The overall Goal of CUBE, a non-profit, is to help children and adults to understand and value the built environment, to think critically about development and design, and to participate and act responsibly in their communities.
Activities
The Center for Understanding the Built Environment (CUBE) specializes in community-based education workshops that bring together educators, kids and community partners to effect change. Using simple materials and examples from the local community, CUBE enables educators and planners to teach people about architecture, community planning, preservation, and participation. CUBE also undertakes research in support of these issues, publishes reports, lesson plans, and curriculum guides, offers workshop facilitation skills, and shares information at national conferences.
Relevant Projects
CUBE’s “architivities” are community-based education activities that help teach students and adults about architecture, design, and preservation. Aside from education, CUBE ensures that architivities link to community outreach programs to reinforce and spread the curriculum. While the projects were started with children, they have been used frequently with adults as well. Several programs and publications are especially relevant to community character:
- Box City. Now a 35-year-old program, the Box City curriculum allows groups to create their own cities from boxes and other household materials, which teaches “how cities are planned, or unplanned; what makes a quality city, and how citizens (yes, kids too!) can participate in the improvement of the built environment.” Used with adults as well as children, the activity can be adapted to focus on any aspect of planning, from occupancy permits and zoning discussions to community character and conflict resolution. The scale is also adaptable; “Box Cities” can be built on a student’s desk, or can fill up an entire gymnasium. Associated activities include “City People, City Stories,” in which students create people to live in the Box City and then tell their stories, and “Grid It, Map It,” which allows students to compare the ways cities are laid out and how planning relates to landscape.
- Community Connections: 10 Things YOU Can Do! Curriculum includes activities to help build community spirit and collaboration. Activities include “Picture This,” “Map the Special Places,” “Speak Out!,” “Make it Home,” and “My Flag for the Future.” In the last example, students examine the flags or crests for their hometowns and then create new versions of their own. They are encouraged to include elements that represent the community to them the most, elements that consider what they would like the future of the community to be, and elements that they value most in the community.
- Heritage Education Analysis. CUBE has recently undertaken a research project to review heritage education in curricula across the country. The report considers specific examples of schools and activities as well as a general overview of the field. A similar analysis could be undertaken for community character education.
Relevant Methodologies
CUBE uses many simple, standard teaching techniques in planning education, which now includes many activities that can be used in community meetings, charettes, and long-term planning processes. Box City utilizes cardboard, scissors, glue and string, which allows people to relax, have fun, and consider planning in a very different frame of mind. Many other activities involve role playing, art, storytelling, and physically exploring a city or town.
Region
National; based in Kansas
More Information
5328 W.67th St.
Prairie Village, KS 66208
913-262-8222 (phone)