We are all undergraduates studying at Oxford Brookes University. Below is a small description of our specialism, the main aim and the proposed outcomes of individual projects that we will develop whilst in Brazil. We are happy to be contacted to discuss the projects in detail so please email us if you are interested in knowing more or have suggestions to make.
Sean Kelly
City and Regional Planning Year 3
Scottish
Community Engagement
Aims and activities: Community engagement is a key factor within any development context and can have the ability to influence a project. I'll be researching the opportunities available to those living within the rapidly developing communities in Brazil, where the economy is strong and large new developments are being designed, planned and built at rapid speed, especially in preparation for the World Cup 2014 and the Olympics 2016. At which point do locally affected communities have input or have an opportunity to be involved? What methods of communication already exist and what methods could be exercised to benefit developers, the government and local communities?
Outcomes: A video diary and blog with updates and project results will be posted on the JCUD website and a presentation to Brookes students and staff upon our return.
Aim and activities: I am to further the understanding of Lower Carbon Community living in cross-cultural contexts. I will give a presentation at the 3 partner universities feeding into workshops that will provide information to academic staff as well as students and the local community. In this presentation I will use my main dissertation project 'Suburban Densification for Lower Carbon Community Living' as a live case study to illustrate problems and then address potential alternative solutions that can be adapted to different scenarios within an open discussion environment. Text, audio and visual will be interlinked to provide a diverse learning experience.
Outcome: Presentations and the report with the conclusions from my project will be available upon request from the JCUD website.
Aim and activities: This is a chance for me to further extend my research of possible links between urban design and crime rates, the focus will mainly be on investigating whether ‘densification has an influence on the potential for crime’. The opportunity to go to Brazil to work with the students and staff of three universities will help my understanding of matters regarding urban design, and whether they influence the crime rates in Brazil. This will be an extension to the work I am developing in my undergraduate dissertation and wish to seek an understanding of the issue beyond the UK context.
Outcomes: I will produce an e-portfolio of my findings that will be available on the brookes JCUD website
Esmeralda Shameti
City and Regional Planning Year 3 Year 3
Albanian
Mobility
Aim and activities: My plan for this project is to further the work I have been developing in my undergraduate dissertation on issues related to urban mobility (parking). I would like to summarise some of the UK best practices on urban mobility in a short presentation to students and staff at the three universities we will be visiting in Brazil. These practices aim to question the traditionally accepted priority given to cars to provide a friendly environment by using more pedestrian, bicycle, and public transport. The investigation of urban mobility in Brazil will help collecting evidence of good practice and question some of the current practice found in contexts of development pressure where urban environments are designed still with the use of the individual car as a priority.
Outcome: I will be submitting the outcome of the research as a multimedia package to the Brookes JCUD Website.
Beth Teal
City and Regional Planning Year 3
English
Multi-sensory Urbanism
Aim and activities: The concept and techniques related to multi-sensory urbanism is currently emerging in the west. My dissertation research project investigated how non-visual stimuli can be consciously incorporated to positively enhance the experience of public urban places. In Brazil this research will be furthered in a differing climatic and cultural context. This will involve collecting qualitative data from first-hand analysis of various types of public urban spaces to compare and contrast them to those I’ve previously studied in the UK and also using presentations alongside workshops to develop ideas from the experiences of Brazilian urban design students and professionals at the three universities we are visiting.
Outcomes: Organised within a report available from the JCUD website will be the presentations given, the analysis of Brazilian public urban spaces and the ideas developed through workshops. An overall conclusion will be formed on how positive differences observed and ideas developed could be implemented here to create more public interaction with the built environment, encourage use and through this form greater sustainability.