Future We Want Workshop gets new year off to a lively start.
Following on from the incredible Youth Strike4Climate in Brighton which saw 10,000 people take to the streets on Friday our new first year students from Architecture, Interior Architecture and Product Design wasted no time in getting involved in their first shared Future We Want workshop.
Deputy Head of School Kate Cheyne introduced the workshop by introducing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the lenses used to both respond to and test ideas, looking at Action, Impact, Consequences. We then heard from Duncan Baker Brown who spoke about Architecture Education Declares, Climate Change and the built environment. Course Leader for MA Sustainable Design Tom Ainsworth spoke about transition design and systemic thinking, highlighting design thinking and finally our Head of School Robert Mull then introduced the concept of climate change and Degrowth with a focus on Norway.
Students then broke into groups where they decided how they would focus their forthcoming work in connection with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UN 12 (responsible consumption and reduction) and UN 13 (climate action) were major talking points but we also started to discuss how we might respond to the other SDGs.
This first workshop was really lively and a great start to the new academic year, students who had only just met their peers worked collectively to uncover which of the SDGs were the most important to them and why. The next steps will be to share these outcomes and for students to present discoveries in their respective, so watch this space.