Summer School "Synergic Urban Systems" 2025 @TU Berlin

The Summer School will be based on co-creation processes in which students, tutors, and external experts will collectively develop diagnoses, visions, and proposals for a set of strategic spatial and functional units in a designated (re)development area in the city of Berlin. The Summer School will focus on processes (and methodologies) designed by the participants to produce relevant interdisciplinary knowledge and develop innovative results. The Summer School is free of charge. The Blended Intensive Programme (Erasmus+) will support students’ participation with a grant. Students enrolled at ETH Zurich will be supported by Movetia.

It is organised within the ENHANCE Alliance of the following universities: Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim (NTNU), Technical University of Berlin (TUB), RWTH Aachen University (RWTH), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zurich).

The aim is to provide participants with the skills necessary to design and apply interdisciplinary methodologies to maximise synergies between different urban systems (including mobility and connectivity, blue-green infrastructures and ecosystem services, social life and communities, urbanity and density, resources and circularity, culture and heritage) in order to respond to emerging global urban trends with strategies of resilience and adaptive planning for an uncertain future.

When?

Between 11^th of August and 9^th of September 2025

Online phase (thematic foundation lectures + critics) between August 11^th and 28^th, 2025

Onsite phase (“Synergic Methodology under pressure” workshop) between September 1^st and 9^th, 2025

Where?

The onsite phase of the Summer School will be held at Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Central Campus, Berlin, Germany, as well as on the Berlin Adlershof project site.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the Summer School, participants will increase their capacity to:

Develop integrative and interdisciplinary skills in urban planning and design
Apply adaptive planning methods to analyze synergies between different urban systems
Develop site-specific urban planning proposals and development strategies by testing and comparing different spatial approaches and layouts
Critically reflect on the concepts of urban sustainability and resilience as multidimensional approaches analyzing urban spaces
Develop key soft skills to react to trends and tackle challenges of urban transformation
Creatively translate urban concepts into spatial models

Credits

Participants who successfully complete the course and present their results will be awarded a certificate of participation in the ENHANCE Summer School with 4 ECTS (valid as a workshop).

What?

There are two tasks and two deliveries in the Summer School:

TASK1: Thematic foundations

(ONLINE) with lectures

During the online phase, cross-cutting lectures will be given to all the students introducing different urban utopias and their approaches to the urban systems. Critics will be organized. Students will be divided into groups of 6 to 7, mixing their expertise and home universities and will work in Task 1 with an assigned tutor(s) on a specific urban system.

ENHANCE professors lecture on planning for resilience, urban utopias and their approach to urban systems, and the history, governance and evolution of the project site. Students will have access to a specific Online Library with recorded lectures.

In-depth tutor groups on urban systems:

mobility and connectivity
blue-green-infrastructures & ecosystem services
social life & communities
urbanity & density
resources & circularity
culture & heritage

TASK2: A synergic methodology under pressure

(ONSITE) Workshop activities (7 hours per day)

The groups will work to synergically integrate their resilience planning concepts and perspectives in order to critically analyze and implement a long-term vision for the transformation of the selected site and the focal spaces included in it.

Main Contents and Learning Methods

Online PHASE (Task 1)

Teaching: Online lectures + tutoring of TASK 1 (online by tutors)
Teamwork in thematic teams mixing students from different home universities (one student per group from each university)
Each team is assigned to a specific urban system (mobility and connectivity, blue-green infrastructures and ecosystem services, social life and communities, urbanity and density, resources and circularity, culture and heritage)
Development of TASK 1 by each thematic team:
- Analysis of the city and the case study area with a special focus on the assigned urban system
- SWOT analysis focusing on the effects of the emerging urban trends within the assigned urban system
- Developing an Urban Utopia for the assigned urban system with the findings of the SWOT

Onsite PHASE (Task 2)

Teaching: Tutoring of TASK 2 (onsite by tutors) + input from local stakeholders
Teamwork: in teams of students (one student per group from each university)
Visit to the site to cross-check on the analysis that has been done so far and any new insights into the analysis of the case study area
Development of TASK 1 by each TEAM:
- Concepts, strategies and instruments of resilience planning
- Holistic approach including all urban systems and trends explored so far to generate a new spatial vision for resilient urban transformations. Holistic approach, including all urban systems and trends explored so far, to generate a new spatial vision for resilient urban transformation of different focus areas, and parallel co-creation with other teams of an overall vision for the entire pilot site.

Selection Criteria

The participating students from each of the cooperating universities will be selected based on recognizable competence/experience in the subjects of the Summer School.

Who can apply?

Students enrolled (already attending courses) in one of the following:

D-BAUG
D-ARCH
D-USYS
ISTP

Master’s in Urban Ecological Planning
Master’s in Physical Planning
Master’s in Sustainable Architecture
Master’s in Architecture (4th and 5th for the 5-year program, or 1st and 2nd year for the 2-year master program)
Master’s in Real Estate and Facilities Management
Master’s in Globalisation and Sustainable Development
Master’s in Geography
Master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering (4th and 5th year of the 5-year program)

Architectural Design and History
Architettura e Disegno Urbano – Architecture and Urban Design
Landscape Architecture.
Land Landscape Heritage
Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design – Architettura Sostenibile e Progetto del Paesaggio
Urban Planning and Policy Design – Pianificazione Urbana e Politiche Territoriali

Master Architecture
Master Urban Planning
Master Transforming City Regions

Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning (SRP)
Master’s degree in Master of Urban Design (MUD)

Bachelor’s degree in the Fundamentals of Architecture
Master’s degree in Architecture

Master Degree in Architecture (2-year program in Polish language)
Master Degree in Architecture (3rd-4th year of 6-year program in Polish language)
Bachelor Degree in Architecture (3rd year of 4-year program in English language)

How to apply

Please apply online here along with a Letter of Motivation and a Portfolio or Dossier by April 22^nd.

CURRICULUM VITAE: Please upload a CV with all relevant information and experience for the summer school application (maximum: 2 pages)

PORTFOLIO or DOSSIER (for preferred consideration of your application): Please upload a short portfolio or dossier displaying or explaining some of the work that you have developed on the topics of the Summer School (projects, essays, activities, etc.) (maximum 10 pages, 10MB)

Please note: Students who are enrolled in the mobility programme Alliance4Tech (or other BIP founding) cannot apply.

Application Deadline: April 22, 2025