This Faculty elective is open to all undergraduate students in the BE, who are in their third year or above. Students from other Faculties may also enrol. The course provides students with a “service-learning” experience working in an interdisciplinary project context on a challenging social issue. The service-learning approach gives relevance to students’ learning by acknowledging that they bring prior knowledge, experience and skills to the project and provides the opportunity to apply and integrate that previous learning to a real-world problem. In the process, the requirements of the project will challenge students to research additional information, share their findings with each other and creatively synthesise a design solution that responds to all aspects of the client’s brief. The projects will vary each time the elective is offered and students should make themselves aware of the offering in any given semester.
For S1 2012 there are two proposed projects.
1. Northcott – Next Steps – design development of ideas generated by students in S2/2011 for a new fit-out of the Community Centre and design of surrounding landscape spaces (TBC). The client is Housing NSW.
2. North Penrith Community Centre and Plaza Design -- engaging with young people to generate ideas for a creative and interactive public space associated with an urban redevelopment project. The client is Landcom.