Tobin Porter-Brown

= Division III =

''This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. By Eddy Mulhern, News Editor.''

Tobin Porter-Brown's project will not just be printed and placed in a library of many to be forgotten. Rather, his architectural design is part of a scheme to make the Enfield mods more sustainable and livable. His final poster, on display as of April 21, quoted the following statement from Hampshire’s founding document, The Making of a College. "“The Campus design should express in every possible way the distinctive social and educational character of Hampshire College.”" Porter-Brown’s Div III takes on the project of the Enfield Solar Greenhouse and the Enfield neighborhood as a method of Showcasing Sustainability (the title of his project) and improving its social space.

“Most people [in Enfield] sit on their back steps,” he said, instead of congregating in a central social space as was originally intended. As Porter-Brown said, the Greenhouse was both a public space and “attached to our living room” before it was taken down last summer due to structural problems it had caused in the attached Mod 46. Porter-Brown’s model would leave the Greenhouse more ostensibly open to the Hampshire community, placing it “close to the apple orchard, close to Enfield, and with enough sunlight for a greenhouse.” However, responsibility for maintaining the greenhouse would still fall to the residents of the Greenhouse mod.

Porter-Brown’s design includes a barbeque pit and a brick oven, in addition to a social space on the patio that features solar panels so students could plug in their computers. The Greenhouse would grow kitchen herbs and fig trees. It would house annual garden beds and would use aquaponic systems, just to name a few features.

Porter-Brown’s Div III is not just his vision, however, because the Greenhouse may be constructed this summer or next fall thanks to donations from particularly generous alums, $7,000 from students, and $25,000 from Community Council. Blueprints from an architect will arrive soon and will then be presented to trustees and upper-level members of the administration.

Porter-Brown noted that “at this point the college doesn’t know how to deal with student- initiated projects.” He said that this summer would be a good time to build, as contractors are giving an average of 15% discounts because of the economic climate.