Alkistis Stergiani Kartsiou

Last week at Texel was a different week in many ways. It did not only lead to exciting pathways towards a sustainable Texel at 2065 after intensive work in our own bubble, the VerzamelPost , together with our group of 30 people; although our schedule did not include spending much time outdoors, I was lucky enough to experience Dutch nature in a way I had not experienced before. Enjoyment and…

a forecast of the transition to a sustainable personal life on Texel in 2065 (have a look at the video/visuals) a general overview of the sustainable island in 2065, and possible transition pathways (report) an impression of  the development of island tourism 2015-2065 (view the documentary)

Warm sun rays entering from the smart window woke me up this morning. Although the weather outside is cloudy and moody this window simulates sunlight and makes my day! My husband was having a bath. Ohhh! He forgot again to push the button for clarifying the water he used but luckily this takes only 5 minutes, and then totally clean reused water is available! Kids are sitting in the living room…

The first part of our field research was an interview with Pepijn Lijklema, who is involved in a municipality’s project on improving education on Texel. Here we are biking to den Burg!   We met Pepijn and Vivianne at a café in den Burg, where we had a really productive discussion. After introducing ourselves, we shortly described the subject of our ESD research on Texel in general and also as a…

Why do students want to leave? How to make education in the island more attractive? Is ICT the only solution? Why is there a rumour that the highschool will close? Why is the highschool closing: lack of students, economical issues, lack of teachers?  Do we need to redefine our goal or impose a restriction/limit which controls population growth? Do parents trust in online learning as a high

The “teach your own” sub-system differs from the rest of the ST systems. It is both specific and general at the same time, and thus it can affect all of the Texel’s sub systems. This starts from the realization that knowledge is contained or should be contained into all aspects and activities of our lives, let alone into the effort for a sustainable transition. It is a key feature of every socio

Below a summary of 'Teach you own' system is presented. First of all, let us review the three pillars of Borras & Elder applied to our socio-technical system. What drives change?  In Chapter 1 we decribed 'Teach your own' as a socio-technical system and realized that is is a transversal or horizontal subsystem affecting and needed by the rest of them. All the subsystems of 'Texel self-sustained…

A Suspended Particles window - on and off mode. (www.smartglass.com)   Cotemporary technological evolutions are now in service of the raising environmental conscience; new possibilities on daylight control, glare and heat exchange in buildings through dynamically switchable glazing technologies have arisen in order to provide more control on the working and living conditions. For those not…

Talking about sustainable transitions, various factors are highlighted by the relevant literature as keys leading to success. However, through our research experience so far within the context of our future sub system design in Texel, as well as the classroom’s conclusions from the interviews with people related to Texel, there is a particular factor that keeps coming up as a precondition of…

Winter is here and every northern European youngster proud of themselves is dreaming of skiing on white slopes, surrounded by the spectacular mountain terrain and the unspoiled natural sceneries. However, the unsustainable aspect of winter sports is something that we may haven’t thought of before. Due to the climate change and global warming, the water and energy intensive artificial snow

Why change is needed As said in previous section, the current situation is a decreasing amount of true Texelaars that are emotionally connected to Texel and a decrease in higher levels of education followed and work done by Texelaars. In order to get higher education or higher levels of job opportunities, people as of now need to leave the island, leading to less and less ‘Texel identity’. In…

As mentioned in chapter 1, there are multiple problems on Texel that need to be solved. The population is low educated in comparison with the Netherlands, there are few job opportunities, the available jobs doesn't seem to match the quality of the population, the business opportunities are small. All these problem are a result of the lacking educational system. The fundamentals in primary…

In the text Islands at the Periphery, S. Moncada, M. Camilleri, S. Formosa en R. Galea, the focus is on the sustainable development of the EU and how islands are separated from these goals. There are three main problems why all the islands are excluded;  1) restrictive definition of island,  2) peripherality and insularity and  3) the lack of harmonised statistical data on fundamental factors.

Reference [1] introduces the concept of ‘ grassroot innovation’ . A grassroot innovation represents a natural and spontaneous (bottom-up) creation of movement. It differentiates from competitive market-based innovations in four different levels, ranging from organization to driving motivations. Grassroot innovations find strong resistance and difficulties even in surviving. Based on the grassroot…

Innovative technologies and relevant trends As it has been already discussed, technological innovations of our times have favored the development of new educational trends and methods. Online learning has changed the landscape of educational procedures for both students and teachers: scoring tests, grading papers, presenting subjects or giving feedback in an online environment are all totally…

This chapter is the continuation of 1.3, where the future ST sub-system was described. Here, some more details of this system will be covered. How will the technologies be embedded in culture and behaviour? In the future we can imagine the “teach your own” sub-system harmonically integrated to the socio-technical context of Texel. It is easy for Students to be adapted in new technologies; every…

I recently came across the intriguing pictures of a modern residence designed by a famous Japanese architect. Observing the interior spaces and being mostly interested in its architectural qualities, there was no strong evidence of sustainable practices in its design. Simplicity in both the form and in the interior arrangement of spaces, furniture and objects is the backbone of the architectural…

Marvel Comic’s fans are for sure thrilled by the self-healing abilities of the fictional superhero “Wolverine”. This is his secret for his increased lifetime and for ageing in a much slower pace than normal, looking always fresh! To a certain extent though, self-repair is not something new for nature and living organisms. Such regenerating mechanisms, related to an over-lapping sequence of…

Natural presence is what mainly comes to our minds when referring to “presence”, i.e. being physically present in a real environment or, as Nevejan & Brazier (2015) mention, being present with a breathing body and a heart that beats . However, presence has acquired new dimensions nowadays, which are not only related to the previous interpretation. The ever spreading internet and the tsunami of…

Volvox algae colonies: from simple to multicellular cooperative systems in nature   Not much time has passed from the two-week sustainable urban design workshop in Amsterdam in which I participated as a member of the Swat/Building Technology course. Having been assigned with the sustainable redevelopment of one of the most problematic areas in Nieuw West, we came across two opposite design…