Gansu Studio: 'Plug-in' school unit for rural China

Tenorio, Rosangela Sousa, Yang, Tong ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1254-5628 and Oro, Bruno (2019) Gansu Studio: 'Plug-in' school unit for rural China. Revista Asia America Latina, 4 (6) . pp. 13-44. ISSN 2524-9347 [Article]

Preview

PDF - Published version (with publisher's formatting) Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (660kB) | Preview

Abstract

Gansú ‘Plug-in’ Studio was a community outreach project based in China developed over a course of 2 years (2014-2016). It proposed a complementary approach of education to improve quality of learning in primary schools in rural areas. The premise for the work was to engage higher education institutions such as UNNC and primary education institutions, such as HEPAN, by exchange of resources, (e.g. physical or human - staff and students as well as contexts as real opportunities for learning). It worked using design as a tool for development and environmental awareness. It worked in partnership with industry and government institutions and it involved over 120 students and 15 staff from 5 different areas (Architecture, Product Design, Environmental Engineering, Film Studies and English/Education). Through interactive workshops with academics and industry practitioners, UNNC students were guided to realise their ideas through innovative design and sustainable engineering solutions, also developed their communication and team working skills for real to help rural education and community development.

Meanwhile, pupils and teachers in rural areas could develop sufficiently as their urban counterparts through this connected learning hub. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the processes and outcomes of Gansu Studio. The Plug-in Gansu Unit was designed to be the first net positive energy rural school building in China producing an estimated 18304 kWh/year of renewable energy to the school and reverting back to the county grid an annual extra clean energy 2304kWh/annum upon completion. An estimated 22 tons of water per year would be also saved.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Activity Overview

6 month trend

93Downloads

6 month trend

245Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.