Knowing when to pass the baton

Many, many years ago I, and a group of friends, came up with an idea to shake up our standard presentation format for our Learning Environments Australasia annual conferences. We thought our presenters, and audience members, needed more diversity. So we thought we would bring together young architects, educators, planners, thinkers and provocateurs, to develop the conference with us. This cohort of young (and, some admittedly, not so young) professionals from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, America, France and England sparked a light in our organisation and showed how creating opportunity for diverse voices to be heard, could impact us all.

From this little seed of an idea, the Mayfield Project was born. We know that most people at conferences are senior staff and we wanted to change this by encouraging young delegates to attend. And we also know how important research is to practice, particularly in educational architecture where learning theories evolve so quickly. We wanted to bring these two ideas together so young professionals could research learning trends from around the world, and present their ideas at our conference. 

Since 2009 we have brought together nearly 200 emerging thinkers from around the world to share what they’ve learnt. With such diversity, every group has approached their Project differently, with some incredible outcomes including a Trade Trading Centre built for a school in Tanzania, the ‘Don’t Just Stuff It‘ DVD, and this year’s inspirational conversation cards for effective communication.

Over the years, our teams have researched lifelong learning, community integrated learning neighbourhoods, designing for resilience, schools as sanctuaries of hope, understanding how curiosity can enhance learning, systemic learning opportunities, and inclusive learning for all. As the Chair, and occasional participant, in all but two of the seven projects, I have been so fascinated to see how people have approached their particular research projects. I feel as we get older and more experienced in our careers we lose the opportunity to stop and research and learn. So this beautiful Project gives people the chance to do just that outside of their regular work days and embed the activity, and importance, of research into their work practice.

After all of the incredible benefits this Project has given me, the time has come for others to take on the mantel of planning, organising and running the Project every two years. Like the trees you plant that will grow long after your gone, I am so excited to see how the Project outlives me in its next iteration, and experience the Project evolves.

About a year ago, I was in a meeting with my Mayfield Project committee colleagues and I heard myself say the fateful words no leader wants to say, if they are truly trying to create something innovative, experimental and creative. “But we’ve always done it that way.” As soon as I heard myself say it, I knew it was time to move on. For any project to remain sustainable, like I hope the Mayfield Project does, beyond the people who set it up, it’s important that it can evolve and adapt and become better every year.

And that’s not to say that choosing to say goodbye to Chairing this project is easy – it has been an integral part of my life for over a decade. I have fought for it, planned for it, and spent thousands of hours imagining how it could grow. And now it is time for someone else to do the same and I am just so, so glad the Project has the staying power to do that, in others’ hands. It’s much bigger than us as individuals, which coincidentally was the point we were trying to make in the beginning – bringing together a diverse group of interested and passionate people can improve the world.

I have so enjoyed my time with the Project and look forward to staying involved. This Project has been instrumental in the development of my career, and has helped nurture my passion for learning space architecture. As far as I know there aren’t any other cross-disciplinary research and collaboration projects like this in the world, and to have the Project continue its initial intent 14 years after we started, is something I am so proud of. Here’s to the next 14 years and beyond.