How to create beauty - lessons from a Japanese Farmhouse makeover

Last weekend two special people arranged sponsorship for me to come up and give practical permaculture workshops. Ma-san and his wife Rie Morimoto have taken on an old Japanese farmhouse, and are steadily turning it into an eco-paradise. Its a home for a family of 4, a vegan guesthouse, eco-goods shop, vegan cookie business (Rie), and office for culture creating events and business consulting (Masa).

As part of my workshop we wandered the property, brainstorming ingenious ways to increase yields and lessen wastes, using permaculture.
As a guesthouse where people paid money to be inspired, we decided that visual beauty was an important yeild.

Here are some of my tips for how to Create Beauty


Find whats already working well. Expand this.


The gently-rusted plate by the door reads 森本 'Morimoto' the family name.
This little arrangement strikes me as beautiful. It will take very little effort to cultivate and spread this particular brand of beauty over the whole property - like a wildflower, its in its element.
So looking carefully, what makes it beautiful? What exactly is it we will reproduce?

• Using a 'Family' of colors - different from but related to each other, making each other look good. A natural earthy palette.

• A 'Family' of materials - stone, wood, iron, render, and some vintage glass, like the surface of a frosty pond. It looks pre-industrial, and evokes a faraway world. There is some aluminium in there, but its keeping a low profile.

• Using the five elements - wood (timber) earth (render), fire (in forged, rusted iron), air (generated by the foliage), water (in the vase, in the pond below). Humans find this innately pleasing, because that's the balance that makes an ecosystem a home, deep back in our history. Their presence says 'you have everything you need to survive.'
  

• Gravity-friendly - heavy and dark things below, light smooth things above.

• Light on dark, dark on light, for contrast, like in my illustrations.

• Balance of the enduring and the fleeting - the little bamboo vase might have a different flower every few days, the family nameplate will be there forever.

More Wabi-sabi, literally 'rusty and lonely', the beauty of the unpretentious and impermanent.

• Using things that are both useful and beautiful. The rice from their fields dries in the sun, and this sight makes us happy.
  

• Stick to one way of using lines. The whole is a composition of restful verticals and Horizontals, maybe the very ones that got Modrian and Frank Loyd Wright all excited. If these lines are used throughout the whole property, it will give it a World-of-its-own aura, restful, ordered, lively. The circlet of vines looks natural, a charming visitor. Round its its nature. Just don't use naturally straight materials, such as bricks, to make curves. Respect their nature.

Introducing Ma-san, Mr. Morimoto. The beauties of his character would take a while to list, but the most striking one for me is the absence of excuses and evasions. I think it comes from an ability to do this: start doing things BEFORE you know how to do them. Make mistakes, fix them, proceed onwards. Invite people to help. Cherish their contributions, act on them when you can, don't argue for your limitations.

Whats jarring in this photo, needs to be removed?
The yellow bags, the metal rack, and the poster and boxes are gone now.



Light. The Glassed-over North side of the house is filled with lovely sunshine. I recommend placing more seats, eating spots, paths and arranging for activities so that this becomes the place where people spend their time, bathed in winter sunshine.

Pig. This pig is not for eating. He is the welcome committee for guests, to make them feel they are in the country. The family want to move him from this place by the door, so he can spend time out of the harness. I just hope we find a way to do it so we always see him - the chickens are a decorative, rather than useful laying breed, but are hidden away, and that's a waste.


Replace 'stored objects' with 'in-use objects'.
To keep this Zone 1 doorstep area a clear, flowing current of activities, you can't choke it up with rarely used, unbeautiful things, so we started a declutter session.

These rice husks are used as winter fuel for the ancient stove by the doorway.
I knew we could find something better than the over sized grey metal barrel, that was a visual intruder in the lovely doorstep-scape.
Something square would dominate less space, something wooden would snugly fit the 'family' of materials.
Here our WWOOFers Asuka from Taiwan and Moja from Japan put their find from the shed into use, a vintage barrel.


The shed, it turned out, was full of good things from the previous owner, things that would solve many of our problems. But the first problem was ....


We couldn't reach very far inside.
So we gave up decorating Zone one, and just focused on Decluttering the shed.
I put hundreds of little plastic planter pots into plastic garbage bags, to go to the incinerator. Yes, it was hard. That's where rubbish ends up in rural Japan. And that's a key to why a lot of beautifying was still to happen - we couldn't reach the good stuff for the homeless junk that was in the way, that people just couldn't bring themselves to deal with.

How to throw away junk

Lay everything out in 90○ angles
It looks more manageable that way, and true junk is more easily recognized when everything is treated with respect.

Label All things in storage, use high-quality easy access shelves and transparent boxes. If your object is not worth this respect, you probably won't use it.

Give yourself permission to throw things away
Kind and resourceful people see potential value in every cracked and crazy thing.
Throwing it out may be a waste, but if you can't find and use things in the mess, they are already lost to you.
On top of that is buildings and space you cannot use, clarity and beauty lost, wasted.
Its already wasted. You are only gaining by letting it go.

Put a date on it
So, you say you'll use it one day...when, exactly?
When you put a date on things, in your dairy, it forces you to tell the truth - most projects you will never get around to, and never really need to. Let it go on to its next life, and let yourself go on to yours.

Calculate its cost.
Re-buying things you threw or gave away - string, bits of timber, dregs of paint - will cost you how much, over a lifetime? Less than $100. In the right size, right color, and without a few hours searching.
A study sponsored by IKEA estimates the average western house spends $100, 000 of its mortgage on space for things they never use. Clear one room, and you can rent it out for a few hundred dollars a week. Then spend the money on...organic food...education...massages....


Just because its there doesn't mean you have to use it
Cinder blocks, plastic bags, white polystyrene boxes, cardboard. Its true that they are somewhat serviceable. If you don't find a use for them, they'll go to the rubbish bin.
But if you do use them, you whole home becomes a kind of rubbish bin.
Guests won't feel they are in a special world were everything was put in place with care, love and freedom of choice.
They don't feel that they are special, worthy of effort and fitting things.

Alternatives to these containers and materials doesn't mean you have to spend your money on consumer goods at the hardware store - this doesn't look more thoughtful or beautiful in the end anyway.

If you search, ask around, hold out for something that fits the visual 'family' of your place, you will find it, and it will be happy to be there.


It took five minutes to replace the Cinder blocks with nice wood found in the shed, a goza mat to hide the plastic pigpen, and a scattering of autumn leaves from the yellow plastic bag to hide the bald patch of dust.
Free, and just a few meters away.

Happy pig, things are getting better.


Cardboard boxes from the shop are used to line paths, keep the weeds down.
Convenient, but not beautiful, not easy to walk on.
We discussed options:

• Trading something the Morimotos have (I found 50 beautiful, useless terracotta pots) for a big pile of chips from the many neighbouring wood mills
• Chipping the cardboard - it would look less recognizable.
• Cutting up and scattering rice straw - but it would still fly away, and not last long
• Keeping our eyes open on car trips for something useful to lay - husks, pebbles, bark
  

But once we excavated the shed, we found a huge pile of these old goza mats, looking very long-term unemployed.
Cut up and layed carefully, they would be beautiful for looking at and walking on, suppress weeds, and eventually compost back to become plants again.
They were their the whole time. There was just no access path into the shed, and no question being asked, with the answer 'goza mats'. Keeping unanswered questions, unfulfilled desires at the top of your mind creates a vacuum for good things to flow into. Don't fill that space with cardboard.


Just because its there doesn't mean you have to use it

This is true of our emotions as well as our building materials.
The impulse to be whining, angry, frightened or indolent are as common, as close at hand as rustley torn plastic bags and polystyrene.
But we don't have to use them. Our lives can be special, and people who come into our lives can feel special and honoured.

When I resist the impulse to use crap in my surroundings, it strengthens me to resist it in my emotions, and the other way round too.

You cant do it by yourself though, everyone needs a team of helpers.
The Morimoto family are geniuses at attracting the helpers they need, and keeping them well-fed, entertained and happy.

Natural materials

Traditional Rucksack for harvesting from the mountains.

Yuuta, a genius artist, with our dinner, vegan sushi. I couldn't believe its deliciousness.

Another genius of care and deftness. Kenta makes a tower.

Dinner with the Morimoto Family, WWOOFers and guests. Behind me is the woodfired stove, and after dinner, the woodfired bath.
"Mori-no-ie" is written 森の家, and translates as 'House in the Woods'.
So, can you guess which pictogram is means 'woods'?

Lovely Language, Lovely culture, and lovey family in the woods.

What to do when people make you feel bad on purpose?

This is a question I came across on Kemps creative happiness blog.

I just recently realized that its a usual in our culture that if somebody makes you feel bad, you should make them feel bad in return - that's fair, just, you have a right. People do it to people they love, even.
Like they feel obliged to.
We even do it to ourselves, cause ourselves pain, thinking it will help us behave better next time 'How could you be so stupid!' etc.

There are arguments for and against just avoiding people who do this pain-inflicting. But since 'these people' are most people, self included, if you get good at managing this cultural curse we have, you will become an amazing person, with a rare, useful skill.
Id like to some of that.

Reality-feedback is a multi-purpose problem solver. "Hey, I feel bad. Did you intend that?"

Imagine being told such a thing with a simultanious communication of love: held hands, hand on back.

Many a monster can be melted by simple illumination, just being seen.

The left wing kitchen sink at 3CR radio station

Recording a Community radio show the other day, I enjoyed 3CR's approach to keeping the studio kitchen sink clean.
A clear kitchen sink achieved without Nagging is a sign of great design skill.

If you'd like to hear how to get an edible balcony garden going, tune in to 3CR on 855AM, at 5.30 tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. Cecilia and some very nice left wing ladies had fun.

If you come across a well-done kitchen sink message, please send. We could put them together for an undeniably life-enhancing exhibition.

Nursing home creating peace though ingenious (Permaculture) design

This story gives me hope that Permaculture Designers are everywhere, unbeknownst to themselves. And a demonstration that Permaculture can fix maybe.... maybe...everything.

Illustration by Cecilia Macaulay

Its the story of Adards, a Nursing home clever and loving enough to receive even the violent demented elderly. These might be ladies and men whom no other nursing home could accept or manage, people who were otherwise heavily sedated, or living all their last days frighted and distressed.

I've not visited yet, so what I write is based on old website information, and a remembered newspaper article read about six years ago.
It starts with Dr Sam Tooth, and Dr Sam Ginsberg, compassionate and imaginative professionals who saw that things could be different. They gathered allies and set out to create a home, and environment in which frustrations and escalations just couldn't take root. Bill Mollison would call it 'Using Aikido, rather than Karate', guiding the energy of the residents to flow and dissipate harmlessly, instead of using our energy to block and overpower, with distress and cost on all sides.

Adards' 37 bed Nursing home was finally opened in 1991, in Warrane, Tasmania.

Now for a tour, with images taken from Adards (difficult to find) website.

Now how wonderful is this?
Right thing in the Right place
Doors that go to 'staff only' areas are camouflaged, with only a hole for the key. Patients who want to follow the nurse instead open and wander through the obvious, unlocked door, and back into a living area, and soon forget the original nurse-trailing mission they had set out on.


Here is the same trick with the residents wardrobe: the clothes in the 'real', camouflaged wardrobe can stay nicely folded, but there is an accessible wardrobe for residents to have a good old rummage through their stuff. Instead of futile folding work for the nurses, more time can be spent chatting. The level of staff contentment in this home is legendary, as something visitors can see, and something their long-service statistics show.

Designing for things to happily follow their nature
I remember hearing that this home its built on a hill. Because the residents don't see a wall keeping them in, they 'forget' to rail against it, the challenge to escape is not there. I also remember a story that there was a bus stop installed in the gardens, where an elderly lady would spend hours happily waiting, so she could go and pick up her daughter from school. Imagine being convinced your little girl needed you, and people you don't really know keep hauling you back, stopping you. The muddled thoughts won't go away, but the reality they collide with can me made softer, more human.

According to the website, there really is an old car in the garden, that the men like to polish and sit in, 'cause a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Adards is actually 4 individual, domestic-style homes, each linked at a central hub, and edged with own garden. The gardens are there to be wandered in, and who would want to wander if there wasn't something to seek out? A dog and a kitty-cat, a BBQ, and the familiar site of a clothesline are comforting domesticities, with long verandas for wet-whether wandering.
The gardens are separated not by a forbidding fence, but by a shared aviary and chook shed. Not the end, but the start of something interesting.

The layout of the whole home is so clever, I wish I could show you here, but you will have to visit the Adards Nursing Home Website for now.

Use the power of rhythm
Anticipate and plan for change
During the day, the central hub that connects the four wings, or houses, is closed. Residents are free to wander in their own garden, veranda and living areas.
Sundowning time is when life's losses and defeats are deeply felt, and the fractiousness this leads to is planned for. Activities to distract and divert get get the residents over the toughest time of day, then dinner can be enjoyed.
Night is when old thought bubble up, and the wandering begins. This is not forcibly stopped, but designed for. The central hub is opened, connecting the corridors of all four homes. Down they hurtle, making great progress along passageways unfamiliar during daylight hours, passageways circling them back to the safely of their own rooms. Back in there own beds, the energy that fueled their expedition all spent, they rest.



Allowing every person, every creature to make their contribution
and
The amount of meaningful connections is a measure of riches.
I remember being tiny, up on a stool washing the dishes, ecstatic. My mother had arranged an apron, an underwater tea towel to stop things breaking at the bottom, and here I was (3? 4?) making a contribution.
Its a built-in human need, to contribute. In this kitchen at Adards, the stove is lockable, and the hot water lever is removable, so residents don't get burnt while pottering, helping, and enjoying being immersed the comforting smells and routines of getting dinner.

Wimpy excuses, or happy results.
The carpet and upholstery feel like cloth, but are waterproof. The 'Fireplace' creates a cozy glow to gather around, but all heat comes from ducts. Other places would justify their vinyl chairs and industrial feel by blaming the messy silly patients. In yet other places, coziness is exclusive to those with tip-top faculties. But there is very often a way to get a really good result with whatever flawed human beings you start with, if you look beyond the obvious, keep searching for alternatives. All of us are flawed, all of us could do with forgiveness and damage-control planned in.

We are not islands. Strategic changes to the 'ecosystem' we live in can significantly, effortlessly change us. What a relief. Thank-you Adards.

If you enjoyed this story, and got some ideas for your own life, own projects, I'd love you to share them in the Comments section. My next post will be an intimate exploring of the permaculture design principles as seen performing their small miracles at this special, life-giving place.