SEDA Event at Strathclyde Uni

This just in, hot of the SEDA presses. Please come along, especially if you missed Roberto in Dundee. I won't claim to be nearly as good as him, but given the lineup for the evening, it will be worth it.

MAKING SPACE FOR PEOPLE AND FOOD:

meeting the challenge of climate change and resolving conflicts over land


Wed 29 Oct at 5.30 pm for 6.00 start
Lecture Theatre G4, Department of Architecture
Strathclyde University

The talks this evening will show how different communities in Cuba and the UK have come up with their own solutions to the need to create and use space to good effect and in less energy-intensive ways. We will hear about enlightened approaches which resolve contradictions between the desire for green space and the demand for development and shelter; and the need to produce food with fewer demands on resources and on the energy used.

The evening will start with the announcement of this year’s winner of the Krystyna Johnson Student Travel Award: James Henderson, graduate in building design engineering at Strathclyde University, who is researching the viability of introducing Brettstapel timber construction into Scotland, and will use his award to visit Austria, Switzerland and Germany to learn more about the manufacturing processes involved.

Growing Power: Cuba, post peak oil urban agriculture & use of green space - last year’s winner, Steve Brogan from the Centre of Natural Design, Dundee University, will be giving a presentation on his study of successful responses to Cuba’s need to create a low-energy, self-sufficient and sustainable society following their loss of access to oil and the crumbling of the socialist trade bloc in 1990. The presentation will focus on their development of permaculture as a means to transform food production - especially in urban areas where Havana, for example, now produces 60% of it's food requirements from within the city limits. Steve’s trip to Cuba was funded by the 2007 Student Travel Award.

Plotting the Future - Chris Coates is a green builder and author of “Utopia Britannica”, on the Offshoots project, Burnley a UK project with which he was involved and which combines many of the issues that Steve will be discussing - exemplifying community engagement in food production as well as the use of natural materials and alternative energy use in the provision of buildings.

Edinburgh Havana Initiative - looking at Architecture and Planning questions common to both Edinburgh and Havana, architect and SEDA member Ian Parson will focus on the experiences of both places as World Heritage Cities and look at how they can exchange ideas and innovations and reduce their carbon emissions - from the provision and repair of buildings to the innovative use of green space.

There will be opportunities for questions and the talks will be followed by wine and nibbles and the chance to meet and chat. The evening will close at 9pm.

For more information and to book your place please contact Mary Kelly mary@segalselfbuild.co.uk. Visitors welcome.

You can download a programme from the SEDA web site: http://www.seda2.org/future/future.htm