Since March 2011, I have been working in collaboration with public policy graduate student Megan Hoye, on a project we have titled the threeACTIONS Project.
The project explores how combining many individuals’ understandings
and personal experiences can affect how design solutions are realized at a
larger infrastructure and policy scale. Participants will choose three actions
from a list of 50 which they are personally interested in exploring, and they
will commit to these sustainable actions in their lives for a period of three
months.
They are grouped into cohorts of people who chose similar actions,
creating small groups who can share and track each other’s experiences and
providing support and incentive to continue. In addition, experts on topics of
water, waste reduction, energy use, local foods and transportation systems will
be brought in to further inform and encourage participants.
The goals of this project are threefold.
First, to connect
participants to information and experts which can help grow their knowledge of sustainability
issues.
Second, to help individuals experience new lifestyle habits that
challenge their norms and assumptions about sustainable living, while expanding
their openness to future change.
Third, to use this body of shared experience
to inform policy and infrastructure level change to make efficient and
sustainable choices the easier, less expensive and more enjoyable choices.
There is no invaluable experience. If a chosen action is
found to be impossible based on a person’s current living situation, it is
important to document their struggles. In the same way, people who are
successful with their actions provide valuable information about their successes.
We want to provide individuals with a supportive community of diverse
participants with whom they can build shared values about issues relevant to
their experiences during and after the project.
This kind of approach allows design to expand upon the making
of sustainable environments, going beyond building performance.
There is an
attitude that sustainable design must fit within the parameters of the kind of
lifestyles we are used to living instead of allowing the buildings themselves
to empower and teach inhabitants to live in more sustainable ways. This approach
leads to solutions such as low-flow water fixtures which allow inhabitants to
use less water, but they don’t create a need for people to have any
understanding of these systems. While building performance and material
construction are crucially important pieces of creating sustainable living
environments, our work as architects should not end there.
The pilot program of the threeACTIONS Project will begin in June 2012 and can be followed through our facebook and twitter pages as well as our website:
threeactionsproject.org
If you are in the Minneapolis, MN area and are interested in being a participant in the project, apply on our website!
This post is likely to be the final post on this blog as my focus changes from the individual experience of my project to bringing these issues to my local community. Thank you to all the anonymous readers who have all had a supporting hand in the creation of both of these endeavors!
Molly
