BRIEF DESCRIPTION 

The Summer School on Synergic Urban Systems is a hybrid summer school (blended intensive program) that provides the students with 4 ECTS. It is organized 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), Polytechnic University of Valencia (UVP), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH).  

It aims to provide participants with the skills necessary to design and use interdisciplinary methodologies to maximize 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), and thus to react to emerging global urban trends with strategies of resilience and adaptive planning for the uncertain future.

The Summer School will be based on co-creation processes in which students, tutors and external experts will collectively develop diagnoses, visions, and strategic spatial and functional proposals for a redevelopment area in the village of Teresin that aims to become a new town in the orbit of the newly constructed airport near Warsaw. The Summer School will focus on processes (and methodologies) designed by participants to produce relevant interdisciplinary and innovative results. The Summer School is free of charge. The Blended Intensive Program (Erasmus+) will support students’ participation with a grant.

KEYWORDS

Urban redevelopment, resilience planning, mobility and connectivity, blue-green-infrastructures and ecosystem services, social life and communities, urbanity and density, resources and circularity, culture and heritage

WHEN?

Between July 6^th and 31^st, 2026

Online phase between July 6^th and 24^th, 2026

Onsite phase between July 27^th and 31^st, 2026

WHERE?

The Onsite phase of the Summer School will be held at Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw, Poland, as well as on the project site in Teresin with one day visit and workshop.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

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

• Develop integrative and interdisciplinary knowledge in urban planning and design
• Apply adaptive planning methodologies 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 the concepts of urban sustainability and resilience as multidimensional approaches to analyze urban spaces
• Develop key soft skills to react to trends and tackle challenges of urban transformation
• Creatively translate urban concepts into spatial models

CREDITS

The 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.

HOW?

The Summer School is organized around two tasks and two deliveries:

TASK1: Thematic foundations

(ONLINE) with lectures

During this phase, overarching lectures will be given to all the students introducing different ideas about development of urban systems. Critics will be organized as well. Students will be grouped by 6 to 7 by mixing up their expertise and Universities and will work in Task1 with an assigned tutor(s) in one specific urban system. The goal will be to recognize conditions for redevelopment of the area and prepare a SWOT analysis to formulate conclusions for the project phase.

ENHANCE professors: lectures on planning for resilience; inputs on urban systems; lectures on the history, governance and evolution of the site.

TASK2: Idea of the XXI century town for the uncertain future

(ONSITE) Workshop activities (7 hours per day)

Students from all online teams will be mixed up again. Six groups of 6 to 7 students will work to integrate their concepts and perspectives to critically analyze and implement a long-term vision for the transformation of the selected site. Their conclusions from the Task1 will be then connected to propose an innovative idea of a town that is worth to be called a XXI century town, which encompasses all contemporary trends in urban planning and uses synergies between urban systems for the benefit of the resilient and sustainable development.

Summer School schedule:

Online phase 06 – 24 July 2026

-        1^st week: introduction to the topic and location, lectures by experts, conversations in 6 thematic teams, tasks assignment, teamwork

-        2^nd week: two thematic meetings with lecturers, mid-time review, teamwork

-        3^rd week: two thematic meetings with lecturers, group teamwork, final presentation of the online phase

Onsite phase in Warsaw 27 – 31 July 2026

-        lectures, filed visit, workshop in 6 project groups, interim critics, final project presentation

MAIN CONTENTS AND LEARNING METHODS

Online PHASE (Task 1)

• Teaching: Lectures (by online lecturers) + Tutoring of TASK 1 (by online tutors)
• Teamwork: in thematic TEAMS of students (1 student per each University) working in the same urban system and trends (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 systems
  • Conclusions for the assigned urban system development.
  • NOTE: Students will have access to a specific Online Library with recorded lectures

Onsite PHASE (Task 2) 

• Teaching: Tutoring of TASK 2 (by onsite tutors) + input from local stakeholders 
• Teamwork: in TEAMS of students (1 student per each University)
• Site visit to cross-check on the analyses so far performed and possible new insights to analyze the Case Study Area
• Development of TASK 2 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 the resilient urban transformations of the focus area.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The participating students from each of the cooperating universities will be selected by a recognizable capacity/experience gained so far in widely understood urban planning, urban design, strategic planning, etc.

WHO CAN APPLY 

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

ETH Zurich: 
D-BAUG / D-ARCH / D-USYS / ISTP

Norwegian University of Science and Technology: 
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)

Politecnico di Milano: 
Architectural Design and History / Architettura e Disegno Urbano – Architecture and Urban Design / Landscape Architecture /Landscape Heritage / Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design – Architettura Sostenibile e Progetto del Paesaggio / Urban Planning and Policy Design – Pianificazione Urbana e Politiche Territoriali

Polytechnic University of Valencia: 
Bachelor’s degree in the Fundamentals of Architecture / Master’s degree in Architecture / Master’s degree in Landscape and Urban Planning

RWTH Aachen University: 
Master Architecture / Master Urban Planning / Master Transforming City Regions

Technical University of Berlin (ATTENTION! – separate application path, read below): 
Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning (SRP) / Master’s degree in Mas-ter of Urban Design (MUD)

Warsaw University of Technology: 
Master’s Degree in Architecture: 1st year of the 2-year program and 5th year of the 6-year program, however other students with a proper experience will be taken into account.

HOW TO APPLY

To participate, please fill out the application form before the 30th of April, accessible through this >>LINK<< and upload one PDF file >>HERE<< (10MB limit) that contains your short CV with your education and language skills, as well as your portfolio with selected projects related to the summer school topic (e.g., urban design projects). 

Students of TU Berlin should contact Alena Cohrs a.cohrs@tu-berlin.de for details and assistance and submit their application through the internal TUB system.

IMPORTANT

Students who are enrolled in the mobility program Alliance4Tech (or other BIP founding) cannot apply.

CONTACTS

ETH Zurich
Martina Schretzenmayr: schretz@ethz.ch

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Mrudhula Koshy mrudhula.koshy@ntnu.no

Politecnico di Milano
Stefano Salata: stefano.salata@polimi.it

Polytechnic University of Valencia
Juanjo Galan: juagavi@urb.upv.es

RWTH Aachen University
Christian Larisch: larisch@staedtebau.rwth-aachen.de

Technical University of Berlin
Alena Cohrs a.cohrs@tu-berlin.de

Warsaw University of Technology – host group
Maciej Lasocki  maciej.lasocki@pw.edu.pl
Maria Kaczorowska maria.kaczorowska.dokt@pw.edu.pl
Tomasz Dzieduszyński  tomasz.dzieduszynski@pw.edu.pl