Earth-in-Material
Start date: Jul 1, 2015,
End date: Jun 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
"Between the Lines. An office of Urban Architecture ltd.", is an Architectural Company and Earthen Architecture Education Center
which was established in March 2010 in Nicosia, Cyprus. The company is oriented towards education, research and development
and building activities regarding earthen and other sustainable building material and has many partners and collaborators at a local
and international level.
The concept of BtL´s activities is based on promoting self building, community involvement, and rediscovery of values from
vernacular architectural tradition for use in contemporary sustainable construction. The target groups of BtL are non experienced
people such as children in primary and secondary education, university students, engineers and other building professionals with no
previous experience in earth building techniques and construction, locals and foreigners.
Earthen building is important for the strategic development plan of the company, as the interest and demand for this area is
expected to grow in Cyprus in the near future. With this proposed project, BtL is interested in improving its Earthen Architecture
Educational Center as to be able to compete in the continuously raising interest for Cypriot earthen architecture and building by
both locals and foreigners. Through this project, the increase of quality of the educational activities of BtL's Earthen Architecture
Educational Center will also open new job opportunities for professionals in sustainable building education.
Our staff needs to be prepared and improve their competences in education, administration and management as to upgrade BtL´s
Earthen Architecture Education Center. BtL is planning mobilities to partners in Germany, Spain, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia (with experience in outcome orientated teaching and assessing ECVET learning outcomes) which have been collaborating within the ECVET Earth Building network in previous Leonardo projects.
The two groups of participants in this project are a)The earth building educators and course developers who need to improve
educational methodologies and activities in teaching sustainable building to a large age range, and b)The administrative staff of BtL
who need to gain experience and improve setting up of educational programs, designing of courses for sustainable building, and
administration and management strategies along with marketing techniques and innovative dissemination activities for earthen building education.
We believe this project will create a culture of equity (i.e. of gender) and learning in our organization and establish BtL as a high
quality Earthen Building Educational Center. As ECVET certificates in earthen building and ECVET learning outcome orientated
trainings will form an integral part of our offered educational programs for adult education, this will establish the ECVET system in
the Cypriot earth building market. This will also improve the level of earth building expertise in Cyprus, attracting locals and
foreigners to participate in educational programs, a way to also enriching other markets such as educational and scientific tourism.
The dissemination of the results and acquired knowledge of this project is planned to be done through the Internet, printed material
and direct contact with collaborators, local and international professional networks and clients of the company.
This project will potentially, benefit earthen building in Europe on a long term and promote the movement of people, attitudes and
behaviors around sustainable building and development.