Life on the Edge

Six P rule

July 21, 2005

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Almost every evening for the past month I have been slightly obsessed with drawing up plans for the four Windgrove residency cabins; places where writers, visual artists, musicians and others will stay to ponder their navels if they so choose.

Not overly large (around 250 square feet or 25 square meters max) they must not only sit into the landscape comfortably, but also function well as a comfortable home away from home. Passive solar design considerations, the view from the windows, the layout of the tiny kitchen, the walk to the outdoor shower/toilet and the trees seen along the walk are all important.

What will it be like for someone, who has just flown in from America or Africa, to open the door and walk inside? How will they feel? Will their jet lag be momentarily replaced by an exhale of exaltation?

So, I sit at the dining table, books and papers sprawled out. There is no music on the stereo, the TV remains in the closet and all is quiet save for the wind in the trees and the sound of surf beating into the dunes. I look at each drawing and conjure up a person inhabiting the space between the pencil lines. I imagine the distance between each cabin. I look seven generations into the future and see people walking in and around a matured, landscaped cluster of cabins.

Are the birds singing?

These cabins might not get built for another two years, but I am compelled now to start the design process; a process where the finished cabins will not look anything like what I am drawing tonight. But it is important, at least for me, to explore idea after idea and allow the mysterious growth of new ideas to spring forth from the composted ideas of earlier cabin designs.

In like manner, even planting out this year’s trees takes a certain amount of planning in order that, 100 years down the track, the trees planted now will still be around. With hungry wallabies, rabbits, salt spray and dry, windy conditions, growing trees successfully requires some forethought (and a hell of a lot of work).

This week I took delivery of an order I placed four months ago. Six thousand, four foot long bamboo stakes; one thousand five hundred mulch mats, one thousand five hundred tree guards and 560 seedling trees. In two weeks, the final delivery of another 940 trees from a different nursery will arrive.