Daylight as a boundary mechanism in intercultural transdisciplinary design: The Green Health project

DLA Annual Conference 2024
Parallel session F

Friday, 31 May 2024
from 10:00 to 11:30

Lead
Dr Mónica Berger, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala
Dr Hubert Klumpner, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Description
A DLA meeting last year provided a platform for architects, anthropologists and biologists to initiate plans for a collaboration towards the Green Health project (GH), based in Guatemala and supported by several European Universities. The GH project is proposed as an intercultural transdisciplinary process that will work in developing solutions at the interface of SDG 3 (health) and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) through dialogues between several disciplinary experts and indigenous communities, ultimately transforming ideas into actions that will culminate in the setting up of the Mesoamerican Institute of Indigenous Ethnomedicine (MIIE).

The MIEE aims to include structural designs based on modern and Maya science that can incorporate daylight for human and medicinal plant species to thrive together in shared indoor and outdoor spaces, creating novel approaches to develop botanical gardens, seed banks, solar driers, living medicinal walls, etc. We propose to use daylight as a ‘boundary object’ to facilitate dialogues across cultures. This should lead to knowledge co-production between the designing of symbiotic environments as understood by the traditional knowledge of the Maya – where sunlight and plants play a key role – with those of modern science and architectural design.

In this workshop, we invite you to help us critically analyze the focus and methods we propose for carry out this transdisciplinary process. We invite you to bring in your expertise and assist in co-defining the guiding questions using sunlight as a boundary mechanism for mutual learning. There is also the option of potentially becoming involved with our project in the long-term.

Objectives

  • Present the general design of the Green Health project as applied transdisciplinary research in order to receive feedback for improving interdisciplinary collaborations and intercultural exchange
  • Co-design guiding questions relevant to architecture, biology, medicine, anthropology, ecology and psychology using daylight as a boundary mechanism
  • Critically analyze pathways for contributions to SDG 3 and SDG 11 in larger societal contexts.