I just came across this website The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (Cal-Earth). It seems to offer a simple, interesting and affordable building idea - sandbags! Check out the superadobe technology - very cool!
these are a couple of images from the Cal-Earth website.
The students at Heywood and District Secondary College have been on an interesting journey. The township of Heywood is close to Lake Condah - a significant Aboriginal cultural heritage site. The students have been studying the local Gunditjmara heritage and have decided to create their cubby based on the stone huts found at Lake Condah. The students wanted to create their cubby as a meeting place and an outdoor learning space.
Over the course of the year students have made observations and collected data from a few potential sites where the cubby could be located. Over some months of significant rain in the area, one site was abandoned as it became flooded for some time during the winter. Another site was decided on in bushland next to the school oval. This site comes with it's own problems such as snakes and the potential of bushfire, however with the grass mown and the site maintained it is proving to be their most likely site for the cubby.
The school has an agriculture and horticulture program and students learn about farming and land management along with gardening and growing food, and there is a significant vege garden in the making. Students will be involved in researching indigenous plants and foods and will incorporate planting these within the cubby site in the coming year.
Excursion to Lake Condah
One of the original mission buildings
The Gunditjmara created ingenious fish and eel traps
The stone huts at Lake Condah show that the Gunditjmara lived in permanent settlements, dispelling the myth that Australia’s Indigenous peoples were all nomadic.
Birds eye view of the school site
The cubby site
Ann Ferguson and Rachel Giansiracusa from the University of Melbourne Early Learning Centre are presenting their Eco-Cubby project outcomes at the Environmental Education in Early Childhood Victoria (EEEC) Conference.
Their presentation will showcase the project as undertaken by a group of three year old children and their families, and will demonstrate the rich and diverse learning processes they developed through the centre's emergent curriculum and Visual language program.
Here are some pics from our fantastic time at the Royal Melbourne Show. An Eco-Cubby was built over the course of the Show and around 300 kids took part in designing, constructing and decorating!
As you can see the cubby developed into quite a colourful creation!
the cubby design
after the 2nd day of construction
Emily hard at work
looking good - solar panels taking shape
building solar panels
getting some tree planting advice!
what a cubby!
exploring the rafters
adding some fruit to the trees
adding a design to the wall
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.
We have the very exciting news that Eco-Cubby will be at the Royal Melbourne Show (17th - 27th September).
We will be located in the 'Kid Zone' pavilion and will showcase the project via a display and interactive activities.
The 17th and 18th are allocated school excursion days and we will be offering a workshop to design and build a cardboard cubby in our space. Visitors will then have the opportunity to decorate the cubby over the duration of the Show and architects will be on hand to engage visitors in dialogue about sustainable design principles.
This is an exceptional opportunity for Eco-Cubby as the 'Kid Zone' Pavilion is expecting up to 70,000 visitors over the 10 days, and the Show as a whole attracts about half a million visitors!
Please come and find us if you are going to the Show - we hope to see you there
Architects Kirsty Fletcher and Jon Pye and the students at Bundalaguah have completed their scale model and as you can see from the images below, it is FANTASTIC!
Here's the final plans and model from Bundalaguah...WOW
The final ideas were combined into a small model, then the very clever Architects Jon and Kirsty produced the drawings - complete with kids!
This really is too cool for school...there are tyres that make up seats as well as part of the garden. Can you spy the secret door?
The final model is 1:10 scale and looks fab!
It was national tree planting day when I visited Moorooduc Primary School last week. The students had been busy planting trees all afternoon and were decidedly pleased with their efforts.
The students took me to their ‘shelter shed’ to explain the changes they were going to make to the existing structure. They have developed some really interesting ideas and have decided on a design that incorporates reclaimed and recycled materials to create a multi use space.
The shelter shed is situated right in the corner of the school flanked by two fairly busy roads and they have developed the idea to include stone wall structures to act as sound barriers near the fence. Also included in their design are rain water tanks, gardens a worm farm, as well as lots of areas to sit and relax!
The students created fantastic posters of their designs, which included annotated pictures of the shelter shed and scale drawings on grid paper. These posters create an informative display outside the classrooms. Also included in this display space are their models. Each student has produced a wonderful 3D model of their designs, which incorporate natural materials and detailed decoration.
The children’s enthusiasm for the project and the quality of the work they have produced is testament to the professional instruction from their Architect Ed, as well as their wonderful teachers!
Moodooduc your work is impressive - check it out below!
posters showing images with measurements of the shelter shed
birds eye view plans, design ideas and scale drawings
scale drawing of some innovative ideas for the space!!
a name wall is a cool idea!
...so is a gossip table!
a colourful interior showing the water collection system!
Water collection is very important
a model showing sound barriers (in each corner)
using bubble wrap is a great idea to depict a solar panel for the model
materials and colour are an important consideration too
