Public Space: Design Manual
Mentor: Richard Stephens
Team: Marta Rusin, Potulska Marta, Jessika Kreps, Alina Grędzicka, Patryk Czajka, Małgorzata Potocka
The public space plays an important role in the urban structure of each city. It contributes to the strengthening of the social sphere and the use of free time through recreation, education and many other dimensions. The only question is: how can it be designed to become an incredible place loved by citizens? Our manual gives the answer.
Smart infrastructure for waterfront cities: Case study of Gdynia
Mentor: Alexander Boakye Marful
Team: Igor Szóstakowski, Maria Dembska, Joanna Jaczewska, Agnieszka Kozielska, Krzysztof Stefaniak, Alicja Baranowska
The main focus of team’s research are smart solutions for infrastructure, especially in context of waterfront cities. After a thorough analysis of the terms itself – waterfront cities, smart infrastructure – the team has done research in the field of existing smart infrastructure in EU, in Poland and in Tri-City as well as described the present conditions for development of such systems. A study of Gdynia, divided into different thematic areas (such as history, land use & housing, natural environment, transportation system etc) has helped the team identify problems which are a result of the current state of infrastructure. As an answer to these problems the team has proposed smart solutions, along with an insight on possible applicability in other locations.
Improving Sustainable Mobility
Mentor: Christian Horn
Team: Mobility Boosters: Łukasz Skiba, Paulina Wiliszewska, Natalia Balcerzak, Przemysław Wójcik, Przemysław Barszczewski, Aleksandra Lukaszun
In the Mentor & Student Research Lab, the Mobility Boosters team worked on getting the Tri-City ready for the major changes in urban mobility. We looked on shifting the transport from motorized to active modes of mobility, to enhance intermodal connection with public transport and to reduce the need of transport in the TriCity by an intelligent urban development.
In a first step research on innovation was done on European cities to better understand the changes that took place in the last years. In a second step the actual situation of active mobility in the Tri-City has been analysed and the team interviewed some key actors of the metropolitan area. Base on the research, the analysis and the interviews, we propose short and long term improvements for the Tri-City to change mobility behaviours, as sustainable cities are attractive cities.
Baltic Cities on the Southern Coast: Improving by learning from each other
Mentor: Markus Appenzeller
Team: Piotr Żelaznowski, Monika Dąbrowska, Bolesław Słociński, Sylwia Różańska, Nina Bloch, Anna Rubczak
The southern shore of the Baltic Sea in the last 100 years has seen a regular shift of borders and spheres of influence. What once was independent became Germany to become part of the Soviet Union and then independent again. What once was part of the communist sphere now is part of the European Union.
25 years after the fall of the iron curtain, this research is looking at the development of medium sized coastal cities and identifies the steps, the processes and the tools these cities have gone through. Assessed against am ‘Ideal Baltic City’, the accumulation of all successful aspects of the development in the different cities, it becomes obvious where the individual cities have deficits. The profile derived for each city gives a good overview of what the next steps could be and which of the other cities included in the study to learn from.
What kind of cities are we building? What kind of cities do we want to build?
Re-viewing three different urban developments in metropolitan areas.
Mentor: Oscar Bragos
Team: Anna Wilde, Agata Hinca, Anna Wolska, Beata Tranda, Karolina Zajączkowska, Piotr Smolnicki
The contemporary world is a highly urbanized world. This urbanized world presents new challenges for local governments, specialists, stakeholders and the citizenship in general. Sustainability, social inclusion and mobility, are listed as the most important challenges to face. Challenges that have to do mainly with the model of urbanization that it is promoted to guide urban growth.
But, many times, in this process of urbanization is still observed the reiteration of trends and models that are not oriented according to a model of equitable and sustainable urban development.
Therefore, this research proposes to analyze three recent urban developments in metropolitan areas that correspond to three different contexts of urban development.
The research tries to focus on sustainable urban development and, for this study; it is assumed that sustainable urban development means:
a- an efficient use of resource land and of energy;
b- the development of public transport; and
c- an effective and correct urban growth management.
It is also assumed that sustainable urban development is not only related with “green” topics. It is also related with socio-economic conditions and with institutional issues. This means that the cities have different starting points when we analyze the processes of urbanization and that, therefore there will be no unique solutions when we think about proposals for a sustainable urban development.
The research intends to submit different cases to see what kind of city is being built. And, of the three cases analyzed, learn some lessons that guide us to better determine what kind of city we want (and we can) build.