Students learn timeless building techniques
Anthony Perl, Urban Studies, 778.782.7887, aperl@sfu.ca
Dixon Tam, PAMR, 778.782.8742; dixon_tam@sfu.ca
Six top students from Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program are in the UK this summer learning to make cities more sustainable at a school founded by Prince Charles.
They are enrolled in a residential summer school called The Culture of Building, which is part of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. The foundation teaches a broad range of stakeholders – such as architects, urban designers and planners, and craftspeople – the principles of integrated and harmonious place making.
“This is a unique opportunity to connect theory with practice and learn timeless techniques of sustainable urbanism,” says Anthony Perl, director of SFU’s Urban Studies program.
The three-week program started July 19 and runs until Aug. 6. Through a series of lectures, workshops, drawing and building exercises, and field trips, participants learn to apply traditional building and repair techniques to achieving timeless, sustainable urbanism in the 21st century. When students return to SFU, they will write a 15-page graduate essay.
The school ends with a week-long design workshop in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, where students will design a structure to be built later in the year by the prince’s building crafts apprentices. The process includes public consultations, design modeling, and technical drawing techniques. A panel of experts and local residents will choose the winning design.
Sponsors covered tuition, accommodations, materials, and some meals for the residential school summer program. “The students were selected through a competitive application process and represent the best of the best from SFU’s Urban Studies program,” says Perl.
When Prince Charles visited Vancouver last year, a partnership between SFU and The Prince’s Foundation was established to develop a new advanced curriculum in sustainable urbanism. This marks the first time SFU students have attended the residential summer school.
The students got a special surprise when Prince Charles paid a visit to the school, giving them an opportunity to share the lessons they’ve learned so far.
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