2nd Quarter 2010

Education

In looking at Education this issue, we cast the net wide, selecting campuses and schools in Asia that broadly speak of sustainability, from resource conservation to synergy with climate and nature. Does their design reinforce what is then taught in the classroom? In most cases, we cannot be sure (but we hope it does).

The sole union of design and curriculum that we could find is the FuturArc Showcase: Green School, Bali. Its cofounder, John Hardy, and director, Ronald Stones OBE, are also subjects of The FuturArc Interview.

Hardy tells us of how his vision took shape, beginning as a rethink of what buildings should ‘say’ to/about the world. He turned his jewellery factory on a site nearby into a veritable farm, vegetables growing off walls and roofs, and asked that it be made of that most Green of materials, bamboo. Later he turned this vision—architecture indivisible from nature and nutrition—to a building type that would transmit its message more directly to an audience: a school. Stones is the Green School’s director who speaks of how, in teaching inside this environment, learning is itself transformed, set free as it were. As a long-time educator, he views this pedagogical liberation with the enthusiasm of a born-again evangelist, spreading the message of the Green School beyond Bali’s borders.

When Candice Lim, FuturArc’s managing editor, and I met with them in Bali and walked about the unfolding terrain of the School, it was hard not to be moved by the enterprise. As things go though, the School is in its infancy; so we wish them well and hope the lessons learnt here will translate well to other parts of Asia.

A secondary issue that the Green School raises is that of architecture without architects (it was designed by a sculptor-designer who worked with Hardy in his jewellery business). If this project needed no architect, yet is able to offer us reflections on architecture and sustainability, what then are we teaching in schools of Architecture?

To answer this we invited professors from several universities to tell us how they have
(re)fashioned curriculum around sustainability. The Main Feature is a collage of perspectives from some of the top institutions in the region. It is prefaced with a contribution from Robert and Brenda Vale at the University of Wellington, New Zealand, who have been long-time advocates for a rethink of design pedagogy. They ask if we—in training architects—truly understand a fossil-fuel-free future ourselves. Is the tinkering with curriculum, in the name of sustainability, simply old wine in new bottles?

There is much to digest here. We hope you will take the time to tell us what you think.