Start date: September 2010

Learning Mode
Part-time taught (over two years) or distance learning (over two-three years)

Course aims
The aim of the course is to provide graduates from a wide range of backgrounds and educational experience with multidisciplinary knowledge and skills in aspects of ecologically sound settlement design.

This will vary from planning and community themes to construction and building performance issues. There will be specific focus on tailoring the course for an individual’s interests through a framework of optional modules within a wider worldview approach.

MSc Course structure 
The MSc in Sustainable Community Design course structure consists of two mandatory modules in each Semester in Year 1:

Semester 1 - Environmental Studies and Sustainability in Civil Engineering
Semester 2 – Ecovillage Practice and Community Design Practice (taught by Findhorn College staff during a 3-week residential at the Findhorn ecovillage)

In Year 2, Semester 1, the course consists of one mandatory module (Low Carbon Buildings) and one option from the following list:

• Behavioural Studies
• Environmental Hydrology & Water Resources
• People & Organisational Management in the Built Environment 
• Property Law and Planning In Practice
• Ventilation & Air Conditioning
• Urban Drainage Design and Analysis

In Year 2, Semester 2, two options are taken from the following list:

• Building Energy Management 
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Lighting & Architecture
• Real Estate Development
• Space Planning and Management
• Sustainable and Intelligent Buildings
• Water and Wastewater Treatment

Findhorn module details

Students will gain first hand experience of various aspects of the Findhorn Ecovillage as a community-scale experiment in sustainable living in practice.

The three-week residential intensive at the Findhorn ecovillage contains two sub-modules:

Ecovillage Practice

During the first 10 days students will be introduced to ecological and carbon footprinting, and study the Findhorn ecovillage as the community with the lowest recorded ecological footprint in the developed world. In addition to a general introduction to the Findhorn ecovillage community and its history, students will gain first hand experience of integrated community design and applications of low and zero carbon technologies (LZCT).

A series of presentations and seminars will explore Findhorn’s role within international and national sustainable development (the Moray bioregion, the UNITAR Training Centre CIFAL Findhorn, the Global Ecovillage Network, Gaia Education, the Findhorn College, UN Habitat Best Practice Award, the work of Findhorn-based consultancy services).

The programme will facilitate increased cohesion and collaboration among the students in the MSc cohort through community building exercises and group work. It will include a tour of and introduction to the Findhorn community owned windpark (technical, legal, economic, and social aspects), the community owned living machine and other ecological sewage treatment options, and ecovillage infrastructure in general with its diverse examples of zero and low-carbon housing.

The ecovillage offers many examples of low and zero carbon technologies (passive solar, PV, ground-source heat pumps, CHP, woodchip and pellets, hyper-insulation, etc). The course will introduce methods for facilitating community participation and transdisciplinary collaboration (brief introduction to NVC, process work, conflict resolution, community visioning & design charrettes, decision-making processes, etc).

Participation in community activities will offer students a unique learning environment within the Findhorn ecovillage as a long-running socio-ecological experiment in applied sustainability.

Community Design Practice

Mornings will be spent in lectures and tutorials to explore various sets of sustainable design principles (ecological design, deep design, permaculture design, design for sustainability). Zero Carbon Housing standards will be reviewed and (present and future legislation and trends) and students given first hand experience of integrated community design and applications of low and zero carbon technologies (LZCT). A whole systems approach will be introduced through a more detailed investigation of the four dimensions of integrated sustainable community design (social, ecological, economic, and worldview). This approach will explore how synergies and interconnections between these dimensions can be designed-in and facilitated.

The course will improve collaborative skills among the students in the MSc cohort through community building exercises and group design challenges. It will engage students in a community based future state visioning exercise and team-based exercises in integrated community design, and give students access to practitioners in the field (architects, consultants, planners, builders, ecological engineers, renewable energy engineers). A three-day intensive on systems thinking in the context of sustainable community design will introduce students to a range of new design and facilitation tools.

Other topics that will be addressed during this residential intensive include a review of aims and objectives of integrated sustainable community design and zero carbon housing, and practice of their application. Case studies include: Co-housing projects around the world; ecovillages and sustainable community projects around the world; individual low and zero carbon houses at the Findhorn ecovillage (strawbale, timber breathing wall, etc); ecological sewage treatment projects (living machines, feed-back reactors, constructed wetlands, floating restorers, etc), a case study of the “Carbon Neutral Island Project” developed by Alex Walker Associates for HIE Moray; Industrial Ecology ( Exploring the Potential for a Moray Eco-Industrial Park) and more.

As part of the Findhorn College’s whole person learning approach students will have the opportunity to participate in community activities in order to gain a deeper insight into the workings of the Findhorn ecovillage as a laboratory of sustainable community design.

Further information:

Findhorn College college@findhorncollege.org or 01309 690806
Heriot-Watt University http://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/courses/view/327/