Health and the Environment: Shaping Policy and Place through Community Academic Partnerships

Abstract

Innovative pedagogical models in architectural education can educate practitioners, policymakers, and the public about the crucial relationship between public health and the built environment. This paper describes an interdisciplinary design research methodology that works with community partners to identify opportunities, design sustainable projects that inspire environmental stewardship, and develop implementation strategies. Civic engagement to influence public policy is an essential aspect of this approach to academic research. In collaboration with the City of Portsmouth, non-profit environmental groups, Portsmouth public schools and community partners, University of Virginia faculty and students from architecture, art and medicine investigated the complex relationship between human health, environmental restoration, and sustainability education through the design of a forty-acre wetland park. The Paradise Creek Nature Park will co-exist with contaminated industrial sites and an economically challenged and racially diverse neighborhood. Students designed the Park and its Wetland Learning Lab and Rainwater Filtration Pavilion to engage urban kids in hands-on learning. There were several research goals: create a place that increases the sense of well-being, economic vitality and opportunity for outdoor exploration for all ages; design green pavilions that educate visitors about sustainability; make a place where citizens may rediscover the healing respite of a healthy river; and create strategies for industry and natural ecosystem to co-exist in harmony. The research considered complex social, economic, ecological and architectural issues across scales. The design manifests an inventive educational agenda that teaches about sustainabledwelling, environmental restoration and human health. This design research project establishes a model for university and community collaboration that is capable of changing public policies, while fostering a commitment to environmental ethics and sustainable practices by connecting academic learning with the students' desire to make a positive difference in the world.