Hi all - passing on this request on behalf of Alan Scott. He is looking specifically for someone from the Gulf Coast region to round out the panel:
I am putting together a panel for a virtual session during Design Museum Week in April (Thursday, April 28). The description below outlines the conversation I am hoping to curate. I am looking for a panelist who is engaged with issues of sustainability, resilience, wellness, and/or community in schools, who is ideally connected with BIPOC communities and climate change issues in the Gulf Coast region. Would you be able to recommend someone who is doing interesting work in this area? It could be an architect, engineer, consultant, teacher, administrator, or anyone else working to improve schools. Thanks for any suggestions.
Schools are a central part of community infrastructure. They are the temples of learning for future leaders, a nexus for community connections, and the symbols of our societal values. Recent natural, social, and political events have all revealed weaknesses and inequities in both the institutional and physical structures of schools.
School buildings fall short with respect to indoor air quality, thermal, visual, and auditory comfort, energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction, and resilience. School teachers and staff, and the curriculum and programs they advance, are strained by new challenges with media literacy, and resistance to teaching more complete and nuanced views of history, and acceptance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The physical form and the institution of schools are inseparable when advancing sustainability in education. Quality school buildings provide inspiring learning environments and serve as sources of pride and connection in communities, in good times and following disasters. Likewise, connected, resilient communities are more supportive of investments in quality schools.
This session will explore bold new ways to imagine public schools, and how we might break down the barriers to excellence, considering design solutions for the school buildings, curriculums, and community connections required to make great sustainable education systems.
Cheers,
Alan
Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C, O+M, CEM, WELL AP
Discipline Leader, Sustainability
Building Science Solutions
Building & Construction
Direct 971.230.8029
Mobile 503.807.5678
