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Sustainable Living Center update

Achievements Ezine - The latest developments from Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, USA Translate This Article
4 May 2009

Construction on the Sustainable Living Center continues . . . Every room in this totally off-the-grid 'living building' is designed to demonstrate sustainability. The research laboratory will accommodate class research projects and provide opportunities for experiments on the building and its materials. The lobby and atrium will serve as display areas for exhibits to explain the structure and the various systems of the building.

The large 40-student classroom and event center will be available for lectures and will feature 20 custom-made desks each made of a different kind of local wood representing sustainable woodworking and biodiversity. The smaller classroom has an access to the utilities basement cubicle where students can monitor the building's energy usage and other functions.

'We will grow plants in the greenhouse all year round for class demonstrations, for the kitchen, and to transplant to our organic gardens,' said Dr. David Fisher, department head. 'The workshop will be used for table-top presentations and light projects as well as for seminars for the public.'

In the kitchen, students will take culinary classes using the most energy-efficient appliances. The offices will feature a variety of natural flooring materials and will be outfitted for each occupant's specific needs. Sustainable Living students have been actively involved in the construction from the start and are currently making bookshelves and tables.

'We are trying to make this building as flexible as possible so it can continue to evolve,' said Dr. Fisher. 'The interior classroom walls are not load-bearing so that sections can be replaced as a class project with different materials.'

According to the principles of Maharishi Vedic^SM architecture, the building's Brahmasthan* will connect its users to the cosmos and establish them on that level of reality that sustains the universe. The building has already received national attention for its innovative design and off-the-grid system.

The Sustainable Living Program is the country's first and only 4-year undergraduate program in sustainability and the fastest growing undergraduate major at the University with 54 students currently enrolled.

Copyright © 2009, Maharishi University of Management

Global Good News comment:

*Brahmasthan: A special feature of Maharishi Vedic Architecture is the Brahmasthan, the open central point—the seat of wholeness. Every home should have a Brahmasthan, where the totality of Natural Law is established. Then the home becomes a holistic structure of Natural Law. And every town, city, and country should have a Brahmasthan, so that every citizen is always connected with the wholeness of Cosmic Life.

For information about Maharishi's seven-point programme to create a healthy, happy, prosperous society, and a peaceful world, please visit: Global Financial Capital of New York.

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