Mayfield Project 2018
The 2018 Mayfield Project group considered the Sydney conference themes of Reflection, Relevance and Revolution. The team of 11 researchers journeyed into the world of current learning practices, starting with a reflection on the current state of how learners, whoever they may be, learn.
These research findings from all over the region were critiqued, storyboarded, explained, questioned and pulled apart. In this process, the group was not only discovering how learners learn, but how we recognise, understand and analyse learning and where it occurs. For the following eight weeks, the team continued to test and prototype new ideas around learning and the impacts spaces and learning have on each other. Following an intensive and thought-provoking workshop with NoTosh, the group created a new model for interweaving curiosity into the community, through learning and its spaces.
The 11 participants of the project are:
• Alex Raynes-Goldie, Senior Policy Officer, Building Management & Works, Department of Finance, WA
• Amy Fitzpatrick, Architect, CHC Architects, Vic
• Averil Moore, Architectural Graduate, Jasmax, NZ
• Greg Irvine, School Property Advisor, Ministry of Education, NZ
• Hayley Russell, Department of Education, Future Learning Unit, NSW
• Joshua Pacek, Teacher / Innovation & Learning Design Leader, Bethany Lutheran Primary, Qld
• Kasia Podrygajlo, Architect, JDH Architects, NSW
• Kathy Giordamnis, Resource Analyst, Department of Education & Training, Vic
• Michelle Male, Architect, JPE Design Studio, SA
• Rebecca McDonald, Landscape Architect, Greenedge Design Consultants, Qld
• Sean O’Dea, Architect, Broderick Architects, WA
Their presentation to the conference is available here
Published Research
The group’s research findings and outcomes have been published in a downloadable PDF. This PDF is free for all LEA members, while non-members can purchase it via our online store for AU$25.
A quick thanks
A project like this does not happen on its own. For the last two programmes we have been very grateful to have NoTosh involved to facilitate our springboard workshop sessions. As anyone who has been through a NoTosh session will know, this process of expanding and contracting your thinking, assumptions and beliefs is a life-changing one and one I know everyone learnt a lot from. So thank you to NoTosh for once again bringing our Mayfielders on an expansive journey of discovery.
Thank you also to Lisa Horton, Fiona Young and Bella Bower, all part of our committed Mayfield alumni who helped in the early days of bringing this year’s project to life. This year we were very fortunate to have the involvement of JDH Architects in Sydney who kindly handed over their studio and workspace to a dozen strangers over the course of three days to brainstorm, workshop and imagine. In particular, Director Jayne Harrison’s mentorship of the participants over the weekend was invaluable and we really appreciate the time taken to develop the group’s thinking – even if the critique was sometimes towards the confronting end, It was always insightful, helpful and kind.
And finally, thank you to the enthusiastic and dedicated team of Mayfielders we have corralled in to joining the Mayfield Project this year, and to their employers who have encouraged them to participate. From all over Australia and New Zealand, this creatively curious group have taken on the challenges presented by a short-period research programme and ran with them in an extraordinary manner. We hope you have all learnt and grown from this process.
Dani Martin, WA Chapter Chair
Photography: Peter Doddrell, Dani Martin
