Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
PRE_D5, Preconference; Paper Session D5
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-08
14:45-16:15
Room:
B3 333
Chair:
Britt Marie Apelgren
Contribution
What is the relationship between participation and sustainable behaviour for young people? What role does participation have in the design of living and working environments? This paper explores how participation and sustainability are being addressed by architects within the new schools building programmes in the UK. It examines Government policy, the Sustainable Schools initiative and a variety of participation and co-design practices to investigate how the participation of children in the design of their learning environments can encourage sustainable behaviour. The Children’s Plan: Building Brighter Futures (published in December 2007) by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) states an ambition for all new UK school buildings to be zero carbon by 2016. The involvement of young people in design processes is often used to suggest empowerment and building community, but arguments for reducing consumption also suggest tension with the general consensus.
Method
Theoretical investigations of sustainable citizenship provide a useful insight into such problems and educating young people about sustainable citizenship in the design process implies their own ethical exploration. Using examples drawn from workshops carried out with children, I show the importance of developing the relation between participation and sustainable behaviour and its value to educationalists, architects and policy makers.
Expected Outcomes
We need some very different ways of teaching in the C21st if we are to address the social and environmental problems that climate change will bring and many questions are being refused.
References
DCSF (2007) The Children’s Plan: Building Brighter Futures. DCSF Publications.
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