Project Utopia was an enjoyable experience for many, and full of learning curves. It helped me understand a little more about myself, and I learnt about some qualities I never thought I had. Our task was to redesign a branch of the Fremantle Port, sustainably, with a different lifestyle of living. This project had a big focus on collaboration, communication, and organisation. I always found myself building on these key skills.
I showed my organisation skills on several occasions. At the start of our project, I was a little disorganised, because I didn’t have a great understanding of what we had to do, but after the showcase by Nicole Lockwood, I understood what the task at hand was and our group was able to come together and come up with great ideas. Our Group always researched different topics, and I feel our combined research paid off in the long run. I started off with googling, then collected my research notes on OneNote. I know I had lots of knowledge about sustainability when it came to the showcase. When in the process of creating vision boards, we had lots of printed pictures that were a small size. These could have been lost or misplaced very easily, so I took on the responsibility of looking after the pictures and making sure they were always in the same place, so we could all easily access them. I can always build on my organisation, as I can be a little disorganised sometimes.
Collaboration was a little hard for me at times, but in the end, we came up with a great product. The difficulty came from our group having useless arguments that wasted time. I realised that we needed to stop and get working, and eventually we came up with some epic ideas for a port redesign. A popular idea we had among the guests was our sustainable basketball court. This was my idea originally, and I was always proud to showcase it. A lot of collaboration was required, when myself and my group made the vision board to showcase our ideas, because we had a lot of printed pictures to cut out. I was always willing to help with the cutting and using the guillotine.
Our group was usually good with communicating. Although, I felt the communication was snappy and bossy towards each other on some occasions. I was able to offer feedback to my team members and help with anything one of my peers was struggling with. I really enjoyed researching sustainable facilities, because in the end, it really paid off when we were putting things together. I learnt about some scientific methods towards creating a sustainable way of life. Overall, I loved the in and out’s of this Project Utopia experience. It was a hard ride sometimes, but we had an incredible product we were proud with in the end. Our guests loved our ideas, and we were a successful group.
