Forest Gardening meets Deep and Personal Ecology

The Arrow River, after which Arrowtwon, New Zealand, is named, is rich in Gold, and in the 1860s a Chinese community sprung up with buildings made from the schist rock and native timbers abundant in the area. Many of the schist buildings have been preserved in an historic Chinese village near the centre of town, that visitors walk through in self-guided tours with information displays by each building. Many of the white goldminer's buildings are also preserved in the township.

As I entered the Chinese Village the first information stand showed a floor plan of the old Chinese Store, ad it appeared large enough at a distance. Looking at the numbers of the room, and what took place in them, I imagined a building from the context of European life the late 1900s, when I was young.

I didn't know my mind was imagining far greater expanses than I was about to see, and it still seemed large enough as I got closer. Then I walked in and found it small. How did a general store, bank, kitchen, bedroom, and hotel all fit into this one space during the gold rush. Cetainly Chinese goldminers were usually shorter than me, but was the building really that small?

Placing my hand above my head I measured the ceiling at 15cm above my head, that is at about 1.9m and when my hands spanned the doorways I found them to be about 55cm wide. Wide enough for me to see as I got close that I would get through easily enough and narrow enough to brush both shoulders as I walked through.

The store owners bedroom at about 7 feet (2.1m) square was barely big enough to lie in.

Really this was just like a building I was constructing back home. Mine was a wash-house, store-room, bedroom, wardrobes, clothes drying, food and flax preparation room in 2.65m square with a 1.5m verandah housing a shower, and handbasin.

Like the Chinese Store mine was to also have a mezzanine floor. At 2m above the floor, mine will have an extra 10cm of head height, and just as little space above the eaves for a sleeping person to tuck the feet into. Every function compact. Like the store I am having just one external door to minimise loss of floor space. Mine being on the north side has the advantage of in-built window glass that they did not have back in the 1860s and 70s. It will open outwards to the west to block any cooler westerly winds blowing by.

The Chinese Store was built on schist flagstones with stone walls. I had probably taken equal care laying the rocks, I had found onsite, to create foundations over roots near to trees on the building's edge. I wonder what trees has surrounded the buildings and gardens that the miner's had built.

Like the Chinese about to lift every stone, I an conscious of the energy it takes to build everything by hand. I had considered my height standing (1.75m) and sitting (90cm), and the clearances necessary above and forward of my head to feel like there was some space to move. I also wanted to fully utilise any space that was using a lot of my stores of energy and money to build.

That night we stayed in Glenorchy's Caravan Park and I found a old shower and toilet block, where the ceilings were certainly high but each shower and toilet was only three and a half handspans (70cm) wide; again very minimalist, but sufficient.

All quite a contrast to the current trend in housing to make as big a house as you can. Big rather than efficient, and sustainable.

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Love,

David


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