Timeframe
The plan for the LivingCampus incorporates the development of three aspects simultaneously: a community garden, an interactive open air experience, and enhancing the sustainability of the campus. The plan, therefore covers these three aspects. The development of the LivingCampus integrates two cycles - the educational year and the growing year.
Three opportunities have come together to give the LivingCampus a realistic start.
- Permaculture design course. This course has developed a beautiful permaculture garden at L Block. The course aimed to establish a good grounding in the foundations of permaculture design and to apply it to the development of production systems and living spaces. View Permaculture Design wiki. The garden includes herb spirals and a food forest.
- Campus Services B Block garden. The first garden on the Forth St Campus is developed at the back of B Block. Campus Services has sited its composting there and the garden has produced a great range of produce using permaculture principles.
- Communication Design, Design Interiors, and Information Technology student projects are underway to develop infrastructure and communication plans for the LivingCampus
The next parts of the Living Campus are to come to life around the new Whanau Room, at the restructured Student Centre and at the Art School.
As the whole plan comes together, the aspects of the story will become clearer – what messages do we want to convey? At this stage we know that we will want a “demonstration backyard”. The first garden is in place, in the flat space to the south of B-block.
Full funding plan
Project establishment, project team etc, design and minor engineering, instruction and garden design will be completed by September 2008 (some consents and a licence will be required and we have initiated discussions about these). Propagation from early August 2008 to have noticeable impact in 2008 in areas easy to convert.
Then over subsequent seasons, will be the development of LivingCampus in areas, sequenced by time-to-maturity and a programme of conversion. Design will be based on production principles and the "story" to be told by that section (for instance we might decide to include a message about how little space a student could use for a garden, so would develop a narrative and plantings to convey that).
The garden will be developed in sections to align with both educational opportunities and site constraints. These will be planned by the Advisory Group. At this stage, sections of garden to include permaculture, heritage European, kai Māori, square foot gardening, medicinal herbs, materials production, kitchen herbs, "novel crops" and future potentials (roof and wall gardens).
In 2008, the garden will operate from existing infrastructure, but during 2009 systems such as rainwater collection, and improved composting facilities will be developed.
It is intended that by Winter 2011, major development is completed and the LivingCampus will be self supporting through integration into Otago Polytechnic teaching programmes, supply of food to the student centre and embedded sustainable practices.