By Adam Brock (cross-posted from the Wild Green Yonder) 

If there's anywhere in New York that knows how to honor nature's processes and the local community in style, it's the Habana Outpost. Located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene, the Cuban restaurant/community space is brimming with ideas for bringing ecological thinking into an urban setting. To name a few: mint for the mojitos is grown hydroponically on site, the furniture is made of recycled and reclaimed materials… and they rock a bike blender on the patio. Hard.

It's no surprise, then, that Habana Outpost has for the past couple years agreed to play host and client to the Urban Studio Brooklyn, an introductory workshop in collaborative ecodesign. Drawing its inspiration from the renowned Rural Studio program of Auburn college, the Urban Studio Brooklyn (USBK for short) gathers architecture students from across the state for a nine-day intensive course in the art of designing and building for nature in the city.

While most design curricula are still rooted in memorizing theory and competition between students – qualities that aren’t so conducive to systems thinking - the Urban Studio adopts a place-based, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approach, letting students learn by working with real professionals on real projects. If this year's USBK effort is any indication, it’s an approach that Cooper Union and Pratt would do well to consider.

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