Architecture Sans Frontieres – UK Summer School – Building a green
Monday, July 27th, 2009Can you eat your local ‘eco’ town? Come to the Architecture Sans Frontières – UK summer school to find out how to build a green and edible town.
This year’s summer school at the Eden Project will look at existing approaches to the technology of ‘greening’ the city such as green roofs and walls and explore the strategic agenda around the development of sustainable built environments. We will debate the possible nature of agricultural landscapes within urban contexts, such as CPUL’s (continuous productive urban landscapes) and Sitopia (Carolyn Steel) and what these mean for architecture, urban design and planning for the future. We will place green spaces, and how they should contribute towards productive landscapes into a framework of agendas including economic, political and environmental and their ramifications on each and every one of us, both at an individual and a societal level.
The programme runs from 2pm on Friday 28 August until 2pm on Wednesday 2 September and will be hosted by the Eden Project. The workshop will include visits to the Eden Project and exposure to the many excellent programmes they run, lectures by Carolyn Steel (author of Hungry City) and Adriana Allen (Senior Lecturer and Director of the MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development at the Development Planning Unit), experiences from GROFUN with Nadia Hillman, an introduction to growing your own food, participatory techniques to enable participants to develop a toolkit for ‘growing’ your own community and everything you need to know about green walls and roofs (for full programme please go to http://asf-uk.org/workshops.htm).
Participants will then spend two an a half days developing and designing prototypes for an edible wall along with a ‘do-it-yourself’ manual to be published on the ASF-UK website and potentially, with further research and development, be developed into marketable products. The prototype development will happen within the public realm at the Eden Project which will be a great opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of food security for every human being. Design tutors include Melissa Kinnear (ASF-UK and tutor at Oxford Brookes University), Peter Newton (Roger Evans Associates), Mina Samangooei (Sustainable Architecture Masters student), the horticultural team at the Eden Project along with the team that constructed the ‘green wall’ for the garden at the Chelsea Flower Show (http://www.edenproject.com/our-work/plants/chelsea/index.php).
The workshop costs £290 (FULL RESIDENCY COST – including all meals from Friday night to Wednesday lunchtime, camping costs at Doubletrees campsite in Par – you will need to bring your own tent, course costs, free individual/student membership for 1 year plus a free ASF-UK T Shirt (£250 for existing members)). If you live in the area and would like to participate but not stay with us, the workshop costs £220 (NON-RESIDENCY COST – including lunch from Saturday to Friday and the course cost).
To apply for the workshop please go to http://asf-uk.org/workshops.htm and download an application form, complete the form and forward to caroline.dewast@gmail.com. The deadline for applications is 31 July and we will notify successful applicants by 03 August.
If you’re looking for a positive way to make a contribution towards reducing human beings’ impact on the earth, exploring ways of making food distribution more equitable and democratic and understanding the principles necessary to design sustainable cities for the future then this is your opportunity! Apply now!