Imagining My Sustainable City with No.9 and the Grade 7’s @ Parkdale Junoir & Senior Public School
I recently got to take part in a fantastic program run by No.9 called “Imagining My Sustainable City”. The program introduces sustainable urbanism and architecture to Grade 7 students across the city. This 4-day intensive workshop introduces children to urban planning, sustainability at both a localized and regional scale, spatial relationships between people and buildings, and the importance of collaboration. I was glad to be a part of this wonderful experience as this is the third and final year it will be running!
Experience with the Grade 7’s at Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School
The insight and enthusiasm from the kids was amazing! I was blown away by how quick they were to pick up on challenging content even professionals can struggle with! My only regret is that I was only able to attend the first two days. But those two days were jam-packed with learning and hands-on creation!
Day 1
After a brief introduction to Urban Planning, we conducted a site visit to the West Lodge Apartment Complex where the students envisioned things that they could change to improve/strengthen the community surrounding the site. Community gardens, music areas, gymnasiums, bird sanctuaries, parkour courts, and many other fantastic ideas erupted from the entire class! By the end of the day every student had been assigned a program to develop and had began their initial ideas for what that program would contain.
Day 2
Today started off with learning about spatial relationship using scale models. The students were tasked with building a 1:100 scale model of a space using 6 pieces of cardboard. It could take any shape they wanted, the only rules being that all the pieces were to be used and you could not build a box. They also had a 1:100 scale person so that they could “see” what it would be like to be within the space (an extremely valuable tool that they should hand out during first year (and some 4th year) architectural programs!). The results were amazing! I’ve attached some of the models with the sketches of their programs as examples, but space limitations don’t allow me to share everyone’s with you!
Go Parkdale!
Again I would like to thank the Grade 7’s for their enthusiasm and No.9 for putting together such a phenomenal program.
I’m was very pleased to be a part of this, and am looking forward to my next workshop with No.9 and TDSB in April when they are up in the Junction!!
Craig