DANIEL TOHILL

     SUSTAINABLE HABITATS

          Consultancy, Design & Development for Sustainable Living

          P.O. Box 2, Kaiwaka

          Northland 0542

Phone Kaiwaka  09 431 2577   -     Mobile 0272 895 550     -    Auckland 09 846 6209    

 daniel@sustainablehabitats.co.nz

For more information visit Sustainable Habitats website: www.sustainablehabitats.co.nz

Daniel Tohill’s working philosophy is bound by promoting an ecological aesthetic,

creating places that are understood, preserved and celebrated as an integrated whole

which become a powerful and memorable landscape.

Common threads run through many of Daniel Tohill’s projects:

• Environmental responsiveness,
• Resource efficiency and
• Personal, community & cultural sensitivity.

Environmental responsiveness is the process of sitting lightly on the land, bringing

about ecological restoration, it is based on the restoration and enhancement of

natural habitats and resources.  It’s purpose is to minimize damage to a local

ecosystem, and improve the surroundings for wildlife and human occupation.

Resource efficiency : Land, water, soils, minerals, timber etc are our resources and

energy flows in the landscape. These are our capital resources that we must

approach through a process of doing ‘more with less’, using fewer resources

(or less scarce resources ) to accomplish the same goals.

Sensitivity : Personal, community and cultural sensitivity involves respecting

and promoting a sense of place by recognizing the uniqueness that every setting,

community and culture offers.

 Daniel has been involved in projects around New Zealand, from planning an

eco-village in the north to ‘life style’ blocks ranging from the Kapiti coast to the Far

North, on Waiheke Island a permaculture garden based on Ayurvedic principles

(a system of medicine practised by the ancient Hindus and derived from the Vedas),

plus a small urban garden in the heart of Devonport that is designed to be a healing

garden of herbs and spices, a wildlife garden that embraces nature and organic

vegetable garden that will bring nature to the table (on a small city site).   This small

garden is designed to provide a ecologically sound, functional, pleasing creative

space that will require the minimum of input for the maximum gain.

We are also working collaboratively with Caroline Robinson an Auckland artist,

creating an ecological/permaculture garden that will deliver with a unique

’artistic character’.  This will not just be a garden with art pieces in it, it will be a

garden that promotes an ecological aesthetic, helping create a place that is an

integrated whole : a powerful and memorable landscape that feeds and heals

the soil, people and wildlife.

Last year I have also been involved in a permaculture garden for an orphanage in

Luang Brabang, Laos.  Last January my son and I took a open-topped long tail

traditional canoe up into the north of Laos, along the Nam Tha river.

It is an isolated jungle area with villages scattered along the banks of the river. 

These villages have been living self sufficiently for hundreds of years : the

permanence of their food production systems was inspiring.  Unlike some other

areas in Laos which practice slash-and burn agriculture, the villages seem to

have a great respect for the forests, with coppicing and revegetation being

used to preserve the land.

                                        Vegetable gardens on the Nam Khan River

                                               Bamboo bridge crosses the river

 I have also recently been at a story telling festival on waiheke island, I

attended a story telling workshop on learning the art of ‘ words becoming

seeds’. I loved this concept, we plant for the future with our words, actions

and gardens. How we live on our piece of land, how we shape that land be

it 10 sq mtrs or 100,000 tells a story, a story about who we are and what our

place is on this planet. A piece of land tells a story, we learn its story, what it

is saying to us, learning to read its natural qualities. We look at ways to

enrich its story into a sound productive ecosystem. Then we go about telling

the tale of this land with a story that is also ours, a partnership that expresses

who we are.

When you walk into a garden ( and by a garden I mean ‘ small inner city gardens,

farms, wetlands, etc, etc ) which is well planned and well maintained it instancely

has an effect on you, it is telling you its story and who it is in partnership with.

                            The life of our land comes in as food,
                           returns as fertility,
                            comes in as energy,
                            returns as care.

 While wandering around Waiheke Island I also come across a landscape

painter, I was fascinated by how he captured the characteristics of the scene

he was painting. It reminded me of designing a landscape. The landscape

painters art lies in identifying and encapsulating the qualities of colour, shape

and texture which are characteristic of the region portrayed, although not

necessarily slavishly copying the scene. Artistic license gives a painter the

freedom to exaggerate a slope or move a tree in order to enhance the composition.

When designing and implementing a design for a piece of land we are in the same

position of power as the landscape artist. Working with the essential nature of the

region, we can create beauty, diversity, stability and resilience by subtly enhancing

the composition, this is our aim.

In addition to beauty, diversity, stability, resilience we will wish to create amenity,

and I think this presents an even greater challenge than that faced by the painter.

We need to consider the best way to arrange things so as to put each component

where it is most convenient, as well as keeping sight of the aesthetic and

ecological composition of the whole, which is the problem an architect faces.

But unlike architecture, land and growing things are not static. They change shape,

and they also impose their own will.

The success of creating a sustainable landscape rests heavily on understanding

and sympathy, setting things up with care and going with the flow. Anything you

plan to import from outside the bioregion carries the risk of introducing a false note

that will spoil the general harmony, either aesthetically or ecologically. Careful,

sensitive planning is central to the design of a natural ecosystem. So, no matter

what is to be done with any sort of land development, the first step is a careful

assessment of what is already there.

 A Selection of projects by Daniel Tohill

 . Strawbale house, earth brick barn and layout of 5 acres on the kaipara Harbour

   House looking across vegetable garden

: House looking across pond

Wall of house with earth roof

Building of straw bale house

.  Various designs for rural properties through out New Zealand

After talking to a client and seeing the land this is a rough sketch of ideas,

and land use layout. We discuss this plan, make any amendments then

move onto a full working drawing, planting plan, specifications and time schedules.

 . Design for educational and permaculture gardens for

Edmond Hillary Primary School, Hunua  Road,  Papakura

This garden has now been fully implemented, providing food for the children

to take home, the children also make there lunches with produce from the garden.

The teaching of design, food growing, maths and natural science has been

incorporated into the daily gardening activities.

school children involved in hands on gardening

 .  Site planning, design and assessment for Te Whanau-a-Kapus

Marae development at Kauangaroa, Whanganui.

.  Landscape design for Quan an Buddhist monastery, Beaver  Rd

Bombay South Auckland

The gardens consist of ten acres of meditation and food gardens.
Pathways link 37 marble Buddha statures. Some of these statures
are over four metres high, they were bought over from Vietnam.

 
Site before construction
 

photos of Buddha’s in gardens.

 .   Natural swimming pools

          These are swimming pools designed by Daniel Tohill which rely on the

correct balance of plants and mirco - organisms to clean and purify the water.

They are a safe place for people to swim in and birds to drink from.

       They are a dramatic example of ecological design, combining the natural

and man made worlds while creating beauty.
They are easy and less costly to maintain than chemical pools, providing

significant savings in water. Chlorine and other common pool chemicals

are hazardous to human health and are not used.
Often the focal point of a garden, natural swimming pools blend into their

environments, flowing into the surroundings with plants and rocks.

They reflect the changing seasons and they enhance the environment naturally.
Natural swimming pools have been built in Europe for 30 yrs now, and still

providing their owners with complete satisfaction.

Article in Good magazine

 .  Eco friendly cabins (wishbone Cabins)

      Designed by Daniel Tohill and Tim hicks