Developed in collaboration with the RUrban Futures Collective and with the financial support of the UT's Climate Centre, a large group of students, faculty, practitioners and other guests re-imagined the UT campus as a thriving garden of green infrastructure by means of a walk-shop. Guided by artist Merel Zwarts, from the Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills, participants sketched, photographed, tape-recorded, and sculpted an alternative, greener, more nature-enriching campus by reshuffling the patterns development, the design of buildings, and ways in which human practices interact with other species and the enviroment. See a full description of the event here. Thanks again to Corelia Baibarac-Duignan, Alexandria Poole, Sry Handini Puteri, Sean Vrielink, and the Design Lab for their efforts organizing this great event!
In the afternoon, a smaller group of scholars and practitioners gathered in an interactive round table to reflect on rurban sustianable futures. A discussion emerged based on the following questions:
- What does ‘rurban’ mean for you?
- What is your vision of a ‘rurban’ future?
- Do you have an inspiring example (from your practice / other)?
- Why is this inspiring for you?
In particular the participants were surprised by the way the term "rurban" prompts a wide-ranging and diverse discussion of how practices, values, patterning of landscapes, economic relationships, scale, biocultural heritage, and embodied knowledge shape our visions and understandings of sustainable rurban futures. Inspired by nomadic concepts and "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" essay by Le Guin, we also used a pack of Dixit cards to imagine what kinds of theories/concepts/methods/tools would we want to put in our carrier bag (and what to leave out) to help us create narratives for sustainable rurban futures.
Thanks to Tamalone van den Eijnden and Corelia Baibarac-Duignan for putting together such a creative program.
