14 October 2009

A sustainable future - volunteers needed

• Do you want to be the first to live in a zero-energy house?
• Do you want to live in a self-sustaining community where you can produce your own food?
• Do you want to explore alternative ways of generating your own income?

The University of Dundee is looking for volunteers to take part in a discussion forum to explore these scenarios and other views of a sustainable future.

The University’s School of Architecture runs an undergraduate Masters programme specialising in zero-carbon housing and sustainable communities but vital to its success is input from real people and clients.

'We have various developers and organisations linking in with the course, which is great because it shows people have a real interest in what this course can produce,' said Dr Neil Burford, course leader.

'But we need people and families with an interest in this area to come and speak to us and discuss what are the things they would like to see included in these 'sustainable communities'. There is a lot of theory in this area but we have to be pragmatic as well and find out what are the things people would like to live with, how would they like to do it?'

'The key to any developments like these in the future is going to be getting people to live in them, so we need to get these people involved early.'

Among the scenarios under discussion will be food production. 'This is a very diverse discussion and we are looking to bring in all sorts of ideas,' said Dr Burford. 'So there are differing ideas on how best to develop a sustainable community in terms of food production - do we have communities with orchards and allotment spaces, or does each house have what is effectively its own crofting space where food is grown or reared for the family and all the surplus goes into a community pot?'

'These are the questions that underpinned how cities like Dundee and Edinburgh were originally built, and they are central to our future in how we build new communities with a sustainable focus.'

It is envisaged there will initially be two or three evening discussion meetings involving volunteers, each lasting approximately two hours. These would start in the week beginning 2nd November. Anyone who would be interested in joining in the School’s discussions should contact Dr Burford by email at n.k.burford@dundee.ac.uk.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902