~ Process of the Project ~
🍎The Giver ~
The first part of the process that relates to Project Utopia was actually the novel we read in class. This book helped us all to understand what a ‘Utopia’ is and is not. The book was a very important part of the process and gave us all a great foundation for this project.
🌏Liveability ~
Liveability was one of the main topics we learnt about in geography during our HASS lessons in term 2, which was one of the most important factors that assisted our redesigning of the Fremantle port. Learning about and understanding liveability helped us develop many ideas to improve liveability within our vision boards, maps and the scale design. In these lessons we learnt about what liveability is, how to measure liveability and how to improve liveability. For a city to be good, it has to be liveable. By understanding these 3 factors we were easily able to create the perfect redesign for the Fremantle port space.
🌊Fremantle Port ~
Another important component to this project was visiting the Fremantle port itself and figuring out what the current landscape and issues which helped picture the project on a real scale. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this part of the journey, however it was a great way to observe the area to help the scale maps.
💡Brainstorming ~
After the trip to the port, people were separated into their excursion groups to do a big brainstorm for topics critical to out plan such as renewable energy, recreation, sustainability, green spaces etc. This was the start to creating our vision boards as well. Undertaking this activity required communication and collaboration, skills that each group member had utilise to create the perfect and collaborative brainstorm of ideas to be used in the future.
🌼Vision Boards ~
After being assigned different groups, each group worked together to create the perfect vision board, incorporating all of our group’s ideas onto one board. On each vision board, there was typically a few broad headings for key components of the project, with all the ideas relating to that topic underneath or around the heading. Common headings include sustainability, fun and recreation, accessibility and more. Every person in the group had equal responsibilities within the making of this vision board and even though our class’s vision boards were very last minute, most of us managed to complete it off by giving up our free time to help work on the project.
🏦Scale Model and Co-space~
After the vision boards were complete, the class was separated into 2 groups. One group of people would work on the co-spaces and the other group would work on the scale model. One co-space or more were created for each part of the scale model. For example, the section in the photo is the section my small speech group had responsibility for. We had one co-space to represent some of our ideas, floating wind farms in this case. In co-space, people created things with the materials they offer instead of using already built things to be more creative. The model group used things like hard foam to create building, fake grass for the greenspace, blue silk to represent the water, thinly cut black strips of paper for bike paths and more.
👩🏫Speeches~
Once the scale model was completed, the sections were split between multiple groups. Each person in the group presented a short 1 to 2-minute speech on some of the key features in that section. For example, I talked about floating wind farms, Ava discussed fun and recreation and Mackenzie was talked about the night markets and the retail spaces and opportunities in the area. Once the speeches were complete, we presented them to all the parents who came to listen.
🌱Reflection~
After the whole process and the journey was complete, everyone now had to reflect on what we had done, how we had done it and more. Reflecting back on our work is a very important part of a project, it can help us highlight problems in the process and what we did wrong, things we could improve and what we did well. Reflecting can also help us better plan for future projects.
~ Capabilities ~
Multiple capabilities were used during the process of developing Project Utopia. There were many used by everyone in the class, however the main ones are taking initiative and being resilient, creativity, problem solving, effective communication, collaboration and cooperation and organisation. Without the ability to use these skills, completing Project Utopia would have been a very big challenge.
💎Taking Initiative and being Resilient~
Taking initiative meansthinking proactively about tasks and being independent by not waiting for others or waiting to be told. Being resilient means the ability to bounce back from setbacks. We are resilient when we bounce back from stress, adversity, change, hardship, challenge, or difficulty. When a problem occurs in the process of this project, we must not just give up, we must find a way to fix the problem and improve the situation. These capabilities were very important when it came to Project utopia.
✨Creativity ~
Creativity is one of the most important skills to have in a project like this. Developing our own unique and innovative ideas for the new port instead of using someone else’s idea is key to a good outcome or result. Creativity comes from our imaginations and using it in this project was sure to get good marks.
📔Problem Solving ~
Problem solving is the process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. Problem solving also relates to resilience. For example, if a problem occurs you must be resilient, and problem solve. When things seem to go downhill, problem solving is key getting things back on track.
🗣Effective Communication ~
Effective communication is another one of the most important skills to have and use during a project like ‘Project Utopia’. Without being able to effectively communicate with your peers you won’t understand anything and people will feel that their opinions are not valid! By being able to communicate effectively you can listen to others, incorporate their ideas, and end up with a wonderful outcome, where everyone feels respected, and difficulties can be overcome. Effective communication can also help with building and making new relationships so it’s kind of a win for both sides!
🍄Collaboration and Cooperation~
Collaboration and cooperation. This can sometimes be very difficult for some people but is a key component of a successful project. It doesn’t matter who you’re working with, collaboration and cooperation is a wonderful skill to have during projects such as Project Utopia. This was skill we all utilised from discussing ideas in a brainstorming session, to creating a vision board with a couple of people and creating a complete scale model with half the class, all whilst trying to include everyone’s wonderful ideas which is a great achievement.
📜Organisation ~
Not being organised in a massive project like this one will definitely result in problems. Things could get lost, misplaced which can lead to more problems. That is why organisation and having a clear plan and direction is key to the success of any project. Personally, I think that my class was pretty organised, our model ended up being very good, although I thought the vision boards could have been more detailed to better demonstrate our plan.