How much do you know about the Ecology of the Place you call home? I attended the most amazing workshop on the Ecology of a house in Hampton thanks to my friend Chris Buntine who has started on a journey to renovate his home using the regenerative principles in the Living Building Challenge. This morning’s workshop was organised and facilitated by the amazing Cristina Hernández Santín who took us on a journey back to the 1750s to understand what the Ecology of the Place was then compared to what it is now. Chris shared with us the species which had been sighted in the area in her study of the site. We worked in groups to discuss what the house and garden could become for both the residents and non-human neighbours. I really enjoyed the Ecology Bingo where we had to find as many of the Flora and Fauna which had been spotted on site. We also had to research some potential ecological targets for the house and garden and then pitch them to the other workshop participants. There is a lot of much-needed discussion happening in the Green Building movement atm about how we can protect and remediate the Ecology of our places as a key part of the regenerative redevelopment, but unfortunately often folk are unclear about how to make this happen.

If you are looking to understand the Ecology of a place you are considering developing I recommend you speak to Cristina Hernández Santín who is a PhD candidate at RMIT University if you want someone with deep knowledge of the Ecology of Place and with skills to organise and facilitate a really engaging and meaningful workshop. It was so great to be participating in this workshop with many sustainability friends in the industry Talina Edwards, Johanna Trickett Walter van der Linde Pamela Chacon Owen Fung Thanks Chris and Sun for inviting me to this great workshop I now know a lot more about how to set about assessing the Ecology of Place than I did at 10 am this morning #Ecologyofplace #livingbuildings