Year 7 HSIE meet an Architect

Emanuel School alumnus, Max Rosin-Melter, spoke to the Year 7B Geography class about how to plan and design the cities they are creating for their Term 1 Performances of Understanding. The students are studying liveability and sustainability and are required to create a city of 30,000 located near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. They have been given some specific demographics that define their city, such as 18% unemployed, 15% under 20, 22% over 65, 5% Indigenous, 4% with disabilities. With this information, they must create a city which embodies relevant concepts of liveablity and which provides appropriate services for this population.

Max is an architect with the firm BVN in the city, and was able to show the students how to create their plans on either computer generated or hand-drawn maps. He presented examples of various cities around the world and explained how to develop a vision of their city, including its infrastructure, then apply these concepts to a map. Max suggested that they create representative areas which reflect the overall city, whilst highlighting in detail five unique features of their town, such as community gardens, a central plaza or nature paths. The students were advised to avoid creating areas where groups are marginalised, rather than integrating all aspects of the society into a workable and cohesive unit.

The students were able to visualise their project more clearly and gained a better understanding of the planning nature of their task. A few of the students plan to study Architecture when they finish school, and were excited to explore some of the concepts Max presented during class.

Elena Rosin, HSIE Teacher