By the final years of high school, something begins to change. For many students, curiosity gives way to routine. Learning becomes increasingly focused on completing assignments, preparing for exams, and earning grades. The sense of wonder that comes so naturally in childhood (remember that feeling?) can slowly be replaced by simply getting through the next semester. Recent research highlights some of the challenges students face in today's classrooms. According to...
Read MoreBERLIN, POSSIBLY THE GREEN CAPITAL OF EUROPE, is rife with stellar examples of sustainable design and ‘green’ architecture. TGS students enjoyed a brief tour of just some of these sites given by NICHE Berlin, a group that boasts to “show you Berlin’s art and architecture off the beaten track”.
NICHE Berlin writes in their portfolio:
Berlin’s architectural landscape is unique. Its distinctive character was shaped especially in the last decades when the city went from being a beating heart of industrialization to the destroyed and rebuilt capital it is today. That process is still visible in abandoned sites and vacant spaces. The creative re-contextualisation of these structures leads to an astonishing and intelligent mix of architecture, triggered also by the city’s constant lack of liquidity, which requires inventive, cost- effective solutions and unconventional techniques. This permanent transition makes the capital’s urban layout so distinctive.
Our students were able to see various examples of buildings utilizing innovative energy conservation techniques, a hot topic in this term’s science program. Green architecture is a blossoming industry that will soon become the norm in everyone’s host country, as sustainable development becomes less of a misused commercial label and more of an earnest way of living around the world.
Photography by Lindsay Clark.