Toward a Brighter Future
Isles of Iwi: Designing Offshore Islands for Resilience Through Indigenous Knowledge
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bruno Marques, Claudia Boyo, Jacqueline McIntosh
Aotearoa/New Zealand’s offshore and outlying islands have long been a focus for ecological conservation and restoration as sites of local endemism and as the last refuges for many species. For the indigenous Maori culture of Aoteaora/New Zealand, offshore islands are deeply linked with storytelling, food sourcing, and establishment of settlements that reflected traditional ways of living. With European colonisation, Maori tribes were secluded from these islands resulting in loss of biodiversity with introduction of non-native flora and fauna and a building infrastructure that disregarded the cultural past. However, due to the close proximity to the mainland, offshore islands have the unique potential to become valuable spaces where native ecosystems and cultural diversity are celebrated, concurrently providing distinctive opportunities for visitors to reconnect with the landscape. In the context of this study, Matiu is Wellington’s largest harbour island in the Capital City of Aotearoa/New Zealand. For centuries, Maori tribes occupied Matiu, establishing settlement sites and using them for defence and communication. Using experimental design-led research methods, this paper develops speculative landscape architectural schemes that bring forth the ecological, cultural, and historical significance of Matiu island to Maori tribes. The schemes are framed by some of the spatial attributes of resilience such as diversity, complexity, redundancy, interconnectivity and adaptability. Collectively, the work reveals design strategies that have the potential to rebuild the island’s ecologies through a wide range of spaces organised in cultural journeys that enhance significant narratives and bring together the community in intergenerational activities.
Transcending Roots: A Research Journey to Implement Systems Complexity for Social Change
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paula Chamorro
This research analyzes social interventions by understanding systems’ disruptions. This work targets non-profit social innovation organizations and their current challenges. For example, achieving short-term gains by implementing quick fixes that are many times seen unsuccessful in the long-term. Projects usually succeed in the short-run— and expect the desired outcome to happen quickly—but positive change requires time to be manifested. Transcending Roots proposes a way to monitor growth over time while addressing complications rapidly. The goal is to track success factors using reinforcement and feedback loops. The solution was inspired by indigenous cultures and their perception of time where the past is key to developing successful solutions for the future. Another concept used in solution development was el Buen Vivir (The Good Living), a social philosophy that focuses on community, ecology, and culture that measures community wellbeing through a holistic understanding.
Using Art Practice as a Tool to Empower Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eliska Skarolkova
This research is about using art as a medium for personal growth and development in remote communities living in poverty and extreme conditions. The town of Mariakani and its surrounding villages in Kenya experience a high incidence of diseases. The prevalence of these diseases is caused in part by lack of awareness about hygiene and common prevention practices, as well as by a heavily polluted environment. To exacerbate these conditions, extreme poverty creates gaps between the poor and the poorer which results in further social problems and lack of community respect. And unfulfilled self-actualization leads to lack of self-esteem, negatively impacting members of the entire community. There is a need for addressing both the physical and the mental health challenges in the area. Creation of art has proved to have benefits on human‘s mental wellbeing that is closely related to physical health. The practice and the product of art can be a medium that spreads awareness about the causes and effects of these diseases. Using art makes the learning content more accessible by interacting with it in a playful way. Also, the creation of art helps us develop creative problem solving and imagination. Developing creativity and consciousness gives space for empowering the community to fight their daily problems and be able to live more as they like. This research explores the influence of art on how people see the world around themselves, the benefits of art practice, and how we can harness this practice in the area of social sustainability.
