class at claudia's

Spent an afternoon at claudia's with permaculture class. Claudia is our sample 'client' for a site assessment activity. Beautiful mudbrick house in bushy block above a creek gully.

Brainstormed a great range of issues to bring up in looking at client brief.

Also ate some fantastic kim chi. Must get the recipe, 'cos not only do I love kim chi but I've got cabbages in the garden, and it's a form of preserving, as Claudia reminded us. (And not one that relies on heaps of salt or sugar, which is my reservation with lots of preserving techniques.)

The informal discussion was as or more useful - thoughts about dietary restrictions and/or food preferences (types of food plants to prioritise), family (space for safe play of visiting grandchildren, for grown-up parties), budget, time commitments to working block and how they might change, etc.

An interesting challenge - house includes an attached unit to be let commercially as a holiday unit. Raises questions of privacy, paths and thoroughfares, importance of the look as part of the package being 'sold', etc. So spent time on questions such as whether paying guests would want to drive past functional things like veggie patches when entering the property.

The emotional/instinctual aspects emerged as important underpinnings - everything from just 'liking' a particular spot for whatever reason to needing to respect and treasure the place where a loved pet was buried.

The integration of such a commercial angle into the development was an interesting one, particular as it is integral to all plans.