Urban-Up!
16-26 years
DURATION: 1 lesson/week every 2 weeks for a school year
IMPLEMENTATION OPTIONS: extracurricular activity
GUIDED BY: architect resource person + student mentor
LOCATION: interior – project partners space or exterior – on expedition in the locality (specified in the description of the current project)
ACTIVE: since 2017
Under the umbrella of Urban Up! a collection of urban civic education projects for high school students is brought together that aims to arouse young people’s interest in the mechanisms through which city problems are addressed and to provide them with means of involvement, together with professionals of the built environment and teachers, as well as students- mentors.
“Urban Up Fellowship – Let’s help Urban Up Grow Up” took place from May to August 2022 and was funded through Swimathon Bucharest, an event organized by the Bucharest Community Foundation, and through the Donors’ Circle 2021, an event organized by the Romanian Diaspora Funding Network (RDFN). The project consisted of three modules (a 3-day workshop in Bucharest, a 3-day hybrid workshop, and piloting the activities) and invited 26 students to participate in co-creating urban pedagogy workshops dedicated to high school students.
The fellowship unfolded over three modules, mobilizing 26 students who developed 5 urban pedagogy scenarios on these themes: heritage, good governance, inclusion, ecology, and mobility. Supporting them were 13 mentors from the network and friends of De-a Arhitectura. The scenarios were developed during the first two modules. For inspiration, representatives from 14 organizations accepted the invitation to share with the Urban Up fellows initiatives that positively change city life, based on their work experience. The third module involved piloting the workshops. The first meeting took place in June, in the Ioanid garden, with 15 high school students learning about city mobility. The second pilot of all workshops took place in Năvodari during a camp organized by the Lipovan Russian Community, where representatives of the 5 student teams participated and took on the role of high school student mentors.
“Urban-Up! TU_act [Teens Urban Acupuncture]” took place from November to December 2022 and was funded by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB as part of the “Bucharest RE:imagined” program – Idea Scholarships for cultural projects.
The project, which consisted of five stages, was aimed at high school students in Bucharest and brought together teenagers, students, and professionals for a 3-day hackathon, followed by a period of developing ideas for arranging selected public spaces by the high school teams, through minimal interventions (urban acupuncture) – for teenagers – ideas that would meet their needs and desires.
10 Urban Up fellows were involved in this project, at different stages: eight as mentors and “translators” of the high school teams’ ideas into concrete proposals, one in the team of authors of the competition theme, and one on the jury. The 19 high school students formed 5 teams, and a week after the hackathon, they entered their proposals into the competition. The five proposals were:
- team 1 – Far Urban (2nd prize)
- team 2 – modulOM (3rd prize)
- team 3 – Hangout
- team 4 – Take a break here team
- team 5 – Our Spot (1st prize)
“The City and the Professions of the Built Environment” took place in October – November 2018 in partnership with the Bucharest City Hall through the Center for Educational and Sports Projects (PROEDUS) and the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism (UAUIM) in Bucharest. High school students from over 20 Bucharest high schools, from 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, participated in a series of 16 workshops in the field of urban development and the built environment, led by professionals in the field (architects and urban planners). The publication “The Built Environment – educational material and educational experiences” was developed within the project and can be downloaded here.
“Urban Up! Built Environment for High School Students” took place in 2017 under the auspices of the Together with Lidl for a Better Future program. The project was selected following a competition and offered high school students meetings with professionals from the built environment sector (architects, urban planners, engineers, anthropologists) through a series of workshops and highly interactive exercises.
“Urban Up! Built Environment for High School Students” aimed to increase the level of knowledge and contribute to the development of healthy attitudes about the values of the built environment, sustainable development, and the role of young people in the transformation processes that shape their cities. The workshops were designed to help high school students acquire skills such as learning to learn, communicating better, and working well in teams, while also becoming aware citizens of the built environment and promoters of positive changes in their cities. The project was implemented from April to December 2017.
The 54 workshops took place in 7 cities in Romania: Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Constanta, and reached 1,025 high school students. A total of 26 professionals in the built environment (architects, urban planners, engineers, anthropologists) were trainers for the 4 thematic workshops:
- Monument, Who Are You?& Anti-Boredom Map
- A Project For My City & City Tour
- I’m Not In The Mood Today & The Claimed City
- Acces On Wheels + City On Trial.
Parteneri:
“Together with Lidl for a Better Future”