One may like to think that the world’s problems are far away from home. This is not always the case, though, as one of the most polluted rivers in the nation, the Elizabeth River, is located right here in Virginia, Assoc. Architecture Prof. Phoebe Crisman said.
Crisman and her students took on the challenge of helping turn the river around in spring 2007.
The Elizabeth River is home to fish and other wildlife sick with cancer, Crisman said, and the area retains few wetlands. Local activists devoted to revitalizing it, meanwhile, are hampered by an inability to access the land surrounding the Elizabeth. Residents are removed from the severity of its problems because the U.S. military and local industries use much of the river’s shoreline and it is impossible for the public to reach it.
In January 2006, though, Crisman conceived the idea of creating an eco-friendly boat to help access the polluted area.
“Since we couldn’t find a piece of land, how about using a barge?” she said. “That’s where the idea of the floating classroom came in. If we couldn’t get people to the shoreline, why not bring them to the river on a barge?”
One year after thinking of the idea, Crisman and her students began constructing the Learning Barge, a facility for environmental education that would float on the Elizabeth River. It is one of several projects the University is currently engaged in with the Elizabeth River Project, an independent non-profit organization based in Portsmouth, Va. Crisman said the project seeks to bring awareness and change to the river for which it is named.
“The Learning Barge as an idea grew out of another research initiative with the Elizabeth River Project,” she said. “I was working on a 330-acre sustainable revitalization plan and part of what we were interested in was education.”
Education on the barge moves University students away from learning in a passive environment and allows for a more active hands-on approach to learning about the environment, Crisman said.
The University’s Architecture students have been working on the barge for several semesters now, and a group of students will help complete its construction this summer so it can be launched in August.
“It is really cool to have to think through how something is built ... having to think about the actual making of something that is not a model. It has made me a lot more aware of the implications of design decisions,” first-year Architecture graduate student Daphne Lasky said. Second-year Architecture graduate student Clarice Zusky said the best part of the project thus far was being able to take smaller items — like signs from a scrap center — and turn them into usable materials for the barge.
When completed, the Learning Barge will house wetland basins that visitors can add to by planting small wetlands plants and pumping the water used to sustain them. Once the plants have grown, students and other visitors will then replant them in one of the river’s surrounding natural wetlands, helping replace lost vegetation.
The goal of this initiative is to educate people about restoring the wetlands and to contribute to the Elizabeth River Project wetlands restoration ventures. Crisman has worked with local Hampton Roads teachers to come up with a classroom curriculum to go hand-in-hand with what students will learn on the barge.
On a larger scale, the Learning Barge will educate people about the uses of sustainable energy and other eco-friendly practices. Wind and sun will be entirely responsible for powering the floating barge. The barge also will feature composting toilets, so that all waste is properly managed.
“I think it’s a good idea because it gives kids and whoever uses it a sense of environmental responsibility and instills a sense of stewardship,” second-year Architecture student Brian Hill said.
Crisman said the Learning Barge will have two systems for collecting and purifying water: one for fresh rainwater and one for salty river water. The freshwater system will collect rain that falls on the roof and send the water through a filter. Afterward, the water will be held in tanks in the hull of the barge until it is manually pumped for use on the barge. Manually pumping the water for the sinks on the barge will allow visitors to physically see how much water is used during everyday activities like washing their hands.
Once the water leaves the sinks, it will water plants in the wetland basins on the barge and then be filtered by the plants; the water will flow into the river cleaner than when it fell from the sky. Water testing should demonstrate how wetlands naturally purify water, and also help emphasize why restoring the wetlands along a river is so important, Crisman said. Salt water also will be pumped from the river, filtered and then pumped back into the river after more water testing.
The Learning Barge has received grants and awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, Virginia Environmental Endowment, the Norfolk Southern Foundation and the American Institute of Architects, among others. The Elizabeth River Project will own and manage the barge, though the University plans to maintain student involvement through summer fellowship programs.
Crisman said she believes projects like the Learning Barge are especially important because of their potential to impact local areas.
“We have students going to Ghana and all over the world, but we have huge environmental issues right here at home,” Crisman said.
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