Here's a report from Julian Tuckett on his time in Nangiloc
In the last week of Term 2, I went to Nangiloc to work with the students at Nangiloc/Colignan Primary School, designing Eco-cubbies. The students involved were in Years 4, 5 and 6.
Arriving at Nangiloc by road, I drove through groves of orange trees dense with fruit, the bright oranges standing out against the dark green leaves. Nangiloc is a citrus-growing community, and the school students spend a lot of time exploring and understanding how their community works, and how their community fits into the wider world. The Principal, Mr. Wright, was very welcoming, and introduced me to the students at school assembly.
I spent three days at Nangiloc. On the first afternoon we talked about the site for the Eco-Cubby, and what sorts of spaces and things should be in the Eco-Cubby. Nangiloc Primary already has quite a few cubby-houses in the school grounds, made from packing crates, tarpaulins, logs, and other spare materials. The children build new cubby houses in summer, so they are quite competent in cubby design.
We discussed ideas for the Eco-Cubby site, first by drawing some plans of the school, and drawing the cubby into our plans. We talked about where to locate the cubby within the school grounds - not too close to the maintenance shed, and not too close to the school buildings. We talked about making sure the cubby was in the sun, so that in winter it would be warm, and so we could have solar panels on the roof, but we also wanted to have the Eco-Cubby in the shade of trees, since Nangiloc gets very hot in summer. We agreed to point the cubby to the north, across the oval toward the main school buildings, which gave a nice view, and faced the sun.
Then we measured out some cubby plans in the school grounds. Some people wanted a really big cubby but our site was quite small, squeezed between some trees. We talked about different shapes of cubby. Some students liked round cubbies, with a pointy roof in the middle, while other people drew square cubbies with a pitched roof, and lots of people drew verandahs across the front.
The next morning we had a meeting with Mr. Wright to formally propose the site for the Eco-Cubby, and together we negotiated a slightly different site to our chosen one, in place of an existing cubby, which would be removed.
The students at Nangiloc had already spent some time talking about building cubbies before I arrived, and they had posters showing ideas for materials they had found to build the Eco-Cubby. Being a farming community, there was lots of building material around, such as treated pine poles and corrugated iron.
Later we walked around the school grounds, looking at orientation of buildings, and windows and roofs. We talked about which places were best in hot weather, and which places were better in the winter. Everyone was very aware of the way they used the outdoor spaces around the school according to the season.
The students had a maths class in which they learnt about scale, to help them with drawing cubbies the right size, and I talked a little bit about working as an architect, and the sorts of drawings that architects do at work, including scale drawings.
In the afternoon the students built models of their cubbies, first individually, and then in groups. There were many impressive designs. One of my favourites was a hexagonal one, which involved some quite complex geometry to draw. Some students had focussed on the sorts of materials the Eco-Cubby would be made from, and some were more interested in the shape and how the cubby could be used.
The next morning was the last day of Term 2. We spent some time drawing our Eco-Cubby designs on computer. The students each have a 3-D drawing programme called SketchUp on their laptop computers. We learnt some new computer commands and all had a go at drawing cubbies. I showed the students a project from my own work, which I had drawn using SketchUp too.
Over Term 3, the students have had the task of combining all of their designs and ideas into a single Eco-Cubby design. I have not yet seen the results of this process but I am sure it will be very impressive. Mr Wright assured me that the Eco-Cubby will be built in the near future.
Over those three days I learnt a lot from the students. They are very bright, and I was very impressed with their understanding of their own environment, their ability to evaluate ideas and work co-operatively to make decisions.
I do hope to visit Nangiloc again soon to see the final design and construction of the Eco-Cubby.
