I’m making steady progress in building my ideal learning space in Second Life. Konrad and Jo have been wonderful in teaching me building skills, and very patient with my insistence to use real life proportions and limitations. Although it has been 2 weeks, I have only been able to give 5 hours to the project so far.
As I said I would do in my initial post about this project, I have applied permaculture design processes and principles to this project, and thought of the space in Second Life as though it was a real space in real life. I very much enjoy the permaculture design process for its holistic, even universal design ethic – and given its focus on sustainability and self sufficiency it is also very timely in todays world.
My first step in this process was to produce base and sector analysis maps to determin what I am working with in terms of the available space, and what resources are on hand. Here is one of my drawings for that first step:
Then I decided to focus on the building design, and for this I’m using discarded 20′ shipping containers as the basis of the building. Shipping containers are great to work with. They are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously), durable, and come in remarkably good dimensions for proportioning an efficient living and working space.
Using containers in this way is certainly not a new idea, and I’ve been tagging all the websites I find that contain information about other people’s building with containers. From what I can tell though, my design is (or will be) unique in that it aims to retain the functional qualities of the containers. I am trying to work out how to make it so that all the materials and objects that are used in the build can be packed inside the containers, and that any modifications I make to the containers will not compromise their structural integrity, or ability to be transported.
So here’s where I’m up to:
Ideally i wouldn’t have used so many and such high piles as they are expensive and make quite an impact on the environment, but given the proximity to tidal waters, I really don’t have much choice.
Konrad and I had a long discussion this morning about my emphasis on sustainable and self sufficient design and how it relates to the idea of an ideal learning space.
To my mind, nothing these days should be built or developed without careful consideration of these sustainability issues. Nothing ever should have been actually! But regarding the challenges of designing a learning space, I am thinking to use these primary sustainability considerations within a frame of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Its obvious that if people’s basic survival needs are not being met, then they are not in a very good position to be learning things beyond what it takes to survive. If they are stressed, hungry, or uncomfortable, then we are hardly in an ideal space for learning about abstract concepts or developing new skills. Or if the learning space itself is struggling to pay out money for energy, food, or waste management, then it too is in less of a position to commit to learning. And so it is with a real world sustainability and self sufficiency approach that I’m considering these needs.
Also, I don’t believe that institutions are the ideal place for learning. Actually, I think it could be proven so… Instead, I’m going for a family home.. but one that can accommodate up to 15 people if need be.
I’ve been thinking about Pacific Island, Maori and Aboriginal people and their strong family and community values. In Australia and New Zealand, State housing has been criticised for using the 3 bedroom nuclear family idea as a basis for its developments. They failed to appreciate the extended family values of some of the people who would be using those houses, and arguably contributed to the breakdown of important forms of social support for those people. Actually, I don’t think it is only Pacific, Maori and Aboriginal people that have suffered this disruption through architecture and institutionalisation. I’d say all cultures have at some stage had strong community and family values, its just that the dominant culture at the moment has institutionalised itself out of these values (and is suffering for it I believe). Ivan Illich has written extensively on this idea, so I’ll leave it with a link to the memory of his vastly superior work.
So, my design is for a family house that is large enough to host 15 or so people from time to time, but practical as a family home; that is fully self sufficient in providing for its own energy, water and food needs; that is a system that produces no waste; and that uses building materials and structures that are reused, portable and make minimal impact on the area being occupied.
There will be an open meeting on location in Second Life this Saturday and Sunday morning at 11:30am NZ time (11:30pm Friday and Saturday nights UTC).
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April 16, 2008 at 7:03 am
The Grid Live » Second Life News for April 15, 2008
[…] Learn Online Creating a learning space for real life, in second life, 2 weeks on. Quote from the site – I’m making steady progress in building my ideal learning space in Second […]
April 16, 2008 at 9:51 am
Sarah Stewart
Sounds fascinating, Leigh. Can’t wait to see it when its finished. Sarah
April 16, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Virtual Classroom Project Update : jokaydia.com
[…] to see where Leigh has taken it. As you’ll see from his posts about the project here and here, he’s exploring some really exciting ideas about both classroom spaces and sustainability and […]
April 18, 2008 at 5:21 pm
blog of proximal development » Blog Archive » Virtual Classroom Project Reflection
[…] Leigh’s use of permaculture design, defined by Wikipedia as “an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies,” suggests that he is interested in exploring to what extent human beings can be engineers of their own self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly environments. His design revolves around the notion of sustainability and is based on re-using discarded shipping containers because, as he says, they are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously…. […]
April 18, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Virtual Classroom Project Reflection : jokaydia.com
[…] Leigh’s use of permaculture design, defined by Wikipedia as “an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies,” suggests that he is interested in exploring to what extent human beings can be engineers of their own self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly environments. His design revolves around the notion of sustainability and is based on re-using discarded shipping containers because, as he says, they are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously…. […]
May 9, 2008 at 3:53 am
Tracy Perry
I checked out your building/home last night! I would love to see it filled with what your vision would be of the interior use of the space.
I live in Texas; we have a pretty active community of alternative/sustainable living advocates here. I participated in an old-fashioned “barn-raising” a few years ago in Jefferson, TX, but the structure was a strawbale home. The couple were living during building in 2 shipping containers surrounded by strawbales as insulation (they would be unbearable in Texas summer heat otherwise). What a great day that was, socializing with like-minded folk and learning something too!
I love Mother Earth News and BackHome magazines, published here in the US.
I hope your work continues on your project in SL and in RL!
May 9, 2008 at 10:48 am
Leigh
Hello Tracy, thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately I ran out of “prims” in teh SL project. WHich simply means that the space I was using to draw could not take any more. Perhaps I am extremely inefficient in SL!! LOL. Hopefully I will be relocating the drawing when the Virtual Classroom Project accepts its next resident. And hopefully that new location will have space enough for me to continue with the interior. I have lots of ideas for that.
The barnraising is a perfect comparison to what I experienced to some degree in SL. Wiki’s also use the barnraising analogy to get pages up. I think all of them share that social experience in varying degrees. Wikis and SL drawing would be great lead-ins to a real barnraising!
July 20, 2008 at 6:53 am
Networked Learner News » Blog Archive » Virtual Classroom Project Reflection
[…] Leigh’s use of permaculture design, defined by Wikipedia as “an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies,” suggests that he is interested in exploring to what extent human beings can be engineers of their own self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly environments. His design revolves around the notion of sustainability and is based on re-using discarded shipping containers because, as he says, they are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously…. […]
July 22, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Virtual Classroom Project Reflection | Networked Learner News
[…] Leigh’s use of permaculture design, defined by Wikipedia as “an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies,” suggests that he is interested in exploring to what extent human beings can be engineers of their own self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly environments. His design revolves around the notion of sustainability and is based on re-using discarded shipping containers because, as he says, they are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously…. […]