2024 Earth Day Workshops & Fellow Talk
April 20, 2024
Free Workshops
10am–3pm
Colonels Row
Fellow Talk
5pm–6pm
@The Block House
For Earth Day 2024, the IPA partnered with Governors Island to celebrate with free educational activities and workshops for all ages, guided nature walking tours, and volunteer stewardship projects. The IPA hosted workshops in Colonels Row and welcomed Kaja Kühl, Principal of youarethecity and IPA 2014 Fellow, for her Fellow Talk: Buildings As Carbon Sinks.
In this talk, Kühl presented an alternative approach in which buildings can act as carbon sinks, storing thousands of tons of CO2 within their walls as emissions from buildings are reaching an all-time high. Based on recent research and built projects using hemp lime, she discussed the potential of bio-based materials to radically rethink construction methods and materials towards regenerative and circular building practices.
Workshop Schedule:
Time: 10am–10:30am
Check-In for volunteering
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Project signups are on a first come, first served basis. ︎︎︎ More Info
Time: 10:30am–12:30pm
Finding Nature Focus Group, volunteering opportunity
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Volunteers will help an IPA Fellow design and test their upcoming interactive children's book through a hand-on guided scavenger hunt. Participants will interact, locate, give thanks, collect and reflect on the natural landscape of Governors Island.
Time: 1pm–3pm
Material PLAY, workshop
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Participants will learn to design like an architect by creating their own bio-materials and play models with found natural elements.
Time: 5pm–6pm
Buildings As Carbon Sinks, Fellow Talk
Meeting Location: Block House (9 Nolan Park)
Kaja Kühl, Principal of youarethecity and IPA 2014 Fellow, will present recent research and built projects using hemp lime, discussing the potential of bio-based materials to radically rethink construction methods and materials towards regenerative and circular building practices.
In this talk, Kühl presented an alternative approach in which buildings can act as carbon sinks, storing thousands of tons of CO2 within their walls as emissions from buildings are reaching an all-time high. Based on recent research and built projects using hemp lime, she discussed the potential of bio-based materials to radically rethink construction methods and materials towards regenerative and circular building practices.
Workshop Schedule:
Time: 10am–10:30am
Check-In for volunteering
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Project signups are on a first come, first served basis. ︎︎︎ More Info
Time: 10:30am–12:30pm
Finding Nature Focus Group, volunteering opportunity
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Volunteers will help an IPA Fellow design and test their upcoming interactive children's book through a hand-on guided scavenger hunt. Participants will interact, locate, give thanks, collect and reflect on the natural landscape of Governors Island.
Time: 1pm–3pm
Material PLAY, workshop
Meeting Location: Colonels Row
Participants will learn to design like an architect by creating their own bio-materials and play models with found natural elements.
Time: 5pm–6pm
Buildings As Carbon Sinks, Fellow Talk
Meeting Location: Block House (9 Nolan Park)
Kaja Kühl, Principal of youarethecity and IPA 2014 Fellow, will present recent research and built projects using hemp lime, discussing the potential of bio-based materials to radically rethink construction methods and materials towards regenerative and circular building practices.
Kaja Kühl is an urban designer and the principal of youarethecity, a research and design practice based in Brooklyn NY. She has extensive architecture, urban design and planning experience from large-scale urban systems and policies to civic engagement and circular material practices. Her design work and writing have appeared in Dezeen, Oculus, Landscape Architect Magazine, Volume, AD, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Center for Architecture and Urban Omnibus.
Kaja is a passionate educator and teaches seminars and design studios at Columbia University and the City College of New York in addition to frequent workshops in non-institutional settings.
Her work and teaching focuses on civic engagement and design for a regenerative, low-carbon built environment.
Kaja received a Diploma in Architecture from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and a M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University. She was a 2014 Fellow with the Institute for Public Architecture.
Kaja is a passionate educator and teaches seminars and design studios at Columbia University and the City College of New York in addition to frequent workshops in non-institutional settings.
Her work and teaching focuses on civic engagement and design for a regenerative, low-carbon built environment.
Kaja received a Diploma in Architecture from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and a M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University. She was a 2014 Fellow with the Institute for Public Architecture.
