Three-levels of a Co-living community

By implementing a three-level urban renewal strategy of shared neighborhood, shared courtyard, and shared building, the scattered and limited spaces in the Fayuan Temple area are organized.A top-down communal living system is established to solve the difficulties of residents' relocation, outdated infrastructure, and the protection and utilization of historical buildings. 

Shared Neighborhood

We analyzed the activity paths of different groups of people in the Fayuansi neighborhoods. The clear functional division of different areas leads to lack of intersection among various groups, which invisibly forms social barriers and is not conducive to long-term development of the city.

In the shared neighborhood, the entire block is taken as a shared space and considered as a whole, with a management center as the core to lead the co-living system. By dispersing the public functions throughout the block, the daily life of the local residents in the block has been transformed into a distinctive experiential tourism product. Overlapping activities are happening in composite physical spaces, which generates continuous energy for the neighborhood.

Shared Courtyard

The current living condition inside the courtyards is barely acceptable. Illegal construction such as kitchens and bathrooms has become a common phenomenon and the importance of public spaces are severely downgraded. There is hardly any public spaces left other than basic transportation space. 

Most of the young generations have moved out. Among the remaining residents , elderly and young children are the majority as well as some short-term tenants. The continuous reduction of vitality among the neiborhood has become an attention-grabbing problem.

While improving the overall courtyard environment, priority is given to ensuring the basic living needs of residents. This project adopts a four-step (evaluation, repair, demolition, and addition) measure of courtyard renovation. As the number of vacated households increases, existing illegal buildings will be demolished and public service facilities such as shared kitchens and shared laundry rooms will be added. These facilities will be integrated with internal courtyards and public green spaces to form a pubic core for the neighborhood.

Shared House

The vacant houses in the Fayuan Temple district are all made up with "rooms" with various ownerships. Using "room" as a basic unit for renovation is an effective way to reduce the risk of conflicts regarding property ownerships, and also flexible units can better adapt to the living needs of different types of people. By analyzing the dimensions of the courtyards, a 10-12 square-meter room unit was determined as a standard renewal module. The combination of dual and multiple units enables the possibilities for various functions such as long-term apartment, youth hostel, and Café etc.

During the 2019 Beijing International Design Week, we invited the local citizens from the nearby neighborhoods to participate in the workshop of "urban additions and subtractions" in order to collect public opinions and expectations for the renovation of Fayuan Temple district.

The followings are the conclusions that we drawn from the interviews and questionnaires collected from the workshop.

• For the multiple choice question of “What do you want to add to the district?” , pocket parks were selected the most by 19.78% of the participants.
• Many of the citizens complained that the space within Hutong (the Alley) was cramped and lack of greenery.
• The inhabitants of Hutong complained that the public restrooms and markets were relatively far, it can hardly meet the daily needs.
• Many of the inhabitants expected more communication and social space within the neighborhood.
• A majority of the inhabitants deemed that the amusement facilities for children and fitness equipment for the public were not sufficient.

The visitors of Hutong claimed that the hotels and recreational facilities were not sufficient to support the basic tourism needs.

In the framework of the project, in terms of achieving sustainable management of forest pastures, a District Pasture Commission (DPC) was established to discuss and make necessary decisions at the level of the administrative territory of Bazar-Korgon district. The Commission consists of directors of forestry services, heads of pasture committees, representatives of the district state administration, district department of agrarian development, and members of the district association of pasture committees.

The main task of the committee is to regulate the sustainable management of pasture resources at the level of one district. 

Meetings of the District Pasture Commission(DPC) are held as needed, but at least three times a year.

In the meetings of the District Pasture Commission at the district level, there are discussed urgent issues on pasture use, interaction between forest services, pasture committees and rural municipalities.

Decisions of the district pasture commission are recorded in the protocols and are required for all members of the commission.

Since the existence of the district pasture commission, many issues were discussed and decisions were made. The agenda of the DPC meeting mainly includes such pressing issues on pastures as:

The main issues of discussion at the DPC were the following:

• Information on pasture capacity and grazing rates
• Access to new pastures
• Timing of moving cattle to SLF pastures
• DPC's contribution to infrastructure development
• Provision of information on pasture users by pasture committees
• Allocation of pastures within forestry farms
• Procedures for issuing pasture tickets
• Collection and payment for pasture use
• Control of animal diseases
• Organization of resting places for livestock when moving to pastures
• Review of the implementation of the tasks to identify problems

All decisions of the District Pasture Commission are accompanied by relevant orders from the District State Administration, which gives the activities legal status and efficiency in the implementation of the decisions. 

The core objective to achieve sustainability was to integrate the Education for Sustainable Development methodological course using the GIZ manual, into regular teachers training courses. This particularly contributes to the achievement of SDG 4 “Quality of Education”. 

Another main objective was to integrate a methodological course on ESD into the standard curricula of teacher training institutions, both for in-service teacher training and pre-service teacher training. To achieve this goal CAMP Alatoo and GIZ consultant made a stakeholders’ mapping and identified educational institutions responsible for in-service pre-service teachers training and willing to develop ESD in the country.

In 2021-2022 three institutions (I. Arabayev Kyrgyz State University (KNU), M. Rakhimova Institute of Professional Development and Retraining at I. Arabayev KNU, the Republican Institute of Professional Development and Retraining of Educators at MoI and KR) on a basis of a Memorandum of Understanding were trained and coached throughout the process of developing ESD based courses, testing and adaptation of the learning materials and training of pre-service and in-service teachers. 

The fourth institution Osh state university inspired by the ESD trainings requested support in training its teachers. After trainings the university also introduced ESD into its curricula. 

To ensure sustainable conservation of the manual through methodological training of teachers in educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan CAMP Alatoo had the task to train multipliers to disseminate the manual through on-site trainings. In particular, this was an indicator for raising awareness in the project region. 

Teacher training on teaching sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in schools was conducted in Jalal-Abad. The event was organised for secondary school teachers, the Jalal-Abad Methodological Centre, representatives of the Arabaev KSU and the Republican Institute for Advanced Training and Retraining of Teachers. Two teacher training courses were conducted by trained teachers from Bishkek, J-A city and Bazar-Korgon district during the assignment. At the first training teachers learnt the ESD methodologies and practiced ESD manual exercises, while at the second training they were implementing a role of trainers. During the whole process they were supported and coached by CAMP Alatoo team and consultants. 

The outstanding trainers/teachers were selected as master trainers and are now supporting the project by training teachers in the project regions and outside the project area.

The schools in the pilot area of Jalal-Abad oblast tested the preliminary version of the environmental education manual. During the testing the quality of material presentation, the capacity of teachers and pupils to understand and absorb the new information was identified.

In addition to informational and educational content, project specialists from “CAMP Alatoo” PF and “Lesik Ug” association practiced practical exercises together with pupils in 6 schools. High school students performed tasks to understand different processes, such as climate change, as well as the functions of ecosystems and natural resources specific to Kyrgyzstan.

After the pilot testing, adjustments and modifications were made to the manual as exercises, at the same time the teaching methodology of the teaching material was studied.

A special feature of the training manual is that the material on pasture management, forestry and adaptation to climate change is based on the example of Kyrgyzstan, where teachers from Bishkek and Jalal-Abad have identified topics and offer a new methodology for teaching sustainability standards. 

In the frame of the project a teacher manual on Education for sustainable development and biodiversity had been developed.

The manual consists of the following 4 technical chapters each with elaborated exercises and teaching aids as well as one methodological pre-chapter:

1. Education for sustainable development
2. Forest
3. Pasture
4. Climate

The manual is designed to address gaps in the school curriculum with regard to teaching about the environment, using Kyrgyzstan as an example. "When it comes to teaching materials on the environment, they often do not address this area in relation to our country. For example, pasture and forest management systems in Kyrgyzstan.

Modern teaching methods and materials are often adapted to a European context and setting, making it hard to impossible to integrate them into a system that works differently. The ESD Manual offers Biology and Geography teachers additional teaching methods adapted to Kyrgyzystan that are in sync with the curricula. Teachers can use more interesting material to enhance their classes. Education is the basis towards a healthier planet, only by knowing how to act more sustainably, behavior can be adapted. 

The educational standards and the curriculum are showing access points for ESD, but they are not reflected in the school-books, because they are outdated.

Another weak link exists between the educational standards and the school curriculum on the one hand and the implementation through the teachers training institutions on the other hand.

• Integration of sustainable development and ESD approaches and principles in Kyrgyzstan is experiencing some difficulties due to low interest of the Ministry of Education. Today, most of the teaching staff is ready for this work, as evidenced by the results of numerous trainings conducted by the NGO "CAMP Alatoo".
• Low interest and capacity of specialists of educational institutions in the development of ESD standards and programmes;
• Lack of optimization of pedagogical workload (a teacher with a high workload is not able to prepare for classes and improve his/her professional skills).

An Adaptive Pathway Plan is a strategic framework designed to enhance resilience and adapt to long-term changes, particularly in the context of climate change. It involves identifying adaptation challenges and evaluating the effectiveness of various interventions over time. The key components include:

• Pathways Mapping: The plan illustrates sequences of measures or investments to achieve defined objectives, allowing for adjustments as conditions change.
• Thresholds and Tipping Points: The approach uses indicators to signal when a change in strategy is needed, ensuring flexibility in decision-making.
• Removal of Uncertainty: The uncertainty with using climate risk prediction models for decision making has led us to use Resilience instead, therefore removing uncertainty from the decision-making process.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Involvement of diverse stakeholders ensures that the pathways are context-sensitive and reflect local needs.

Kassandra is a predictive system, and it does so by creating ‘scenarios’ in which key parameters are altered individually or collectively and the variation of the Resilience Index is calculated. This is done iteratively until an optimum level is reached.

In addition, the scenarios can be of two types, passive and active. Passive scenarios are those where parameters external to the system are altered, for instance climatic data, whilst active scenarios simulate actual adaptations or management strategies, such as extensive tree planting.

The scenarios are not a forecast but plausible alternative images of how the future can unfold, or, as defined by the IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.