Nina sharp

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Research theme: Lower Carbon Community Living in Cross Cultural Context I am Nina Sharp studying City and Regional Planning (MPlan) at Oxford Brookes University. I have just completed my third year and moving into my final year of which my specialism will be Urban Design. I have excelled in a number of modules including Urban Design, Regional Planning, Strategic Planning, Transport and Society and Spatial Planning. I am one of five student members (with Dr. Laura Novo De Azevedo) who formed BrookesBUDS in January 2012. From 19th May until 5th June 2013 the BUDS group worked in partnership with three Universities in Brazil in the cities of Florianópolis, Porto Alegre and Pelotas to develop design workshops and research. There was also an opportunity for personal development on individual research projects in Rio De Janeiro.

Figure 1; Nina presenting within a workshop. Source, Author.

As part of the presentation that contributed to the general theme of the workshops — Design Coding in Urban Design—I contributed with a talk on the topic of coding for sustainability. I used illustrated case studies and examples from an undergraduate module (on following page) including the third year dissertation equivalent Implementation Project. The audience varied in experience with the subject (undergraduates, postgraduates and lecturers), age and level of English, although all had a interest and had studied Architecture and Urbanism. For this reason, it was important for the slides to be applicable for the entire audience and this was achieved through a predominance of visuals. I also lead my own group within the workshop (Figure 1) to develop design coding for the three case studies (Ponta do leal, Florianópolis; Village Center, Pelotas and Vila Chocolatão, Porto Alegre). The method used for developing site specific coding included 1) brainstorming for the development of a vision for the areas; 2) SWOT analysis of the sites; 3) a list of design objectives needed to achieve the vision which would invariably relate to urban design qualities and 4) the use of the questions ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ to help developing a design code for the areas. I personally felt that BUDS was a great opportunity to experience live case studies in a cross cultural context. The nature of the trip enabled my knowledge to be tested and provide solutions to problems in real life scenarios (Figure 2). It gave me the chance to perform at the highest standards whilst promoting my ability to work in groups, collectively develop frameworks and negotiate solutions effectively. This study trip also enabled me to gain information on a very different planning system to that of the UK and see the impacts that it had, both positively and negatively. I managed to achieve this through a successful bid for a research scholarship from Santander Universities as well as sponsorship from Oxford Brookes Planning Department and Taylor Woodrow International and fund raising through cake sales at the University. From the work that I have completed at undergraduate level (particularly the Implementation Project) I developed a framework that was used as the main form of assessment of the case studies to illustrate findings related to my research topic. This gave me an understanding of the performance of the communities within the theme of Low(er) Carbon Community Living. The most interesting elements found significantly contributing to reduced energy expenditure within a community included proximity to services and access, quality of services present, quality of built form and community value. These four topics were assessed where applicable and then commented upon their progression towards a lower carbon community living.

Figure 2; Research and delivery. Source, Author.

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