How can we design a more sustainable city? And what happens when, instead of exploring these questions in a classroom, students head out into the city to try to answer them?
These were some of the issues addressed by Siyi, a student in the Bachelor’s Degree in Design and Creative Technologies program, and Daniel, a student in the Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering program, during the Plotting Sustainability Summer School, held July 20–24 in Gdańsk (Poland), with the Gdańsk University of Technology as the host university.
A Shipyard Becomes a Classroom
The setting for the project was no accident. The participants traveled to Young City (Młode Miasto), a former industrial site located on the grounds of the historic Gdańsk shipyard and currently undergoing one of the city’s major urban transformation projects. There, the city itself became their laboratory. From the GridArt Hub, an innovation space located in the same district, the students analyzed the area and worked on its future alongside architects, urban planners, city officials, activists, and sustainability experts.
The challenge was to look at this space from different perspectives and consider how it might evolve based on principles such as that of the 15-minute city, an urban model that aims to ensure people have access to everyday services and necessities within walking distance of their homes. To this end, the participants combined workshops, field research, and discussions with professionals directly involved in Gdańsk’s transformation.
Learning from Different Perspectives
One of the distinguishing features of the Summer School It was precisely its interdisciplinary nature. Architecture, urban planning, science, art, communication, and critical thinking came together to address a problem that cannot be solved by a single discipline.
The learning experience was not limited to the training sessions either. The participants went on bike rides, took a walking tour of the old Gdańsk shipyard, and went on a kayaking excursion on the Motława River.
An International Experience Based on Teamwork
The Summer School It developed as a Blended Intensive Program (BIP), combining online preparatory sessions in early July with a week of in-person work in Gdańsk. This format allows students to have a high-intensity international experience without having to spend several months studying abroad. For a few days, students from different universities and countries work together, share knowledge, and tackle a common challenge. In this case, the teams had to develop concrete proposals for the future of Young City. The results were presented at a final session open to mentors, experts, and representatives of local organizations.
Experiences like this show that international mobility can be much more than just studying abroad for a semester. It can mean work for a week with students from different universities, meet professionals in the field, tackle a real-world challenge, and discover a city from the inside.
