Halve It Component:
My design project focuses heavily on the Wellness pillar of our school's framework, with a secondary link to the Environment pillar.

•  Wellness means looking after our whole selves, not just making sure we aren't sick. For us in Middle School, as we move through adolescence, wellness means looking out for each other, making sure we have enough energy for the day, if we don't look out for ourselves and others, then we are nothing as a school.

Sustainable Development Goal:
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing

The Hundertwasser VoxBox meets SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) because it gives bypassers a nice and calm opportunity to sit down and listen to some music. Found by scientists, the frequency of the radio stimulates your brain and creates new ones, with the frequency being medical technology, radio frequency or RF. This is used as a healing therapy.  This improves the health and wellbeing of listeners and participants because it can selectively treat chronic pain, shrink tumors, or improve neurological function.

School Context:
If you take a look at our new school campus design, there is a gigantic  problem: there's zero surround sound, you can only hear all the kids yelling and talking. While this is great for you and your friends, it is really boring and doesn’t do anything. Forcing Middle School students to go from home, to class, to recess, to class, to lunch, to class, and then to home is boring. Just speaking to your friends gets old pretty quick, and why not sing along to something with them? That could add a whole other level to the school system.

During recess and lunch, students are surrounded by people who are doing nothing. Because of this layout, many Middle School students go back to their afternoon classes feeling bored, tired, and not excited for the day. If we add a radio station that the students themselves can run, they would be tripping over themselves just to get a listen, or even better. Run it

Middle School is a unique time in our lives because our brains and bodies are growing faster than almost ever before.

Blue Zones 

Blue Zones are five very specific regions across the globe, such as Okinawa in Japan, Ikaria in Greece, and Sardinia in Italy, where scientists believe that people live a lot longer, better lives than anywhere else on Earth. Quite often you will find people here living past the age of 100. Author and researcher Dan Buettner studied these places and made the "Power 9," which are nine lifestyle habits shared by lots and lots of centenarians. My idea copies these global longevity hotspots by targeting the two most important secrets of Power 9: Belong and Downshift.

People who live in Blue Zones do not go to modern gyms, run on treadmills, or lift heavy weights; instead, their normal daily environments are set up to force them into constant, low-intensity physical activity without them even thinking about it. There's a broadcasted yoga session every morning at 6:45am. They also spend their days walking across hilly terrains, gardening, and constantly testing their balance. My radio station recreates the exact same feeling in our school, which is “...therapy using radiofrequency (RF) energy goes by a few different names depending on the medical or cosmetic purpose. Broadly, these treatments are referred to as Radiofrequency Therapy, Diathermy, or Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA)...”

Liveability

In societies like Italy, Japan, Costa Rica, Greece, and California, liveability is the structure of society, and radios are very commonly used for a range of purposes, not for stressful 24-hour news. Instead, they are a tool for communities to communicate and come together. A notable example is in Okinawa, Japan, where residents practice Radio Taiso, which is broadcasted over the radio every morning at 6:30 a.m. Radio Taiso broadcasts morning yoga over the radio, where residents wake around 6am and participate in communal yoga. 

Outside of morning broadcasts, other blue zones like Italy and Greece tend to move at a slower pace in their own personal spaces, like a home or balcony with their own playlist of songs. In this way, you can focus on your breathing, your posture, and your frame of mind.

Our design works with this new design by introducing fun lunches, music, and something to listen to  directly into a radio station that the students can run. Instead of ignoring the screaming and yelling of restless bratty kids, the idea prioritises how a school actually sounds while moving through spaces. By making some space close enough so then kids can get in and out, we improve the whole feel and comfort of Middle School. When a school environment includes spaces that feel good to be in, students naturally treat each other with more respect and leader-ship, leading to a safer and more welcoming school environment.

How might we design an interactive, student run radio station that supports inclusion and social enjoyment?