I just love this: the Eden Project in Cornwall (UK) has an interactive “exhibit” in their Rainforest Biome called The Spice Boat. Children, young and old, can breathe deeply of herbs and spices and learn about travel & international trade, gaining a sense of the distant exotic, the sea and the connections between place and play.
Click the pic for more about how Eden combines learning and play.
Really enjoying working with the Scotland High School Agriculture/Horticulture/CTE (Career & Technical Education) program at the moment. Lots of scope for creativity and building in education for sustainability.
I might be a little late in praising this, but I have just finished Thomas L. Freidman’s Hot, Flat & Crowded on audiobook. A must-read (or listen) commentary on climate change, globalisation and the population crisis. Link
Someone recently suggested that I should put some meat on my bones. I was a bit taken aback initially, but further explanation revealed that it was more details about some of the projects I have been involved with rather than an increase in my food intake that was suggested.
So, I immediately thought of the Performance Centre at University College Falmouth in Cornwall, UK.
This almost £20m (± $30m) building was completed in summer 2010 and was created to house UCF’s new performance, music and dance courses resulting from a recent merger with Dartington College of Arts. The design team brief specified that sustainability was a high priority and that the Centre should aim to be a BREEAM “Excellent” building. Breeam is an assessment framework designed to maximise environmental protection and sustainable development, much like the US equivalent (which it inspired), LEED.
The environmental focus of the building incorporates solar arrays, rain water harvesting, a natural ventilation system, and protection for the surrounding wildlife habitat – the location of the building had to take into account bat disruption mitigation, since British bats hold a strong hand when it comes to new construction that might disrupt their runs…
In addition to these environmental factors, the main funders of the project influenced the incorporation of not only environmental but social sustainability. The European Regional Development Fund’s (ERDF) Convergence program delivers infrastructure and business development funding to Cornwall in recognition of its position as one of the relatively most depressed areas of the EU. Environmental sustainability and Equality & Diversity are ERDF’s two cross-cutting themes, and this is where I came in, in my role as Equality Manager for UCF.
“Equality & Diversity” for the Performance Centre translated mainly into ensuring that the building was as accessible as possible for the widest range of users. A lot of this work revolved around encouraging the design team to go beyond the minimum legal standards for facilities for ‘disabled’ people. The UK’s equivalent of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the Equality Act, and mandates a range of codes and standards that all public buildings need to work towards in order to not discriminate against not only users with disabilities, but people from a range of cultural & social backgrounds. It is this wider consideration of ‘accessibility’ -including but not limited to physical accesibility- that translates into the social dimension of sustainability.
To ensure that the project development team (architects, project managers, clients, and contactors) -for the Performance Centre and several other major capital builds- was “on board” with the ethos of social sustainability I organized a full access audit as well as series of workshops with inclusive design specialists from Sensory Trust and the Eden Project. As a result, the facility benefits from good, level access and interior
One of the results of this approach was increased awareness for all the project stakeholders of the connections between environmental and social sustainability and inclusive design.
In short, UCF now has a fantastic ‘green’ building, with lots of in-built inclusive features – the PC is one of the only facilities in the area to have a fully accessible shower/WC for students, guests and performers with disabilities – that will hopefully fulfill its sustainability and community remits for years to come.
Learn more about the PC on its own website or follow Tweets @UCFtcp
This week the death of Trayvon Martin has been increasingly prominent in the headlines. The shooting of an unarmed African American teenage boy has led even the most crass media outlets to reflect on the state of Race in 21st century North America.
Two of the most thought provoking responses for me have been from National Public Radio, and from Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.
MWE’s response is titled “Walking While Black” and is headed by a picure of her wearing a grey hoodie (above). The hoodie has become a symbol of the fear that many non-Black people feel in the presence of Black or Latino youth – especially if they are wearing the omni-present hoodie. I am reminded of a very moving documentary about the Zoot Suit Riots in LA in the 1940s that I used to show my students of Spanish. Non-Hispanic people feared and demonized anyone wearing a “zoot suit”, and in 1942 the murder of a young Mexican-American man sparked rioting in the streets of Los Angeles.
Edelman refers to “the talk” that African American parents have for generations had with their children, a talk that warns them of the likelihood of some people treating them differently, even violently, based on the colour of their skin alone. This is something that NPR’s The Two-Way news blog picked up on also.
Similarly, this afternoon I listened to Michele Norris talking about her Race Card project, which she has been running for the last year or so. She asks people to express their thoughts on race in six words or less. This afternoon’s show prompted hundreds of people to email or Tweet in responses, many of which were read on air and which prompted some thoughtful comments and discussion. Such discussions were had between students and faculty at Paideia, the independent school in Atlanta where I taught for many years. I feel lucky to have had such open conversations about this tough issue. They have stayed with me and helped inform my own journey with questions of race, identity and discrimination.
Through the stream of linkageness that is my M.O. on the interweb I stumbled upon Hatch Show Print this morning,
Located in Nashville, TN, they produce mainly music-related posters, cards, etc, all using traditional letterprint and handmade wood block techniques.
Great videos at the Country Music Hall of Fame (of which it is part) website, and here on vimeo
In my quest for relevant, useful, fun learning resources for teaching Spanish I have found a fabulous website: Zachary Jones’ Zambombazo
On Wednesdays (miércoles, hence Miaúcoles, above) he puts out a funny meme - electrons are big in our house at the moment due to science homework….
[trans.: You're very negative. You should lose an electron.]
