Sustainability in the Curriculum
Reed supports academic research and exploration related to sustainability through coursework in a variety of departments ranging from art, physics, English, and economics. Sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, which allows for rich partnerships, project-based learning, and creative connections. Dive into some of the recent curricular collaborations!
Fall 2023: Intersection, Architecture, Landscape, Sculpture. ON THIS LAND.
Welcome to Intersection, Architecture, Landscape, Sculpture – where creativity meets practicality head-on. Taught by Geraldine Ondrizek, this studio art course is anything but ordinary. In the Fall of 2023, students dived into the heart of the Pacific Northwest and Reed College, exploring the campus with a hands-on approach.
Their focal point? The Reed College Garden and its surroundings. Here, students worked alongside campus stakeholders, including Sustainability Coordinator, Rachel Willis, and garden stewards, Gwen Olson and Carmen Simons, to understand how people, energy, and resources flow through Reed's community garden space. After meetings with the team to identify current needs and barriers, the students turned their attention to how the built environment could foster a sense of belonging and community.
Student ingenuity flourished in the Intersection, Architecture, Landscape, Sculpture course, with each project adding its unique touch to the garden. Harper Lethin, a master of calligraphy, brought warmth and charm with hand-calligraphed signs welcoming visitors to the garden. Lethin also crafted a kiosk, featuring a map of the garden beds and inviting everyone to share messages about upcoming events. Sakura Azzopardi and Jesse Neuman Hammond left their mark with a Welcome Arbor, beckoning visitors from the front sidewalk to enter and gather within the garden's embrace. Lee Goldenberg and Caroline Spiggel's dedication to inclusivity led them to design a wheelchair-accessible raised bed, ensuring that everyone could enjoy the space. Remi Castellanos's vision extended beyond the garden's borders, with a grand 10-foot table and benches. This communal space became a hub for classes to gather, fostering discussions on gardening and beyond.
Building the projects took two months and was labor intensive. Students built detailed models and draft plans to work from, went to the lumber yard to access the materials, and prefabricated all parts of their projects in the studio before going out to the location. Once on location, digging holes for the pier block to hold up the arbor, kiosk, and signage, and laying the concrete block pad for the raised bed was completed as a team. Over the course of two weeks, each project was installed. All of the fabrication and on site labor was completed with the assistance of our amazing studio staff Louise Krampien and Trevor Koch.