The joint initiative had two event blocks planned in 2014 and led to two publications:

Teams composed of several young researchers, under the supervision of a Mentor- a practitioneror a theorist- after a short initial seminar will conduct research on a topic chosen by the Mentor. The subject of research will address problems related to the region in which the workshop will be held. The series begins in May 2014 and it ends with a presentation of the results in September during the Conference part.  In addition, an exhibition regarding the effects of students’ work will be organized separately, within the framework of the annual ISOCAPR Congress- Gdynia 2014.

The Conference

The Conference part will include a presentation of the results of the research groups and a presentation of the work of students and doctoral students from Poland, selected on the basis of the submitted abstracts.  The Conference part is aimed at sharing experiences in the scientific community and familiarizing students with the appropriate ways of presenting the results of research carried out and juxtaposing these results with other interesting examples from across Poland.

The Organisers

ISOCARP & Urban Evolution Laboratory LEM-ur (Gdansk University of Technology student research club)

Student Research Club was founded by the students of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technical University of Gdansk and the students of Land Management at the University of Gdansk. Founded in 2013, the Club is the youngest Student Research Club functioning at the Faculty of Architecture and despite the short period of working, it has a number of achievements, such as several original projects, workshops and a research project regarding ‚the dreams’ of urban residents.

Patronage and sponsors

Evaluation of MSRL 1, 2014

* The idea to organize workshops, in which there is close cooperation of mentors and students appears to be a hit. Each group has conducted numerous studies.
* Results from 3 -months hard work were valuable final projects and reviewed publications.
* Workshops as unique opportunity to express everyone’s opinions, sharing ideas and creating interdisciplinary teams has shown brand new quality of urban workshop.
* Thanks to perfect conducted collective work it`s proven the concept of globalization as process of international integration.

Effects:

* 5 international working groups
* 5 mentors (design planners, professors from all over the world) * 5 scientific projects
* 3 publications
* 1 conference

Project recommendations

Ric Stephens, President, ISOCARP and former MSRL mentor
The Mentor&Student Research Lab is an extraordinary programme that combines research, eld work and collaborative design. This integrated approach yields a variety of innovative findings, recommendations, as
well as planning and design solutions. For everyone involved, it is a meaningful and memorable experience.

Markus Appenzeller, mentor
The MSRL program is a very good way for students to understand research and what it could mean. It was both inspiring and fun to work with motivated people on a subject for a limited amount of time and it would be great if there was an opportunity to expand that further.

Christian Horn, mentor
A rare occasions for interested students to think out of the box and see the big picture. And a challenging initiative based on the strong commitment of all participants and organizers.

Oscar Bragos, mentor
The program has designed and implemented an innovative modality, while attractive, agile and dynamic, to produce studies on the contemporary city in a relatively short time. A pattern of work that gets to bring students of different disciplines related to the study of the organization of cities. And along with those students achieve an interesting final product.
It is a form of work that immediately puts students in contact with a particular problem, analyze it and interpret it. A new modality that should continue and be replicated elsewhere since IT manages to interest students in the exciting topic of the management of cities.

(from MSRL publication Urban transformations. Towards wiser cities and better living edited by Slawomir Ledwon, Hanna Obracht-Prondzynska)

Contact

Coordinator

Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, MSc Eng. Arch
haniaop@gmail.com

Project Supervisors

Tomasz Rozwadowski, PhD Eng. Arch
tomasz@rozwadowski.info

ISOCARP Vice President Congresses and Events
Sławomir Ledwoń, PhD Eng. Arch
ledwon@isocarp.org