The City is the Classroom: University and College Students jam with the City of Vancouver on what can be done with unused public spaces
Vancouver, BC – February 7th, 2012 – On Thursday, February 9th 150 university and college students will gather with faculty and City staff at the SALT Building in Olympic Village for an evening of co-creative idea generation on what can be done with Vancouver’s unused public spaces. CityStudio is collaborating with the Vancouver Design Nerds to host the first CityStudio-Partner Course Nerd Jam with the theme of “Transforming Vancouver’s Unused Spaces”.
“There is so much creative potential and talent in our student network and we are excited to see what happens when we put all of these minds together with City staff, faculty and designers.”, says Lena Soots, Project Coordinator at CityStudio.
In addition to the Core student cohort, CityStudio has 8 Partner Courses this semester from UBC, SFU, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and BCIT. The disciplines represented in this network include Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Business, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Animation Design.
“The Jam really gives us the space and context we need to collaboratively problem solve - it gives us the opportunity to put our energy and enthusiasm to work on the projects that really matter, with the right people in the room.”, explains CityStudio student, Taryn Cheremkora, “It’s a Jam to not only to familiarize ourselves with city spaces, but more importantly to see what we can do and how we can transform them.”
The event is part of a series of events hosted by CityStudio designed to engage students in projects related to Vancouver’s Greenest City Goals.
For more information about CityStudio and CityStudio events, visit www.citystudiovancouver.com, or contact Lena Soots at citystudiocoordinator@gmail.com.
CityStudio Vancouver is an energetic hub and center for sustainability education. CityStudio aims to be the world’s most innovative inter-institutional campus-city collaboration for learning and implementation of urban sustainability strategies. The City is the Classroom where students work on long-term, real world projects. The goal of CityStudio Vancouver is to directly involve students, professors and universities in the implementation of Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 goals.
CityStudio is co-led by Duane Elverum (Emily Carr University of Art and Design) and Dr. Janet Moore (Simon Fraser University – Centre for Dialogue). The project is a collaboration of the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC), British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Langara College, Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Community College (VCC). The project is supported by Vancouver's Campus City Collaborative (C3).
