Previously on Ellerslie...

Well, it's been a while since we've updated! So much has happened! Let me try and give a brief overview of everything that has happened since the last post which was, what, TWO MONTHS ago!!!

So, we came up with a design. We worked very hard on it. We survived on lack of sleep. We made a model, complete with plants and every good thing. We showed it to Penny. She liked it. We showed it to Ian, another of our lecturers, who took a long time to say that he didn't like it. And fair enough, it was a little bit boring for an exhibition garden.

Nevertheless, it felt as though all our hopes and dreams came crashing down. But we rallied! We worked harder! We laughed, we cried, we had fights, and finally we came up with ANOTHER design! We made another model, even more spectacular than the last! We had fantastic ideas behind our garden, all about order and chaos! It was brilliant! We felt joy at the sight of it! We showed it to Penny, who also liked it! There was no limit to our happiness!

Then we showed it to Ian, who still didn't like it.

Well, we were a tad bit depressed, to say the least. All our motivation floated away... we began to hate Ellerslie, and referred to it as the "E word". We tried to ignore it in an attempt to save our sanity, which didn't really work, as our lack of progress caused us to wake up in the middle of the night panicking about Ellers- sorry, the E WORD.

But still we worked.

And now we have a BETTER idea! We've got chaos literally ripping through the garden! It's exciting, we have ideas! We've even written a brief, made a sponsorship proposal and done some pretty nifty drawings.

We are ready to take on Ellerslie!

Although, we still have to show everything to Ian. Let's hope he likes it.

Good progress!

Excellent work this week including a draft design brief, sponsorship package and design development on introducing more 'chaos' to the garden. Overhead plane, water and tectonic shift all explored.

For next week you aim to insert extra material into the sponsorship proposal, write some 'technical brief' clauses for the brief, and try building the tectonic shift wall with iceblock sticks and purchase thread/ribbon and skewers for the overhead plane.

We have a meeting planned with Kate Hillier on the 8th October, and plan to invite Renee, Chris B, Carolone from Landsendt and Lynn C.

Well done!! Penny

Our design ideas...

Now that Natasha's back (yes! Natasha's back!) we've been tossing around several design concepts. Actually, we've been tossing around concepts for a while now. We even started throwing around concepts before we fully decided we were actually going to do this Ellerslie lark.

Natasha wanted to do something that no one had ever done before.

I didn't care what we did as long as it was eco-friendly and sustainable.

May was all for looking at books and gaining inspiration and ideas.

As you might imagine, Natasha and Mays' concepts do not exactly fit together. I personally think that both ethoses (ethoi???) have their merits. But what can one do??? Even at that early stage we could foresee that there would be conflict. I joked that we should take DNA samples of ourselves so that, in the likely event that we murdered each other a part of us would live on in some form.

Still, our ideas have progressed with relatively little strife. Here are all our fantastic ideas that we've come up with over the past... however long it's been:

- Sleep garden, complete with bed/hammock and plants that make you want to sleep, i.e. camomile and hops

- Fold-away garden - watch this! It's flipping awesome! http://www.youtube.com/v/dAa6bOWB8qY&hl=en_US&fs=1

- Scented garden, filled with nice-smelling plants and flowers

- Elemental garden, where the elements of water, fire, earth and air are symbolically represented

- Water garden... something like an island surrounded by water. Or Venice. My mum keeps telling me to do this.

- Japanese Zen garden

- Babylonian Hanging Garden

- Proto-modern Westie garden, complete with dead car overgrown with rampant weeds

- Bathroom garden

And we thought up several elements that could fit into all of these gardens:

- Mosaic

- Outdoor fireplace

- Water feature

- Strange combination of both fireplace and water feature

- Mist

- Birdsong

- Eco-friendly (my criteria! MUST be adhered to!)

- Expensive furniture

- Mural

- Fusion of cultures

- Purple/blue colour scheme

- Flower petals used to form an overhead screen

- Painted lightbulbs made to resemble mushrooms

- Drums

- Chaddis (a funny Hindi word for shorts. And also underwear.)

- Wind chimes

- Mannequins (AUTONS! THE NESTENE CONSCIOUSNESS CAN INVADE THE GARDEN!!!)

- Bottle garden

A few of the last ideas Natasha came up with when she was jet-lagged and high on coffee.

But just in the last few hours Natasha had an epiphany. I'll let Natasha write what she thinks as she's probably the most qualified person to do this:

So, okay, this is a confession, but when I was in India, I wasn't really thinking about Ellerslie (what with so many other things to do :P and EAT). So, when I read all the ideas these guys were tossing around, I liked them ALL. But that only because I did not really think too much about them at all, they all sounded AWESOME. And, well, they were doing more thinking than I was. (or so I thought :P ) Then, I come back, spend an afternoon in the library and realize I have a problem with RELAXING!! OMG!! I just cannot get myself to relax!! and it was that bit of the brief that annoyed me the most! which is why I was so unhappy about Ellerslie. (Note- I was super-hyper excited about Ellerslie ALWAYS! even when I couldn't even say the name :P)

So, I decide that we were not going the right way with our thinking process and we needed to reinvent the way we were going about designing Ellerslie just so that we are a LOT more excited about doing it. Kind of trying to put a bit of ourselves in the design, because lets face it, we are NOT tranquil people and we somehow have to try and add a bit of our madness to the tranquil garden. (Gosh, blogging makes me hyperventilate) Back to Zara- Pheww!

ME AGAIN!!!!!

So yes, I was at home lying in bed eating hummus and crackers and reading feminist historical fiction while Natasha was at the library having her epiphany. Natasha ran into my room and I yelped loudly because it was late in the afternoon and I was still in my pyjamas. She then went on and on about this problem she had with Ellerslie and demanded my instant help.

So I went and had a shower.

I came back out, and she explained her problem, and I began to agree with her. Everything we had designed so far was in my mind pretty, well, mundane. That is, it was all good, but it lacked... something to make it special. Something that represented us. I can't help but think that everything we'd come up with so far was just us redoing what others had done before us.

So we meditated. We did the incense thing. We even turned off the TV.

And then I wrote this rather silly little philosophical thing that Natasha claims puts all of her jumbled thoughts into nicely-formed sentences. I think it's a load of disconnected tosh.

"Nature is our teacher. Everything we feel has its origins in nature. Look at a mountain. It's magnitude forces itself upon our tiny selves a feeling of awe at its greatness. We feel puny in comparison.

A great building such as a cathedral reinforces this awe. Look at its size, it's awesome magnitude. There is no difference between a mountain and a cathedral, save for one thing only: a cathedral is made by man. It's a very human mountain.

Can we not apply this same thought to our garden of tranquillity?

What is tranquillity?

It is peace, a peace that comes from the knowledge that we are free from hurt, from worry, from distraction.

A small stream is tranquil. It flows on, unhurried, in the knowledge that it has all of eternity to reach its destination.

There is not much in our constructed world that brings tranquillity. Everything is built for convenience, for the sake of getting things done quickly. It is stress and pressure that are at complete odds to tranquillity.

Tranquillity is not being forced to move. It is static.

Our garden should have a place to sit and reflect.

It should be filled with nature.

Nature is its own form of static.

But, for some reason, we hate this idea. We are young! We are energetic! We hate the static! We wish to move, to accomplish. We shriek and giggle as we steam-roll on through life.

We just can't stand tranquillity.

Therefore we must throw in some idea other than tranquillity. Something of ourselves that can also be applied to the DINKY couple. A bit of our madness.

But, WHAT????????"

After that we started playing around with abstract concepts. Natasha showed me a painting which was nothing more than squiggly paint splatters (and therefore is not art... hehehe...) but it gave me the idea of deconstruction. Perhaps having all the constructed elements in the garden slowly disintegrating only to be overwhelmed by nature... it's a form of anarchy of which I am particularly fond. Nature getting revenge on the world and all that.

Natasha has an idea of order and chaos... or order in chaos. Nature is wild and untamed. Our modern world exists to try and bring a bit of order to this chaos. But for some reason we are still irresistibly drawn to the chaos, and so even though we find ourselves a part of this ordered, modern world, a part of us yearns for the madness of nature.

She also describes it as being like Bombay. Indian Bombay. Not the Kiwi version. In Bombay there is an old and a new section. The old section is badly organised and thoroughly mad. The newer section is more peaceably laid out. Natasha lives in the newer section... yet every day she seeks to go back to the older section. It's far more interesting and alive.

So, we're thinking of quitting Ellerslie and taking up philosophy instead. Sounds like an inspired career choice.

But seriously, we're beginning to think that if we have an abstract, philosophical approach to our design, we can sort of marry it to some of our previous, concrete design ideas. I - we - think that it's the key to turning our previously mundane ideas into something far more spectacular and memorable.

No idea what May thinks about all this yet. We need to talk to her still. If she totally disagrees with us and throws hot burning acid into our eyes while shrieking in insane fury, we'll let you know.

Hopefully she won't, though. We haven't saved our DNA samples yet.

Right!!! Time for an update!!!

We've been playing around with a few ideas (and by "we" I mean May and I, no idea what Natasha's been up to) and today we had a meeting with Penny, our Learned Lecturer, and presented some of our ideas and she provided us with a deluge of information. But first, more of the messages between Natasha, May, and I, as I think they are both interesting and informative. (Note: about half of this conversation occured BEFORE today's meeting with Penny, and the final post (mine) takes place AFTER. You should be able to guess this for yourself as in it I write "We spoke to Penny today". Just trying to kill the confusion before it kills you.)

Zara:

Penny wants you to bring some Indian cloth back for Ellerslie!!! I was telling her all about this idea I had (a "Sleep Garden") and she suggested that you bring back some pretty Indian fabric and cushions etc. for a bed. May and I were thinking something blue as it's a very tranquil colour, not like the bright reds and oranges etc. one normally finds. If you can't find blue (though blue would be PERFECT, I think) a dark shade of purple could do. Just... see if you can find something. I think it should be something of quite good quality as this would fit with our clients being so DINKY with lots of money. Don't worry about the price, we can help reimburse you afterwards from the Ellerslie fund or something. (Of course, it would be best if it just LOOKED expensive but wasn't really.)

Even if we don't do the Sleep Garden idea, we probably still could fit some fabric in somewhere. It would probably be best if it was Indian fabric as we're thinking of having a marketing angle of being a garden with several different cultures fused within it - maybe tropical plants for May and little Indian-type details for you and a "simplicity of layout", as Penny described it, for me. Yes. I know. I get the boring bit.

Another idea we had was if we got a couple of mist-makers to give our garden a mysterious feeling. Mist! Surrounding a bed! In a garden! AWESOME!!!!!!

And I'm sure that I could convince Phil to paint a mural for us if we needed one.

Oh, and I've come up with an idea for a combination outdoor fireplace/water feature - essentially fire burning behind a veil of water. Could look pretty incredible, na?

Natasha:

I LOVE everything you'll discussed about Ellerslie!!Can totally imagine it!and it looks so so so GOdAWesome!!!!!!I'll get Indian fabrics, awesome ones!

and and and it just struck me! "sleep garden" is innovative as hell, I love and want it, i looked outside my window, and it looked exactly how i imagined, in monsoons its all misty-misty, but its not cold, like chilly, its super comfortable, so comfortable that i hang around in chaddis all day! will try doing some photography here, for inspiration

so,we'll obviously have to do stuff to keep the "sleep garden" comfortable in all seasons! create micro climates!! or my sister just suggested, put a hammock instead of a bed, with cushions, so its multi-functional, it can be chucked out during rains and bad weather!and it is still a "sleep garden". I'll start working on this idea more!

Zara:

Spoke to Penny today!!! She told us a lot of stuff about what the actual course-part of Ellerslie entails. I got another copy of the sheet she gave us and I'm leaving it on your bed.

We have a task to do! We have to create a Timeline of everything we need to do before the course hand-in date of 11th of October. She suggested we download this programme called Gantt to make it. But we can do that once you're back, because you're pretty much the most organised person out of all of us and probably the most experienced. :-P

What else... I took notes...Ah, yes, well, seeing as none of us are doing Documentation this semester and therefore none of us know anything about how to do proper construction drawings, Penny suggested that we ask Nikolai Popov (the lecturer, who also takes CAD) for help and ideas. Construction drawings are good as they give a fairly accurate idea of pricings and how much things cost. Apparently. And also, apparently, CAD can be pretty useful for conceptual drawings. So you guys will both have to do that, seeing as I'm not taking CAD (doing that next sem). Penny also suggested we could make a model, as in, physical model with pretty trees etc. It'd also be good in helping us think about how we would construct the real thing. And I could do a few Sketch-Up models, I'm pretty much pro at them now. XD

What else...

Ah, yes, apparently the Project Implementation course we're doing is going to be very useful. AND AND AND we can use Ellerslie as the project for that course!!! It's a proverbial two-birds-one-stone scenario!

We've agreed not to have another Ellerslie meeting with Penny until you get back as we think we'd be getting too far ahead of you. So. HURRY UP AND COME BACK, AS NOT ONLY WOULD THIS BE ANNOYING BUT I DIE A SMALL DEATH EVERY NIGHT I SPEND BY MYSELF!!! *cries* :-P

Wow. Just realised that May played no part in this conversation. Ah well. She was having a "brainwash" with me on Saturday and we threw lots of ideas at each other, so I know she's doing something.

I was intending to post some of the ideas May and I came up with, but I'm using the Unitec computers to post this as my internet at home is not working and the Unitec library closes in fifteen minutes and I don't have the time. Ah well. Look for a post tomorrow with all our mean as designs. (Note: The word "mean" is used in a colloquial fashion, meaning "really awesome" as opposed to "designs that will strike you down without mercy". Once again I am ruthlessly slaughtering the confusion. And that previous sentence was a metaphor. Confusion, being an intellectual concept referring to the state of one's mind, cannot be slaughtered, ruthlessly or otherwise. I think I should shut up now before I collapse in a whirlwind of self-correction. Oh, my, what an ironic final statement.)

The Brief

Some people wanted to see what we had to do for Ellerslie. This is an excerpt from the funky EIFS booklets we were given - pretty much all the (written) information we have to go on.


EMERGING DESIGNS - STUDENT DESIGNER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION

This category is for Landscape, Design and Horticultural students only who are currently in an appropriate tertiary course.

Whilst all exhibits within the Emerging Designs category are eligible to win EIFS medals an overall winner will be selected from within the Gold Medals. The overall winner will be titled EIFS Student Designer of the Year 2011. The winner of this award wins $5,000 towards their student fees.

These displays provide a genuine opportunity to demonstrate your design flare. In recent years many designers' individual exhibits have been the launch pad for successful careers.

The emphasis within the Emerging Designs in on DESIGN and INNOVATION! Thinking outside the square. However a strong horticultural content should be included within your designs.

Emerging Design Gardens work to a 'Client Brief'

Client:
A young couple in the 'DINKY' category.

Dual
Income
No
Kids
Yet

There are in their first home bought together; they have a high household income with few outgoings. Both have high preassure jobs working long hours.

Project:
Design and build a small courtyard garden.

Description:
When at home the clients like to relax with a glass of wine in a small, low maintenance, courtyard garden. THe garden should give an illusion of a 'Pocket of Tranquility'. It also provides an opportunity to entertain and possibly 'show off' to their guests.

The competition will only be held if there are 4 or more entries.

Grant offered:
$3,000

- Site size is 5m x 5m.

- Rough plywood walling (i.e. not plastered) 1.8m high walls will be provided by EIFS. THe Exhibitor should add a facade to compliment their design.

- Innovative design is key to this category.

- The heights of interior components of the garden, if over 180cm high, should be discussed with the Exhibition Manager on presentation of the garden design.

Viewing:

- At ground level these are to be viewed from one side only.

- A raised walkway will be situated at the back of the exhibits so that they can also be viewed from above.

- Emerging Design gardens are to be viewed from the walkways and are not to be 'walk through' gardens for the public.


Signage:

- Exhibitor signage should measure no more than 1m x50cm in total and be placed no higher than 1m from ground level.

- The signage allocation may be split over a number of signs i.e. 2 signs 50cm x 25cm

- Banners are not permitted.

- The tertiary institutes represented by exhibitors may display promotional material, to be discussed prior to show opening with the Exhibition Manager.


So yeah... that's pretty much it.

Ramblings

So, it turns out that May and Natasha are quite "shy" and do not enjoy posting on the blog. Hm. I suppose it's all up to me. Be prepared for vast quantities of meaningless babble as I am incapable of writing anything else. Ah well.

We've been having quite a few discussions about Ellerslie privately on Facebook. This makes it hard for anyone else to know what we're thinking, as, well, it's private. But I have gained May and Natasha's permission to publish bits of our conversation. Only the relevant bits about Ellerslie, though. Not the bits relating to mangoes, cushions, soup etc. etc.

Note: After a long struggle with myself, I decided not to correct any of the following spelling or grammatical errors.




Natasha:

I'm touring my city, I've found heaps of inspiration! LOTS of ideas which I'm planning to discuss with you'll once I get back.

[blah blah blah]

Other important things- how are we going about asking money for ellerlsie? Should I write up a proposal? How much time do we have? Are we taking it too lightly? I'm worried about the finances!

Are we going with multi-level? If yes, then we need lots of materials!! aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I'm freaking out here, dedicating today for research! By the time I come back, I think we should each have an impressive set of 3 design ideas! main complete ones, maybe not decided on the materials and all, just create 3 different types of spaces, so we'll have 9 good ideas to start off with. We'll keep eliminating or adding the good ideas to one main design idea! OMGOSH! I hope you're understanding what I'm saying! let me know if you need me to call you! I know I can sound foolish when I write

Overall, I think we should have 2 main ideas, 2 because, one can be ambitious, but if something fails like- maybe we don't have the budget or maybe we don't get laborers, or materials, we can resort to the other simpler project/design idea without having to start from scratch. Of course, the 2 designs should have the same character and feel, only different in complexity and difficulty level~ :)
Lots to discuss! I am trying to get back by 12th, assuming it wouldn't be too late. HOPEFULLY!


May:

yeah, i know how u feel on the finances but we should focus on the design idea 1st cause we need an amazing jaw dropping design plan to get them spending $ on us :P

anyways, I <3>


Zara:

I like your idea of each of us coming up with three ideas. I also had an idea. In the meeting Kate stressed the importance of keeping to the brief - so I thought that, before we actually started designing something, we should make a list of everything that conveys to us a feeling of tranquility, calm, and peace, and seeing if we can translate some of those things into our designs.


Natasha:

I like the idea of jotting down stuff, we could play "word association" it always helps! It should surely be one of the first things we do before we run off designing, but as we agree on each of us coming up with 3 designed spaces, we could do the jotting individually and later when we are each discussing our 3 design ideas, we could say how we thought it was peaceful, etc.! and how we came to design that blah space! Okay, now I'm assuming that's what you meant us to do in the first place, but you know my habit of stating the obvious :P

I;m trying to look up different types of gardens, we are supposed to be doing a courtyard garden I know, but I thought it would be interesting (note: not May interesting) to use certain features of another type of garden in the "courtyard" garden. I got very inspired by you Zara! the "suburban courtyard garden" is a fatteh idea!


May:

what i had in mind now is some woodland forest with bird sing...
err... i'm kinda dont know what to put on the blog.... *shy*



And that really is all we've come up with at the moment. It is difficult to compare swell ideas when one person is overseas and the other two live so far apart it's ridiculous. One of us really needs to get a car.

Well folks, that's all I have time for at the mo!!! I'll post the brief for Ellerslie up when I next get some free time. My family from India has arrived and they're taking up a lot of time! (Not complaining! Time exists to be passed in cheerful company. Or with dvds and hot chocolate in bed.)



Zara.

So-called "Earthships"

Just so anyone who is not May or Natasha is aware, things posted at this early stage are just random ideas or inspiration being chucked about. It's something along the lines of an online board where we just pin all our ideas, seeing as it would be difficult in person. So anything you see could be completely nusts.

I thought I'd get the ball rolling and post something I was researching over the weekend. I love it!

EARTHSHIPS! They're look like spaceships that just happen to not be able to fly... hence, earthships! Everyone needs a little more sci-fi in their life - Natasha, I'm glad you saw the police box on your way to India. You realise you're lucky to be alive. There was probably some moster around. Probably the Japanese students.

Earthships are houses made out of recycled materials, like old tires or bottles or cans. I LOVE this idea of recycling materials - and the houses are very cool. Perhaps we could use materials like this?

See more at:

www.earthship.com

Zara.