an ordinary sidewalk suffices. Only yesterday walking during a hot Nor-Wester (a föhn wind) into the shade of a plane tree, there was a sudden stilling of time within the tree-space; I had to turn around and walk back in again to feel the coming together of filtered green light, soft foliage fragrance…
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All Fragmentation is Loss
When we change nature (whether forest, pond, stream or meadow) by, for instance: Adding a persistent toxic chemical, e.g. a herbicide, arsenic from treated timber, asbestos from brake linings... Removing a species permanently Felling trees and/or opening the edge of a closed woodland, we harm it in ways that will not self-repair within a human... Continue Reading →
What is Sustainability really?
It's an in-depth consideration of whatever you're doing; developing land, building a house, planting a garden..., and then proceeding so you can do it again and again without impacting the Earth. Many modern processes externalize effects and costs, moving them to other places and to the future. Starting with a place to think this through... Continue Reading →
Growplan | Landscape Architect, Dunedin, New Zealand
I'm a Landscape Architect based in Dunedin, New Zealand, mainly focused on rural landscape design and working throughout Otago and Southland (further afield by arrangement). I want to help farmers achieve a balance between running their farms at a profit while also achieving good environmental outcomes. I also get involved with other rural design including... Continue Reading →