Kiwi Community Designer Off To Japan

Kiwi Community Designer Off To Japan

Media Release from the Embassy of Japan, Wellington, New Zealand
5 July 2010

Amy Young, a landscape architect and planner from Dunedin, is heading to Japan this week to represent New Zealand at a “Community Design Through Culture” exchange.

Amy was selected as one of twenty-five community leaders from East-Asia, Australia and New Zealand to spend two weeks discussing preservation and community development through cultural properties and landscapes.

Amy works for the Dunedin City Council and hopes to utilize knowledge gained in Japan upon her return.

“I hope this course will provide practical examples of how a city’s natural and cultural assets can be promoted without compromising their ongoing sustainability. It would be great to incorporate information gained in Japan to influence sustainable community design in New Zealand.”

Amy arrives in Tokyo on 8 July and begins by presenting New Zealand’s country report to the other participants.

Participants will then travel to eight sites around Japan to examine the relationship between cultural properties and the natural environment. Highlights include the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, wooden eco-houses in Takayama, and the World Heritage site in Shirakawa.

The all-expenses-paid “Community Design Through Culture”exchange is funded by the Japanese Government and is part of the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange of Students and Youth (JENESYS) Programme. JENESYS has a budget of NZ$315 million and will invite approximately 6,000 youths to Japan over a five year period. Information about future programmes is available from the Embassy of Japan in Wellington.

ENDS