Blog writing has given a creative academic outlet this semester and I really leaned into my passions when choosing my blog topics. I enjoyed researching and learning from other blog contributions and when engaging on others posts I chose to challenge myself by taking alternative approaches.
For ‘Liveable Community: Creating a happy life for people’, I choose to be suggestive in how the discussion can be strengthened. It was when writing this comment, I felt it flowed from what is important in the practice I work at, and I was echoing the many constraints of time passed. I realised I had an advantage, and I wanted to challenge myself in my next blog engagement.
When commenting on ‘Child-Friendly Urban Design: A Student Perspective on Pitsikali’ It was almost counter intuitive to argue a topic I feel passionate about, but the outcome was enlightening. The counter argument was explaining why all be it crucial to consider children in the way we design they only make up a small portion of our society. Researching counter arguments pushed me to look beyond my own moral compass and explore the other side of the fence. This is crucial in urban planning and urban design as for each development constraints will need to be mitigated with good reasoning behind it.
It has become evident that I use my workplace experience as a reference point to measure the applicability of a theory. In the future I would like to blog without being centred in a workplace environment and try to be more explorative with my research.Some other challenges I faced being a part-time student was missing out on the study time experiences of blog writing outside of seminars. This is something I wish to collaborate over and maybe even write a blog with one of my peers.
Another addition I would have liked to make is to extend my blog on nature-based solutions and make a part two. I felt I had so much to say about social prescribing and the way it can impact how we deliver projects and engage with the community, and I only skimmed the surface. And, as always proof reading and ensuring all references are correctly cited is a mission I will always be hesitant to endeavour but with more practice it will come with more ease so I am looking forward to the future where it comes as second nature.
To end on a high, when circulating the Newcastle University Urban Design Blog post to my work network, I received positive impact and was an opportunity to knowledge share or remind those of vital schemes in the built environment.
In reflection, I will continue to make detailed notes of my own thoughts during lectures as these became beneficial when producing arguments for my own and others posts and I will commit to making more time to creatively write in the future. The journey so far has been very valuable in recognising my own priorities in Urban Design and I am excited to start semester 2!
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