Guest lecturers crossed the country to discuss green design with UNM students, faculty and community members this weekend.
The School of Architecture and Planning presented "The Benefits of Green Design," a symposium centered on Aldo Leopold's "land ethic" and its use in architecture and planning.
Leopold championed an ecological approach to land development, contrary to the economic and utilitarian attitude of his day. A section of Gila National Forest in southern New Mexico is named for him.
UNM graduate student Valerie Hermanson said she learned a lot at the symposium. She particularly appreciated Leopold's "land ethic," she said.
"I'm kind of overstimulated, but one of the things that really stuck out to me that I'm really walking away with is awareness," she said. "One thing Aldo Leopold teaches is that people kind of look at the world as if we are conquerors of the world, when really we're just members of the world."
The symposium focused on Earth-friendly design and the need to see architecture and planning as part of an ecosystem and community.
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Students and professors presented sustainable design concepts they developed, and a group of panelists discussed ethical and technical aspects of green design.
Carolina Mead, a student in the School of Architecture, said studying ecology was necessary for her field.
"Architecture doesn't go far enough," she said. "It stays with the building, and I really wanted to understand what the larger context of what we intend to do with the building is."
Mead said she appreciated the "acute sense of care" the lecturers put into their projects and the information they presented.
Moanna Wright, a UNM student who presented at the symposium, studies food system planning and urban farming.
Wright said she agreed with Leopold's message of working as a part of nature instead of apart from it.
"The integrated systems that Leopold speaks of in his 'land ethic' and the Sand County Almanac are essential to every level of academia," she said. "Sustainability is necessary to be promoted in the way that all of us behave on a daily basis."
Tawny Allen, a recent master's graduate in landscape architecture, traveled from California to give a presentation on "The Ecological Footprint of an Albuquerque Neighborhood."
Allen's presentation focused on an area in northwest Albuquerque and projected a plan for ecological sustainability through the use of underutilized land for urban grazing, neighborhood crop production and solar energy panels.
Allen said she sees local sustainability as necessary and attainable.
"For me, none of it is new. It's just a matter of drudging up the same information and presenting it for us and our generation," she said. "And the fact that we're going to be presented with more of these issues - given the economy, given all the world chaos - it's great to rehash."
Allen said she enjoyed hearing well-known information discussed in the context of Leopold's "land ethic" during the weekend's symposium.
"I really love how it all ties back. Everyone's aware," she said. "Nothing's new. None of the technology is all that new. None of the concept of connection to the land, the fact that it's tied back to the Aldo Leopold mission."
