Abstract

How are individuals and organizations that are unfamiliar with the complexities of design, construction, and maintenance processes supposed to truly understand and value the holistic systems required to develop and maintain sustainable sites? An inclusive, participatory approach to the design-construction cycle offers one solution. A community-based, hands-on approach helps synthesize beneficial relationships and promote innovation that exceed standard solutions by integrating creative, technical, financial, and managerial aspects into a framework of engagement and education. This paper describes an integrated educational approach that fuses practice, policy, place, and participation to achieve environmentally and socially responsive solutions within university campus environments. The discussion is focused on ways these principles are being used to guide the ongoing development and delivery of an award-winning, creative partnership between the Department of Landscape Architecture and University Housing at North Carolina State University. In total, the paper describes a synthetic model of programming; policy; participation; and interdisciplinary design, education, and research. This framework serves to centralize student, faculty, and campus development agendas, while also initiating community design processes that transform dysfunctional landscape spaces into environmentally responsible and celebrated campus places.