NSW Architects Registration Board 2008 Research Grant was awarded to National Trust (NSW) to undertake a project: “I love this place …”
The National Trust (NSW), with the support of NSW Architects Registration Board research funding, will engage the community throughout NSW to reflect on architecture and the built environment, and the ways in which they centrally construct our sense of place.
The Trust will invite people of all ages to contribute a digital image of a built environment or architectural space of any sort – a beach shack, an industrial landscape, a restaurant, a gallery, a house, a room, an electricity substation, a street, a stadium, a university building, a heritage site, a park, a lane, a pool. The images will form a collective, image-based web log administered by the National Trust. Participants will be asked to submit a vignette of 100 words or less to accompany the image, on the theme: “I love this place …”, considering what it is about the way that that built space looks, feels and works that makes it resonate on a human level. A competition for the best entries with prizes to the winners will drive take-up by the public and help ensure the widest possible pool of participants
A condition of entry to the project will be the completion of an online questionnaire with forced-field questions (so that the entry is unable to be submitted until the form is completed). The questionnaire will be designed in consultation with an expert panel to “drill down” into and supplement the qualitative information of the images and vignettes, elucidating key issues in the public understanding of architecture, In particular, the questionnaire will seek to elicit community perceptions of architecture and its role in shaping culture and sustainability; and examine the link between architecture that appeals to people, and the sustainability or otherwise of that architecture, ecologically and in the sense of sustaining community.
"I love this space...." was launched at the NT Festival in April 2008. On 30 June 2008 entries from applicants closed.
Judging of entries took place between July and August 2008 and data was collated from online questionnaires.
In November 2008 winners were announced and exhibition of finalists’ images and text were held.
A Final Report is to be completed and presented to the Board and will be available to the public at a later date.
2006 Board Research Grant
They should fix the crack: Reflections on the built environment in the middle school years – NSW Architects Registration Board’s 2006 Research Grant Report.
The Board’s 2006 Research Grant was initiated because of our interest in how students in the middle years of their schooling think about the built environment, and the extent to which an understanding of the design process might influence their attitudes about the built environment – now and in the future.
The project provides a snapshot to inform directions for curriculum development and support in the topic area of the built environment and will be of value to educators when developing resources and strategies for school students. The findings of this research project also broadly contribute to an understanding of community attitudes to the built environment and point to ways in which an early exposure to these ideas may, in fact, influence a broader appreciation and concern for the built environment.
The Report includes key messages for teachers, professional associations and policy makers, governments and the development sector.
Click here to download a copy of "They should fix the crack: Reflections on the built environment in the middle school years - Board’s 2006 Research Grant Report."
Click here to download a copy of the Executive Summary and Key Messages
Click here to download a copy of Conclusions and Future Directions.
