1 – Technology and Enhanced learning 

Knowing more about city’s behaviour so that city can know more about us

2 – Active learning

Implementation of methods as project based learning, practice learning, engineering learning, experiential learning, game based learning. they enable multidisciplinary iterations, learn by doing innovations while working on real life problems.

3 – Cooperative learning

Organizations working and learning together with universities, government agencies and industry businesses.

4 – Open-learning 

The city is turning to a classroom: a lab. trandiscipliary approach to knowledge enrichment: an active flow of information and ideas among different sectors.

5- Mindful learning

Both the natural environment and citizens are seen as fuel for knowledge production. In this trend, the learning takes in consideration the social and environmental constraints. 

EXAMPLES

DEMOLA is an organization that connects companies, universities and students. They search questions from companies, government agencies, public institutes to publish and get students involved to solve them. The student team owns the license. The City of delf supports Field labs providing both spaces in the city and a case manager, coming from private or public organization, to help them realize ideas and solve practical or legal issues.

http://www.demola.net/

At AUAS (University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam), BOOT is the operating base for research practices in city’s neighbourhoods with students having the opportunity to put their competences into practice and further develop them.

http://www.proeftuinendelft.nl/en/home

At the Poblenou superblock experience, architecture students learn how to deal with cooperation processes and learning by doing innovations.

RESULTS

The positively impact of this kind of learning is that students have the opportunity to work on real life problem improving the quality of their neighbourhood in a more rewarding experience. Moreover, they acquire creative views and ideas from colleagues, professional and researchers to address important urban challenges. From  the organization’s point of view, they get useful ideas from the knowledge available at university while testing and redefining their prototypes. Researchers can find better accesses to real data as well as the most interesting problem to focus their studies. Finally, the university as practical and service oriented institution is able to balance and efficiently exploit both theoretical and practical fields.

How can we teach Advanced Urbanism?

“When dealing with new technology we transform all the information and particularities in data, levelling everything at the exact same value. We are losing the question of specificity: a concept that advanced urbanism must refer to.” Elodie Nourrigat – ENSAM

“We are experiencing a change in paradigm. Our educational approaches are shifting from teaching the students, to learning with students and teaching the city. This has mutated many different aspects of city’s life. For example, if in the beginning, citizens voted mayor to write law, now mayors are chasing residents to
understand their real problems and to collect information through social networks in a bottom up process.” Nicola Canessa – UNIGE

“With discussions and round tables we are able to put municipality and professional together, make them talk and address the real problems of the city side by side with the citizens”. Andrea Caridi – DARTS

“With active public space and the Poblenou project, students at IAAC have the opportunity to prototype solutions addressing to real problem of the neighbourhood, producing for the city while the city learn more about them”. Chiara Farinea – IAAC

“For us at IAAC is fundamental not to pretend to know everything. In our teaching-learning environment, we are all learning together and in the APS installation this inclination was evident. Students were learning how to fabricate elements embedded in an urban area, constantly having the feedbacks of the dwellers
they were producing for and learning by doing systematically”. Mathilde Marengo – IAAC

“Re-Cycle at UNIGE is a new life approach to material, product and people in the architectural practice. One of the first goals of the research is to build a comprehensive framework of knowledge around the theme of recycling, a body of information and cultures able to develop and propose new ways and schemes of rules to interfere with the constructed environment”.Raffaella Fagnoni – UNIGE

“Being a company that designs products for cities, no matters if modern, smart, or even responsive, we have to actively learn by doing, every day, talking with citizens, dealing with cultures, exploiting past and future experiences. For us, erasing all the boundaries between schools, students and businesses is the new way to make cities, planning and understanding them”. Africa Sabe – Santa & Cole

“EXtimity is an answer to the cities actual evolution, a way to outperform traditional lighting. Based on adaptable technical modules, eXtimity creates “Light spaces”. Places that are transforming and shaping the nocturnal environment, while being dedicated to wellbeing of users. The user finds there all the connectivity needed but can also become an actor and designer of its environment”. Vassili Beillas – TECHNILUM

This short introduction is just to set out our role in the face of the highly complex reality of cities. We understand that every background unveils a culture or philosophy. Our aim is to help urban planners, architects and landscapers to transform public space into a humanised environment or public living rooms. To this end, we gather data and knowledge about a liveable space that we wish to share and expand on by teaching and learning at the same time.

Based on our experience, we firmly believe and champion the standpoint that there is more than one means of learning. As demonstrated in this research, there are several practices used in education (whatever the subject); nonetheless, when focussing on responsive cities, or cities in general, we need to merge all of them.
We are always focussed on products, and these products need to address an issue or necessity, be useful or provide a solution. So, for our team – or new possible members (still at university) – problem-based learning is a really good way of achieving the skills to be resourceful when an issue is identified and it was incumbent upon us to offer a solution to it. When we are envisioning new ways, new cities and anticipating new needs, we need to approach suitable new knowledge adopting project-based learning or case-based learning. I am referring to how we normally work, because we believe that students need to be in contact with companies in order to gain an awareness of reality. Every master’s programme or general course should incorporate a substantial part of experimental learning. For us, it is highly important for a student who obtains his or her degree or certification to have already touched on materials, worked in situ and visited, analysed and installed the factual elements on the ground. This means having the chance to be in “contact” with the designs or ideas, and not only drafting them.

In relation to experimental learning, forging programmes that empower employability and association with practice is something we are really keen to engage in. Learning is about sharing knowledge. Everyone in this room today has different backgrounds, different cultures and different educations; therefore, when we form a team and work together we are establishing a new practice for learning: learning by sharing. This is difficult to set up on the context of a university
programme; however, it is highly important nowadays in light of all the Commons and open data, and it is something that enriches companies and practices as we cannot be experts in everything and we can always learn from others.

To sum up, we are really keen on active learning and we have genuinely demonstrated that we learn by doing, making and touching things. Even so, in
our industry we need to tie schools with industry, and projects with administrations and regulations. Sometimes, we form the grassroots organisation
that connects truly differing realms; thus, in our daily jobs there is a large body of cooperative learning while we try to find (or forge) the balance
between creativity and reality.

Text by Àfrica Sabé

Download document

Check presentation presented at Responsive Cities Symposium on:

• Emerging Trends on learning Advanced Urbanism
• Innovative Learning experiences
• Positive impacts of innovative experiences

You can also download the report “Identifying Current Practices in Advanced Urbanism Education”.  It describes existing educational programmes related to Advanced Urbanism.

Download report

A survey of faculty and students at Harvard Business school found that what engages students most in a case is that it tell a story: “a good case presents an interestprovoking issue and promotes empathy with the central characters. It delineates their individual perspectives and personal circumstances well enough to enable students to understand the characters’ experience of the issue. The importance of the compelling issue and the empathetic character reflects the fact that cases typically focus on the intersection between organizational or situational dynamics and individual perception, judgment, and action” (Boehrer and Linsky, 1990).

Reference:

Speaking of Teaching, Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching. Winter  1994, Vol. 5, No. 2  Teaching with Case Studies (pdf)

Although the case method is used in various courses of study, a systematic exposition of its pedagogic advantages has not been produced for planning. This
thesis attempts to fill this gap in the literature

Read complete text