Building empowerment: Ways of working with children and youth to create sustainable buildings.

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary research into community empowerment via children and youth participation towards generating sustainable building outcomes within two low income, predominantly Pacifica and Māori communities in New Zealand. In these case studies, a combination of working with regulatory frameworks alongside commitment by key stakeholders to empower communities is leading to environmentally sustainable outcomes on two levels. The first is the resulting buildings, which function as sustainable best practice examples within the community. The second is the learning that occurs, which has the transformative potential to engender permanent change in environmental attitudes and values of those involved.

The paper focuses on relating the processes within these case studies to the theoretical frameworks of ESD, participatory learning, co-design and community empowerment, especially relating to children and youth. It concludes that involving communities in a meaningful way with sustainable buildings would be a move in the right direction for permanent sustainable outcomes. This is particularly the case in cities that are fast growing and within communities that are frequently marginalised.