Ecovillage Newsletter
Rivergreen is a grassroots project. Its visions, values and design are shaped and influenced by its stakeholders, especially future residents.
Download Newsletter (PDF) - March 09
Download Newsletter (PDF) - November 08
Revised Office Hours
Rivergreen's office/presentation centre will now be open Tuesday through Friday from 10-4. The location of the office is 114 - 120 Sonnenschein Way, but the street level door is on the 400 block of Avenue B South on the southwest corner of the IDEAS/Farmers' Market building. We are also available at other times by appointment. Call 652-3268. Also, you may want to call before you come as we occasionally have to pop out for meetings.
Rivergreen Ecovillage Office Now Open
Rivergreen has opened a new office/presentation centre at Ideas Inc. at River Landing Phase II. The office is on the southwest corner of the main floor of the building, which is adjacent to the Saskatoon FarmersÕ Market.
The street and postal address is 114 Ð 120 Sonnenschein Way, Saskatoon S7M 1M8. (The office entrance is actually on the 400 block of Avenue B S.) Our office phone number is 652-3268.
Current office hours are 10-4 weekdays, or by appointment.
Results of Ecovillage Design Charrette Now Available
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation held a three-day design charrette for the Rivergreen Ecovillage from April 14-16, 2008. The charrette involved a team of 28 design professionals and resource persons, as well as representatives of PEDCO, potential residents and the larger community.
The purpose of the charrette process, which involved more than 100 people in open consultations in February, March and April, was to consult the community about the design of the ecovillage. Input from this process was formulated in a design brief that guided the design team.
Raw results of the charrette were presented to the public on April 16. A 60-page summary report (11M) produced following the charrette is now available for downloading in PDF format. (Downloading will take several minutes due to the size of the document.)
Based on this document, the Rivergreen integrated design team is continuing to develop a detailed design, with complete floor plans.
Arrangements for marketing residential and commercial space are now close to completion. Announcement of the marketing plan, including the opening of a sales centre, will be made in the near future.
Design Charrette Underway - Evenings Open To All Stakeholders
The design brief for the Rivergreen Ecovillage charrette is now available on line. The brief provides a set of parametres for the 29-person team creating the inital design for the ecovillage.
You are welocme to attend the following portions of the Rivergreen Design Charrette:
Mid-course Review - 7:00 pm Ð 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 15
Presentation of Results - 7:00 pm Ð 9:00 pm, Wednesday April 16, 2008
Location: Da Vinci Room, Radisson Hotel, 405 20th Street, Saskatoon
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation, developer of the Rivergreen Ecovillage at River Landing, will be holding a design charrette April 14-16, 2008. The charrette will create the initial design for the ecovillage, which will then be completed by the project team.
The charrette will include design professionals and resource persons, as well as representatives of PEDCO, residents and the community.
Two opportunities will be available for interested stakeholders to have input into the charrette. PEDCO welcomes your participation:
- The mid-course review is an opportunity for a broader group of stakeholders to give input to the emerging design concepts. It is timed for the halfway mark of the charrette, in order to ensure that there is enough material to convey the initial concepts, but enough time to allow for incorporation of input received. While the material presented at the mid-course review will still be sketchy and diagrammatic, it will clearly identify the status of core strategies and design measures being considered.
- The presentation at the end of the charrette is a presentation of the raw results -- the drawings that have only been completed a short time before. It is an opportunity for stakeholders and concerned citizens to be introduced to the consensus that was achieved over the preceding days, and to once again provide vital feedback and input. The design of the site will be communicated through a range of drawings, text and numbers, and thoughts about next steps will be passed on.
For information please call 978-4797 or 230-6750.
PEDCO appreciates the generous support of
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.
Register Now for Design Strategies Workshop
You are invited to attend the second workshop in the Rivergreen
Ecovillage design charrette process, to be held March 6, 2008.
Registration is limited to 75 and pre-registration is required.
Prairie
Ecovillage Development Corporation (PEDCO) has initiated the design
charrette process for the Rivergreen Ecovillage to provides a mechanism
through which a stakeholder group can participate in the planning and
design activities for Rivergreen.
The process is being
facilitated by Elisa Campbell, Director, Design Centre for
Sustainability, University of British Columbia and is funded through
the generous support of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Our
process includes two workshops that precede the main design event in
April, an intensive three-day charrette that will be limited to a
smaller design team.
Sixty-five people attended the goal setting
workshop on February 20. The design strategies workshop will be held
Thursday, March 6 from 7:00 - 9:30 pm in Michelangelo A at the Radisson
Hotel, 405 20th St E. At this workshop, participants will collaborate
to identify the design strategies that will help to achieve the
priority goals identified in Workshop 1. Input from the two workshops
will contribute to a design brief that will be used at the intensive
design charrette in April.
Participation in the second
preparatory workshop is limited to 75. There is no cost to attend. We
invite you to register for the workshop on March 6 as soon as possible
at https://www.picatic.com/ticket/event22197
(Please set ticket counter at 1 before clicking purchase.)
For further information please contact Paul Hanley at 978-4797 or Rick Olmstead at 230-6750, email pedco@prairie-ecovillage.org.
Register for Rivergreen Goal Setting Workshop
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation (PEDCO) is initiating a design charrette process for the Rivergreen Ecovillage. This process provides a mechanism through which a broad stakeholder group can participate in the planning and design activities for Rivergreen.
The process will be facilitated by Elisa Campbell, Director, Design Centre for Sustainability, University of British Columbia and is funded through the generous support of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Our process includes two workshops that precede a main design event (an intensive three-day charrette that will be limited to a smaller design team.) These workshops provide a way to engage a broader stakeholder group in defining priority goals and targets for the Rivergreen Ecovillage. The priority goals and targets that result from the workshops become key ingredients of the design brief that guides the charrette. The net result is that the eventual design reflects the input of a broader group of participants.
Your participation in the following workshops would be greatly appreciated.
A goal-setting workshop, to be held Wednesday, February 20 from 7:00 - 9:30 pm in Michelangelo A at the Radisson Hotel, 405 20th St E, involves participants in a conversation about what the priority goals for the Rivergreen Ecovillage development should be. A set of possible goals is provided from a broad range of sustainability themes. The potential goals are drawn from existing vision and policy, current decisions and directions, and best practices information. The participant group prioritizes these goals, resulting in a concise set of goals that will drive the planning and design process as it moves forward.
A second target-setting workshop, to be held Thursday, March 6 from 7:00 Ð 9:30 pm at the Radisson, asks participants to identify quantitative performance measures that should be achieved for each goal. The idea here is to increase the specificity of information that is given to the design team in terms of what the project should achieve. A range of possible performance numbers are given to the participant group for each priority goal, again drawn from existing performance data, current directions, and best practice information. The intent of the workshop is to have participants clearly specify the desired range of performance for Rivergreen.
The intensive design charrette will follow in April and will be limited to the actual design team.
Participation in the two preparatory workshops is limited to 125. There is no cost to attend. We invite you to register for the first workshop on February 20 as soon as possible at https://www.picatic.com/ticket/event13197/index.php.
You will be notified of registration information for the second workshop in the coming weeks.
For further information please contact Paul Hanley at 978-4797 or Rick Olmstead at 230-6750, email pedco@prairie-ecovillage.org, or visit www.prairie-ecovillage.org.
PEDCO Launches Design Charrette Process for Rivergreen Ecovillage
Although 40 people had registered, 80 crowded into the Picasso Room at Saskatoon’s Radisson Hotel on January 23rd for a presentation on design charrettes.
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation (PEDCO) sponsored the presentation by Elisa Campbell, Director of the Design Centre for Sustainability, School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of British Columbia. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce PEDCO members and the community to the principles and processes of design charrettes.
PEDCO will launch a design charrette process over the next three months to seek input from stakeholders into the design of Rivergreen Ecovillage, to be built at River Landing Phase 2. By the end of this process in mid-April, a visual, conceptual design will be complete, to be fleshed out in the following months by Rivergreen architects Rajani Blaser Mannix Architecture.
Elisa Campbell’s talk focused on the charrette processes itself; what it is, the key attributes for success and why these attributes make a charrette an ideal tool for sustainable project design. Case studies demonstrated how successful charrettes produce outstanding sustainable projects. The event provided a unique opportunity to learn more about charrettes and sustainable design, and to meet Elisa, who answered questions following her presentation.
Elisa was in Saskatoon to participate in planning meetings for the upcoming Rivergreen charrette, which she will facilitate. Also attending the meeting was Shawn Dolan of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which will be co-sponsoring the charrette. To learn more about the Rivergreen project go to www.rivergreen.ca.