KEY STAGE 3 GEOGRAPHY
Planning a sustainable community
Enquiry question: Is East Village a good model for sustainable communities in the future?
Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
- The London 2012 Olympics were planned to be ‘the most sustainable Games ever’
- East Village was built as the largest, sustainable new development in the UK
- There are 2,800 homes, from one to four-bedroom, half at market rent and half affordable
- People living in East Village are encouraged to use sustainable forms of transport
Geographical skills
- Annotate sustainable building features on a photo
- Sustainable community assessment
- Questionnaire about sustainability
- Land use mapping
Pre-visit recommendation
Students study the Egan Wheel as a model for sustainable communities. They carry out a sustainable community assessment in their own community as a trial run for East Village.
Resources
Sheet 1: The Egan Wheel
Sheet 2: Sustainable community assessment 1
Introduction
Meet at Stratford International Station. East Village was built for the 2012 Olympics and was designed to have a legacy as a new residential community. It claims to be the largest sustainable, new development in the UK. Ask students what features they would expect to see in a sustainable community. How sustainable do they think their own community is?
Resources
None required
Fieldwork
Location 1: Olympic Park Visit the Walk via Westfield to the Olympic Park. Point out sustainable features of venues such as the Olympic stadium. Also mention the Energy Centre. Students annotate sustainable features on photos of Aquatic Centre +/or Velodrome.
Location 2: Olympic Rings Walk to Olympic Rings to give students an overview of the Park. They draw an annotated sketch of the Park to highlight sustainable features such as stadium, energy centre, biodiversity, natural river valley.
Location 3: East Village Give students an overview of East Village. Walk around the village, noting features such as Chobham Academy, Mirabelle Gardens and Victory Park. Model with students how to map land use in one zone of the village. Students continue to map land use for the rest of the Village.
Location 4: Victory Park Students work in pairs to carry out a questionnaire with residents in the public realm around Victory Park. Students carry out a sustainable community assessment for East Village, based on observations and questionnaire responses.
Resources
Sheet 3: Olympic Park map
Sheet 4: Aquatic Centre photo
Sheet 5: Velodrome photo
Sheet 6: East Village land use map
Sheet 7: East Village sustainability questionnaire
Sheet 8: Sustainable community assessment 2
Plenary
Students share conclusions from their sustainable community assessment and questionnaires. They describe the land use pattern and how this is related to sustainability. How does sustainability in East Village compare to their own community? To what extent is East Village a good model for future sustainable communities? What lessons can be learnt about how to, or how not to, plan a sustainable community?
Resources
Sheet 9: Is East Village a sustainable community?
