Living with the lockdown - finding the positives

We’re about halfway through the lockdown. Looking at the numbers it seems like Aotearoa is responding well so far, writes Brad Coombs, the NZILA Tuia Pito Ora president.

Two weeks ago I was really worried. I was processing the news of a major intervention to how I was used to working and living.

The four-week Aotearoa lockdown, our nationwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak, had just been announced. I was feeling anxiety. I was wondering how I was going to get through four weeks of working differently to how I had ever worked before. Those thoughts were all about me. Slightly selfish when I look back on my initial reaction to what was going on around me.

Brad Coombs has found he has more time to notice what is going on in his neighbourhood.

It turns out it’s not really a lockdown. It’s more of a stay in your own neighbourhood and don’t get too close to people, other than your immediate family.

That doesn’t sound bad at all. Stay connected and close to your neighbourhood and spend more time with your family.

My initial anxiety about changes to how I would work were relatively unfounded. Isthmus, like many other practices in the design professions , is very creative and responsive. A large proportion of our profession in Aotearoa work either on their own or in organisations that employ only one landscape architect. So we are relatively used to working on our own.

Over the last month or so we have trialled and started using new systems, apps and communication channels. Last week we had our first all in ‘one studio’ meeting via Microsoft Teams. With nearly 80 people connected, sharing and listening at the same time, it worked really well. I am sure that we will all learn a lot from 2020. New ways of working in a new world. Perhaps we will travel less for our work and continue to use new ways of communicating. Engaging. Facilitating design. All from a distance.

I have noticed some other changes since I’ve been spending a lot more time at home. I have more time for observation of what is going on around me. Like the leaves falling from the 25-metre-tall European Lime on the road reserve, just outside our gate. Normally during this 6-week period from mid-March to the end of April it’s a real chore for me to pick up the leaves from our section and put them beside the road for Council to come and pick them up. But this year I’m enjoying it. It has become part of my daily ritual to help me get through the lockdown.

Jack Coombs has found that, along with dad Brad, he has more time for jobs around their property.

I have started to track where people I see out walking their dogs every day live. I have noticed where a lot of the dogs live too. I have noticed more about the houses, the gardens, the parks and the people in my neighbourhood. I have also had more meaningful conversations with many of those neighbours (from a distance) than I have had before.

When the COVID fog lifts we will all know our neighbourhoods and our neighbours a little better. That seems like a good thing to me. I will spend more time in my neighbourhood and more time with my neighbours in the future. I am sure of that.

New Zealanders have been spending time getting to know their own neighbourhoods.

The human and economic toll of the COVID-19 outbreak across the world is a disaster already. But in Aotearoa, where we have, so far, been spared the worst of it, we can respond by getting know our neighbourhoods and our neighbours a little better. Being kind and staying calm seems like a good way to be right now.