Arckit Sustainability Studio

Applicants: The Brainary and Geelong Regional Library Corporation

Project summary:

The "Arckit Sustainability Studio” is a dynamic hands-on educational experience. In groups of up to 30, participants are recruited as architects working for a new big 'client'.

Participants learn the essentials for promoting sustainable living and addressing climate change within an architectural framework.

Utilising Arckit, the award winning architectural model building kit, participants will then have the exciting opportunity to construct models of environmentally safe buildings, parks and communities.

After sharing their constructions with the group, participants lastly identify one sustainable architectural idea they can take action on within their community.

The program will run in partnership with Surf Coast Libraries and aims to engage students, educators, and all community members across the Surf Coast Shire.

The target audience encompasses

• local schools
• community, and neighbourhood houses
• First Nations people
• NDIS Participant's ensuring inclusivity and accessibility.

The Brainary will provide two Arckit sets and three workshops: one for primary, one for secondary and one for adults.

In doing so equipping participants with the key skills needed to reduce their carbon footprint and make substantive sustainable changes in their homes, schools, and communities.

Each workshop will conclude with participants proposing actionable ideas to combat climate change, fostering a proactive approach to environmental stewardship.

School For Climate: Regeneration and Climate Action in the Garden & Farm

Applicants: Common Ground Project and Lorne P-12 College

Project summary:

The entirety of the Lorne P-12 College student community will be able to attend and engage with a "School for Climate" program at Common Ground Project providing a tangible example of regeneration and sustainable gardening, farming and food systems in the face of a climate crisis.

This will provide inspiration, direct mentorship and support for the sustainable garden planned at Lorne P-12 College, also included in part in this project, where climate friendly plants and revegetation will be incorporated into the design, along with sustainable and ecologically inclined edible plants.

This will allow all students to understand the importance of coming together as a community to recognise how we can mobilise, be resilient and act in the face of climate catastrophe, especially in climate-sensitive areas such as the area surrounding Lorne.

Having the students participate in the program at Common Ground Project first, they are exposed to real life examples of adaptation and mitigation that they can act on in the school garden, and more broadly at home and in their community.

This is also an at-risk population, with Lorne P-12 having limited opportunities for engagement in mobilisation and enacting climate action within and related to their region due to limited resources and isolation.