ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living

Since 2009 the independent non-governmental organization (NGO) ECOWEEK has been organizing weeklong events for students and young professionals within the construction sector with a focus on sustainability. These events are one week bootcamps combining workshops with lectures from some of the most prominent architects, engineers, urban planners etc. in the field.

KEA as ECOWEEK host

From 13 – 19 May 2013, approximately 300 young architects, architectural technologists, engineers, landscape architects, industrial designers, energy technologists, etc. from around the world, will come to Copenhagen to work with some of the big climate, energy and environmental challenges that cities like Copenhagen are facing. This will be the first time a Nordic educational institution will host ECOWEEK.

The theme for ECOWEEK Copenhagen is ‘New Nordic Living’. The New Nordic theme – found and celebrated in very different areas of work and life, such as gastronomy, architecture, design, etc. – is highly inspired by the principle of proximity which encourages us to source local materials to create practical solutions.

Real life cases

During ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living, the students participating in the workshops will be encouraged to create sustainable solutions, using primarily local materials and resources, for real life cases and problems facing the city. Moreover, they will be encouraged to work in cooperation with the residents living in the areas where the cases are found.

ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living has developed a partnership with the municipality of Copenhagen who has agreed to make part of the city available as a test ground for these solutions. From 2012 until 2016, the North West of Copenhagen – more specifically an area called “Bispebjerg” –will be getting a makeover. The municipality of Copenhagen will provide approximately 30 cases for ECOWEEK’s participants to delve into and hopefully produce qualified solutions that the city can work with once ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living is over.

Aim

• To create sustainable solutions to some of the big climate, energy and environmental challenges that cities like Copenhagen are facing
• For local municipal stakeholders, companies and educational institutions to take part in the transformation of Copenhagen towards carbon neutrality
• To create solutions to real life cases involving sustainability and climate adaptation
• For Copenhagen to aquire bold new ideas on how to achieve the goal of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral city

Background

ECOWEEK is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) established in Greece in 2005 and active in 10 countries in Europe and the Middle East. Its mission is to raise environmental awareness and promote the principles of sustainability.

Since 2009 ECOWEEK has been organizing weeklong events for students and young professionals within the construction sector with a focus on sustainability.  These events are one week boot camps combining workshops with lectures from some of the most prominent architects, engineers, urban planners etc. in the field.

Aim

• To create sustainable solutions to some of the big climate, energy and environmental challenges that cities like Copenhagen are facing
• For local municipal stakeholders, companies and educational institutions to take part in the transformation of Copenhagen towards carbon neutrality
• To create solutions to real life cases involving sustainability and climate adaptation
• For Copenhagen to aquire bolde new ideas on how to achieve the goal of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral city

International conference with workshops and events

• Opening event: welcome and key note speakers
• Sitevisits
• Film viewing (“The Human Scale”)
• Workshops – more on the workshops below
• Events: KEA students had the possibility to participate in a number of events dealing with sustainability within the built and urban environment
• Social hang outs
• Exhibitions
• Presentations
• The Grand Finale – more on The Grand Finale and presentations below

See the full programme here. 

Workshops

Though we have a holistic understanding of sustainability, the workshops have been divided up into four sustainability themes for this ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living. Each of the workshops will be based on one of these themes:

1. URBAN SUSTAINABILITY/ LANDSCAPE DESIGN, URBAN GARDENING& AGRICULTURE, CLIMATE ADAPTION, INFRASTRUCTURE, TRAFFIC ETC.

   With over 50% of the world’s population living in cities and the percentage set to increase over the next few decades it is important for a more sustainable approach to urban planning to be implemented in cities. Under this heading you will be asked to consider many different aspects of urban life that need to function together with a special focus on public space in the city and it’s adaption towards more social and environmental sustainability.

2. SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND LOCAL EMPOWERMENT

   Social sustainability though often overlooked is one of the central pillars of sustainability and empowerment is about increasing people’s ability to take control of their own life and to partake in society. The North West area of Copenhagen where the cases are situated is one of the most socially depleted areas of Copenhagen and this should be taken into consideration.  It is central to this theme that the people who live in the community should be involved in the case work as they are the people who, if the solution suits their needs, will benefit from and also maintain the improvements that are made to their local environment.

   With the social sustainability theme you will have to take into consideration the people that reside in the area and how your design will impact them. You will be asked to create designs, projects and solutions that will make improvements to their quality of life and also for the future generations to come.

3. NEW BUILDING DESIGN / TOWARDS A ZERO EMISSIONS, ENERGY-AUTONOMOUS BUILDING

   This theme will ask groups to look at carbon neutral architecture and also bear in mind the local climate when designing new buildings. Maximise the use of natural renewable energy, maximise the use of natural light to minimise the use of artificial light, natural ventilation, minimise use of new resources and where possible use recycled materials from the local area.

4. BUILDING RENOVATION / REDUCE, REUSE AND REDESIGN

   This theme is more restrictive because the buildings have already been constructed but it will require more innovate thinking to come up with solutions to the problems that already exist. You will have the same goals as those in theme 3 but more barriers to work around.

See the full workshop catalogue here

Presentations and The Grand Finale

• Participants present their design solutions in various formats
• Experience based collage of visual, interactive, digital and spoken-word presentations
• Inspiring speeches
• Feedback on presentations and solutions

Approach

ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living has developed a partnership with the Municipality of Copenhagen who has agreed to make part of the city available as a test ground for these solutions. From 2012 until 2016, the North West of Copenhagen – more specifically an area called “Bispebjerg” –will be getting a makeover. The Municipality of Copenhagen will provide approximately 30 cases for ECOWEEK’s participants to delve into and hopefully produce qualified solutions that the city can work with once ECOWEEK – New Nordic Living is over.

Practical real-life problems will be combined with students’ actual solutions, all based on research-based knowledge.

Human, natural and economic sustainability

The words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ are used to describe many different approaches toward changing our way of life so that we can maintain long-term social, economic and environmental development without over exploiting our resources.

Sustainability does not (and should not) have one definition, but one of the most commonly used definitions is from the United Nations 1987 Brundtland Report, as a mode of development where: “Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Sustainability is commonly defined through the three interconnected pillars of social or human sustainability, economic sustainability and environmental or natural sustainability. For ECOWEEK – New Nordic living we stress that all three pillars should be taken seriously to ensure sustainability in the projects.

Here is one definition that can provide a way of understanding sustainability that can be used in the context of ECOWEEK -New Nordic Living and what it is trying to accomplish:

“A sustainable community is one that resembles a living system where all of the resources (human, natural and economic) are renewed and in balance for perpetuity.” – www.sustainabilitystore.com

To balance and include resources from all three pillars, to achieve or sustain a living renewable community system, should be at the core of the case based workshops at Ecoweek – New Nordic Living.

• To create a number of sustainable solutions to real life cases involving sustainability and climate adaptation
• New knowledge and knowledge sharing about sustainability within the construction and urban planning sector

• For local municipal stakeholders, companies and educational institutions to take part in the sustainable transformation of Copenhagen

• To raise environmental awareness and promote the principles of sustainability
• To create sustainable solutions to some of the big climate, energy and environmental challenges that cities like Copenhagen are facing
• For Copenhagen to become the world’s first carbon neutral city

• - Andre nationale og internationale uddannelsesinstitutioner (73)