Who are we?
We are five students of Architecture and Urban Planning at Chalmers University of Technology in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Our studies are within the Master's Programme Design for Sustainable Development and this semester's (spring 2011) course is called Reality Studio: Kisumu. This studio is a collaboration between Chalmers, two universities in Kenya - Maseno University and Bondo University, The Swedish Trade Council and UN-HABITAT. The aim of the studio is that we should learn how to work with sustainable development as planners, architects and designers, in a context different from the ones we are used to. The studio includes a seven weeks field study in Kenya. Most of that time is spent in Kisumu, a city located in the south-west of Kenya, along the shores of Lake Victoria.
What is Growing Knowledge?
Growing Knowledge is our name for the project idea that we formulated in Kisumu, during our field study. In the project we investigate how a school in Kisumu, St. Joseph Secondary School, can use farming and agriculture as a mean to improve the school environment. The project's main aim is to establish an inspiring and comfortable learning environment for students and teachers at the school. The focus is on agriculture as a pedagogical method and in relation to the buildings and the physical structure.
St. Joseph Secondary School has expanded rapidly from just a few students to more than 200 students, and they are struggling with overcrowded facilities and lack of space. Therefore the project looks specifically at methods of urban farming which is space efficient and multi-functional, e.g. structures which can both be used as farming area and also have additional benifits, such as providing shade. The project builds upon an already existing interest for agriculture at the school. They have agriculture as a mandatory subject and a small area of farmland at the school yard is used for educational purposes. An expansion would allow more practical exercises while also provide food for the school and/or the students.
How do we work?
In Kisumu we focused on gathering as much site specific information as possible. We also tried to get feedback on as many of our ideas as possible. We decided early on to work in close cooperation with the school, this includes both students and teachers. We arranged workshops with the students to understand how they used the school structure, what they liked and disliked and also what future improvements they thought was important. We also went on a two-day study visit to an organic farm, together with two of the teachers. These activities helped us tremendously in our understanding of the context. We also believe that the engagement and interest of students and teachers is crucial for the success of the project.
Before leaving Kisumu we arranged a public exhibition, to hear people's opinions and get more feedback. A few days later, we also had an additional exhibition at UN-HABITAT in Nairobi. We continue to work with the project from Sweden, after our field study ended. This blog was started as a part of that work. We hope that this will allow involved people to follow our continued development of the project.
What will be the end-result of the project?
This is a student project. We will continue to develop our ideas until the Reality Studio course ends in June 2011. Our aim is to create a plan for how St. Joseph Secondary School could be organised to result in a more inspiring and comfortable school environment. This will be presented as a design proposal, with sketches and illustrations of how this could look like. We will also summarize all of our work in a written report.
It is not part of our task to implement the project ideas, and we do not have the resources to do this. However, we hope that our design proposal will inspire to some actual change. Our ambition is that our design and final report will work as a knowledge base where the school can feel free to pick the ideas they like. We will provide St. Joseph Secondary School and others interested in our work with copies of our work, as soon as the report and design proposal is completed. If you are interested in having a copy of the report please send us an e-mail at knowledgegrowing@gmail.com!
