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New Spaces
New Models
New Tools
Integrated and Global Thinking
Sustainable
Educational Strategies for a Sustainable Time
November 6, 2007
by
Marcela Oliva,
LATTC Architecture Professor
LACCD Architecture
and Environmental Design Discipline, Chair
LACCD Facilities
Knowledge Management
NASA Knowledge Architecture
To join the Nation’s Imperative, adopted by must mayor’s in the country, by the
year 2010/2030, we must achieve a carbon-neutral school campus design, implement
sustainable design strategies, generate on-site renewable power, purchase
renewable energy and achieve complete ecological literacy in the professional
design education community. A tangible and immediate solution has been
implemented by our Board Members Policy—a Built Environment that consumes fewer
fossil fuels and natural resources. Planners, architects, engineers, educators
and the building community need to respond creatively and in synergy. Some of
the green solutions include: solar design, passive/active energy space design,
alternative fuel vehicles, biomass/waste-to-energy processes, environmental
construction, components distribution, environmental components manufacturing,
environmental consulting, fuel cells/batteries, solar power, waste disposal,
water purification and wind power. These improvements would transform the
industries of equipment manufacturing, petroleum products manufacturing, animal
processing, motor vehicle parts manufacturing, building equipment contracting,
electronic component manufacturing, structural contracting, instrument
manufacturing, plumbing and heating equipment wholesale, computer systems and
architecture/engineering services, science and technology consulting services,
and architectural and engineering services, among others.
Why LACCD? Why LATTC?
The nation and
the world are following LACCD very closely as a model for sustainable economic
development and sustainable curriculum strategies that integrate space,
technology and curriculum. A tremendous challenge faces all LACCD faculty,
chancellors, directors, board members, chairs, administrators and staff. Our
leaders envision the creation of green spaces that house and support campus
activities, but the maintenance, monitoring and education required will all
present difficult challenges. Our communities present two relevant factors, the
first of which comprises a number of distinct variables, including population
growth, immigrant mobility, persistent poverty, energy consumption,
environmental degradation, food security, climate change, missed educational
opportunities and lack of health care access. The second factor is that we are
sitting amid at a global mecca of design and technology, where the industries of
product design, information systems, entertainment, architecture, fashion,
engineering, manufacturing and creative arts converge. In addition to these two
factors, the world as a whole faces global
warming and an energy crisis. If everyone
living on
the
planet lived like a regular American individual, with the
same consumption level and carbon dioxide footprint, we would require 5.3 planet Earths to sustain us all. The
crisis of escalating consumption of energy combined with the depletion of fossil fuels and global warming makes
considering
the
reality of our communities’ fates even harder. Basically, we can conclude that we are out of balance; access to water, food, shelter and health
care needs need to be rethought, as does the
balance of mind, body and spirit The
challenge is quite complex and we cannot reasonably expect to
solve it
simply.
Sustainability
is a way of being; it is working and
living in balance with the
natural environment.
It
is also an economic reform
effort designed to reward energy saving and material efficiency,
to discourage waste and to move from
a
product-oriented system to a creative-service green economy. For these efforts
to succeed, sustainable action is required in anything a human does, thinks,
builds or produces. Sustainability is a cycle mechanism that returns to inform the
system, a
self- organizing structure that becomes efficient as it adapts
and transforms to all variable forces. This strategy guarantees a healthy future for our planet Earth and its future
generations.
Sustainability is part of a new consciousness that requires knowledge
integration by using models of existing resources with parallel solutions and
complex adaptive technologies.
Why Sustainable Economic Development
Model?
The choices we make affect the
environment, and in return it affects the
way we think, create,
learn, interact and communicate. Focus on sustainability
compels us to create environments that foster physical and intellectual growth at both
a
micro and a
macro level. Sustainability is an understanding of the
world in a
unitary sense, with of purpose
of a dynamic yet stable return in energy supply, cost and quality solutions that provide a common language among all disciplines.
The vast assortment of
industries in our area, and the
leadership emerging from many of these forces, make Los Angeles a unique place .Los
Angeles has the potential to become the
provider of “green” living, introducing prototypes for changes in urban
lifestyle, services, products, smart spaces and such.
In the
global economy, our primary goal
should
be to attract outside investment to local creative and technological projects through
innovative products, services and green solutions. A regional
sustainable model will bring jobs, tax revenue and infrastructure funding
while at
the
same time resolve business and environmental strategies. The
solution is “green businesses.” Green businesses are innovative and
entrepreneurial; they gain profits providing social and environmental solutions. These
solutions require multiple strategies involving complex amounts of information; they require spatial
data
collection, interpretation, planning and integration that will provide the
tools for political decision-making. They require excellent technological
systems, and the problem is not accepting the
technology or choosing the
kind of technology but, more important, how we will use this computing power and how we will create sustainable model solutions.
Why Sustainable Education?
Since the mechanical age, we have been used to segmented and reductionist
thinking, leading to isolated and short-term solutions. Knowledge has suffered
much disintegration because of our tendency to specialize and to create endless,
unrelated boundaries and divisions that fracture cognition. The lack of
connection and of relationships between the parts of a whole does not generate
strong problem-solving skills, and the lack of cohesive guidance confuses the
purpose of students and other stakeholders in our communities. Sustainable
problem-solving strategies look at
science as
a
discovery mechanism that explores the
seen and
the
unseen, and they look at math as a spatial abstraction that formulates; qualitative pattern, kinematics,
kinetics and geometries—in nature and in
the
universe at large. Math produces the
derivatives used in architectural models, and these bring order, balance and
harmony in
the
built environment and any human endeavor.
I see a new
revolution taking place. Previous revolutions were dealing with plentiful
natural
resources and the
lack of a
sufficient labor force for production; now, automated systems and population
growth create a
new proportional relationship with our natural resources and the
ecological systems that surround us. The “green
revolution” integrates economic, social, institutional, spiritual and
environmental aspects all at once. This new approach to natural ecosystems and the
biodiversity of manmade environments works within nature
as
opposed to controlling nature. We must work together to create
balanced systems, as the conventional approach of solving only economic problems
or environmental issues or social policy results in
mere short-term solutions. The objective is to design integrated dynamic models
with the support of solid scientific and technical systems while keeping in mind
community needs, economic demand, natural resources, product design processes
and social strategy. We need to consider creative strategies that
integrate existing structures. Sustainable educational environments will
be based on the premise that each person has a mission and purpose in life, and
that he or she discovers it through connections with the community, the natural
world and values such as creation, participation and a lifelong passion for
learning. Let’s envision the beautiful system of “green learning,” the social
and contextual outcomes and solutions that create, build, design, produce and
are maintained by the community, for the community. Our hopes lie
in education, and it is our turn to lead for a sustainable future!
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