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Designing with Nature
By Mick Abbott
WildLab
Reviewed by David Barnes
I suspect that, for most people “design” as a profession and as an academic discipline, particularly when done well, is something that happens in the background.
Mick Abbott wants more people to think about the design process when it comes to how humans interact with nature.
In this book, he seeks to demonstrate how this can be done.
Behind him is lengthy career in the field along with an extensive and impressive history of time in New Zealand’s wild places (notably a solo journey from Fiordland to Farewell Spit in his 20s).
The book ranges widely.
At one point it is discussing the merits of constructing track edges from fallen tōtara trees onsite rather than from off-site sourced tanalised pine and comparing Cecil Kings Hut, made from a hand-hewn beech tree felled to clear space for the hut, with the nearby pre-fabricated and airlifted Stone Hut and questioning which provides a better connection to nature.
Two pages on, it gets more philosophical in asking why the Conservation Act talks in double negatives about activities being “not inconsistent with” nature conservation, rather than more positively requiring those activities to be “consistent with” nature conservation.
He argues for a process called regenerative design, where the experience of nature — particularly through the tourism industry — is encouraged to move from one based on spectacular views to “one whose purpose is to foster acts of wildness that directly protect, preserve and care for the environment”.
A significant part of the book is given over to short case studies (called “field notes” here) of projects the author has worked on that demonstrate his thesis.
One of the more significant is a programme for children aimed at encouraging more active connection with wild places than would happen in a visitor centre.
Initially called Kiwi Ranger (later Kiwi Guardians), it pointed children at activities such as walking barefoot through moss, making a rain gauge and using a stick to explore the forest floor in a way similar to a kiwi using its beak.
Initially supported by the Department of Conservation (Doc) with some commercial sponsorship, the programme ran in 16 sites and for about 20 years before succumbing to the fickleness of funding priorities.
Other cases include one for reimagining Ōtākaro Avon River post-earthquake with a more natural focus rather than with the manicured imported look of the post-colonial era, and several for upgrades of Doc sites on the West Coast.
Fittingly, for a book about design, there are some really good photographs and drawings.
Unfortunately, many are reproduced at a size that means they lose their impact.
This is a book that is hard to pigeonhole.
While clearly relevant to people working in the design field, I can also see its appeal to people who like to think outside the square about how society interacts with nature.
David Barnes lives in Lower Hutt and is an avid tramper and an armchair mountaineer.