‘Imagine a building like a tree, a city like a forest’

‘Imagine a building like a tree, a city like a forest’
The Sustainability School
Paul Clarke
St Mary’s University College, London
Nobody has planned and managed the tropical rain forest, and yet it has existed for millennia as a viable sustainable ecosystem. How will we design a school that generates critical thinking, creativity and ecological awareness suited to equip learners so that they can meet the demands of changes in climate, economy and community in this century? I suggest that we learn from nature, and we design schools that connect to that learning both physically in their structures, and pedagogically in their curriculum and their process.
The stakes are very high to get the design of a new school right first time. The qualities, depth and extent of learning that takes place in the next two decades will have a significant imprint for better or worse on our human future and on our relationship with the ecosystem of the planet. At present most education reinforces practices and habits that simply cannot be sustained over the long term, we run the great risk of Building Schools for the past, not for the future.
In contrast to building a school that sees its function as business as usual, it seems sensible, and indeed practical given what we already know about the depletion of vital resources, climate change and food supply, to consider a way of using the concept of a ‘new school’ to fashion a new understanding of learning for the future.
The design of a new school can be rooted in place and tradition and oriented to a pace at which young people learn well, is open and participatory, authentic and engaging, encouraging, imaginative and enthusiastic. It can encourage spontaneity, insight and reflection. Its aims are focused on the whole person who is capable of thinking critically and living with compassion, energy and high purpose with all other living things.
We are in effect talking about remaking our human presence on earth. In so doing we need to think about what the environment we build might look like, how it might be designed for learning that understands at its core that all education in the 21st century has to connect with ecological sustainability as a matter of necessity for human development on the planet. We need to consider how it might be maintained from generation to generation as both a message of hope and possibility and as a physical presence, a reminder of what we need to learn and how we need to learn it.
To this end I propose a concept of Sustainability School – where learners (be they young people or adults) come together to imagine, innovate, explore, create and respond to a new understanding of ourselves and our place in nature and in time, this is the challenge of a sustainable education.
This work is one of narrative and design. We can focus our effort in the concept and design of Sustainability School through a set of guiding principles which can be used as a check and guide as the building plans are formulated.
1. Insist on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition. Is this happening in our design of the new school?
2. Recognize interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend upon the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale. Expand design considerations to recognizing even distant effects. Have we taken these into account in our design?
3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlement including community, dwelling, industry and trade in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness. Is this acknowledged and integrated into our design?
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems and their right to co-exist. Are we utilizing the best sources of natural light and energy in the design to ensure harmony?
5. Create safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance or vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creation of products, processes or standards. What is our sourcing protocol, is it ethically and environmentally sound?
6. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimize the full life-cycle of products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste. How are we going to deal with waste, what natural filtration and capture processes can we design into the fabric of the building to ensure that it has a nil-waste effect?
7. Rely on natural energy flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative forces from perpetual solar income. How will we incorporate this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use?
8. Understand the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever and design does not solve every problem. Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature. Treat nature as a model and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled. How will we design the building for future low-environmental impact change?
9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility, and re-establish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity. Does our contracting process ensure that there is a balance between ecological, economic and ethical consideration?

This sets the scene for this work which will provide a way forward with the venture of education, a new idea of school, and it will illustrate in more meaningful and connected ways what we might aspire towards in the form of a Sustainability School.
Professor Paul Clarke
Contact paul.clarke@iqea.com
Wednesday, June 24, 2009