MPA students wins planning innovation competition

James Ramey has a good idea. An idea so good it won first place in the OSU's Knowlton School of Architecture’s Planning Innovations competition where students competed to come up with city planning innovations that could be used in Columbus.

Ramey, a Master of Public Administration student at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, calls his project the eco-hood. His vision is for students to live in environmentally sustainable, traditional and alternative housing, such as town houses and single-unit apartments that would be built at Ackerman and Kenny Roads. But, this student community would also be part of an ongoing experiment where technological innovations and social experimentation would occur.

“The eco-hood would provide for a social experiment on decision-making to figure out how and why we decide to make more sustainable decisions (in our everyday lives)," Ramey said. “Once we isolate the how and the why, we can figure out how to apply those ideas to other places.”

Ramey wanted the eco-hood to be more of a "real-life" community so the innovations would be readily available for communities outside the university. “I think observing students in these different kinds of living settings will help us figure out how we can make our communities more sustainable,” Ramey said. “This goes above and beyond the alternative energy experiment, which is important on its own merits, but the eco-hood seeks to find the best way to further develop these technologies and apply them on a neighborhood scale.”

Ramey plans to continue his work on the eco-hood as an independent study.

You can follow his progress on Facebook and his Web site: www.osuecohood.com.