The University of Westminster’s School of Architecture + Cities held several Climate Action Week events for 375 first-year students to learn about climate change and work together to consider how the built environment might respond.
Between 14-18 October during Climate Action Week, students from six of the School’s courses attended three collaborative events, where they considered how the built environment might respond to significant climatic, ecological, social and political issues.
The students came from various courses within the School, including Architecture BA Honours, Interior Architecture BA Honours, Architecture and Environmental Design BA Honours, Architectural Technology BSc Honours, Urban Planning and Design BA Honours and Architecture with Foundation BA Honours. While related subjects, the courses are largely taught separately, so one objective of Climate Action Week was to challenge subject boundaries and get students working together collaboratively early in their degrees and learning the value of collective intelligence.
The first event was an interactive talk titled What Would You Change? which introduced ideas around social value, activism and how everyone has the power to make change in society. The session opened with acknowledging the University’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a discussion on how sustainable development might manifest, before Lucy Gardner from Citizens UK asked each student to write down something they would like to change.
The second session was run as a game called Climate Fresk by Pascale Crangle and Cecile Molinas from Climateclue Limited. Students were divided into interdisciplinary groups of seven or eight and worked together to create a “fresk” responding to the complexity of climate change. The Climate Fresk is a collaborative gamified workshop in which participants use cards to draw a fresco to summarise the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Climate Fresk is designed to teach people the fundamental causes and consequences of climate change and to brainstorm solutions.
The third and final session of the week titled Time to Act involved students creating protest banners for a cause explored during the week. The student creations were then rallied through the University’s Marylebone Campus architecture studios to the beat of a drum. Prizes were awarded for Originality, Humour, Ingenuity, Creative Interpretation and Power.
Dr Ro Spankie, Assistant Head of Westminster’s School of Architecture + Cities, said: “This project originated with a Students as Co-Creators grant where Richa Mukhia and I worked with four Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) student representatives Maja Kurantowicz, Vanessa Keung, Sara Vannella and Dilay Bakici to develop games for climate literacy. Ideas generated during this project were then scaled up into Climate Action Week, the vision being that if 375 first-years understand the complexity of the relationship between the UN SDG’s and the global climate crisis in Week Four of their education and importantly believe that they have the power to take action, it will influence everything they do over the next three years.”
Richa Mukhia, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, added: "We are incredibly proud of the commitment and creativity the students have demonstrated across the week. The introductory lectures and Climate Fresk provided solid but sobering foundational knowledge. Students rose to the challenge of radical action with intense energy culminating in some inspirational designs. Bravo!"
The Climate Action Week not only educated students about the SDGs but also contributed to several goals including 13: Climate Action and 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about Architecture, Interiors and Urban Design courses at the University of Westminster.
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