summer school

Summer School

The International Forum on Urbanism organizes joint (design) studio’s that are open for students from all member institutions.

As a special form of joint studio’s the International Forum on Urbanism organizes IFoU Summer Schools outside the regular lecture period.

For each joint studio the content of the program, the study goals and the conditions of participation have to be elaborated and be published on the website of IFoU before the students sign in.

Each participating institution on joint studio’s appoints one professor who has the task to supervise the quality of the program.

Upcoming summer school

2 – 16 July, 2010, Beijing, China
	Learning from Beijing-Rediscovering Urban Design in Booming Metropolitanization -TEST
	The IFoU summer school Learning from Beijing – Rediscovering Urban Design in Booming Metropolitanization will take place in July 2010 at Beijing, China. The summer school in the form of international joint design studio will be hosted and held by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) under the framework of International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU). Students and tutors with different cultural backgrounds will develop design proposals by researches together with the consultancy from professionals within two weeks in order to rediscover the role of urban design, as a planning strategy, in the metropolitan regions undergoing the high-speed urbanization, which is exemplified by Beijing.

19 July – 6August 2010, Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China
	Dujiangyan Dreams. Exploring Potentials for Development from Disaster
	In the summer of 2010, in conjunction with various universities, a 3-week field workshop has been set up to research various redevelopment potentialities in the city of Dujiangyan in the Sichuan Province. Coming in 2 years after the initial disaster, an interdisciplinary group of students and researcher will apply insights gathered from the first UE analysis in order to support the ongoing redevelopment process. A ‘development from disaster’ approach is being used wherein opportunities for the short, middle and long term will be synergized. As the Dujiangyan area is most notable for its 2000-year-old irrigation system, this Unesco World Heritage site has undergone severe ramifications. Not only are large structural consequences to be found, but also social, economical and spatial transformations are undoubtedly expected to follow. While more then 70% of the inhabitants are currently dependent on an agricultural livelihood (making up only 35% of the total area income), the available land is radically shrinking as a rapid urbanization process has commenced. New high-end tourist economies are moving to find develop opportunities as farmers desperately seek to find a place in the new urban setting. The reallocation of human settlements and land administration within the future development vision plan for the city are being challenged. Simultaneously, new materials and buildings techniques are required to sustain the impact of future hazards, and risk assessments are required to safeguard the current investments. With approximately 800 million farmers, the urbanization process of China is still heavily underway. As the shift from a rural to urban life takes place, the redevelopment of Dujiangyan and the Sichuan province are a unique opportunity to find sustainable ways to synergize social, economical and spatial forces within its geo-political framework. Both the built fabric as well as the immaterial substance of the region and its people must be acknowledged if a prosperous future is to be realized. Through a joint effort between foreign and local universities, learning experiences and insights can be shared generating strategies and visions on multiple scales of space (from local to regional to global) and time (short, middle and long term). The case study of Dujiangyan may prove to be an example for other cities as they too struggle to find optimal solutions balancing economic growth with social prosperity.
	www.urbanemergencies.org INFO@URBANEMERGENCIES.ORG

Past summer school

July 2009, Delft
	Randstad Challenge
	In line with the general goals of the Forum and focus on the up-to-date urban debate (Randstad Vision 2040, Randstad Urgent program, Twin city: Almere-Amsterdam), the IFoU Summer School 2009 theme will tackle the Dutch government call who wishes that the highly urbanized region in the west of the country - the Randstad - to develop into a sustainable and competitive European top region.
	randstadchallenge.ifou.org >>
October 2008, Hong Kong
	Hong Kong Fantasies
	The issue of the master class is the sustainability of cities. Focusing on the city of Hong Kong and the region of the Pearl River Delta, research and design interventions will be elaborated to improve the sustainability. From the ecological point of view: Which spatial interventions can contribute to a sustainable environment under the conditions of an explosive growth of the region and in view of worldwide ecological threats? From the economical point of view: Which spatial interventions can strengthen the economical position of Hong Kong and can support the competitiveness of the region? From the social point of view: Which spatial interventions can combat segregation and deterioration and can contribute to a more integrated urban society? From the cultural point of view: Which spatial interventions can support the identity of city and region?
	hkfantasies.ifou.org >>
July 2008, Beijing
	Urban Rehabilitation in Beijing
	From the early 1950s to the late 1990s, a huge amount of public housing areas were built up in Beijing under the plannes socialistic welfare housing distribution system. Among with the socio-economic trasnformation and the process of housing privatization, those former public housing areas, more or less, have started to face the challenge of demolition. However, those areas still keep their values due to the good accesibilities, convenient public spaces/facilities, or xisting conditions of mixed-use and as the collective memory of a special historical era. Therefore, we chose the Sanline neighbourhood in Beijing, which is a typical public housing area developed in 1950s, as a study case for the feasble rehabilitation strategies and design.
	urbanrehabilitation.ifou.org >>
June 2007, Lugu Lake
	Lugu Lake
	Lugu Lake is situated on the border of the two south-west Chinese provinces Sichuan and Yunnan. The summer school focusses on one hand the Sustainable Development and Cultural Conservation in response to the acute crises of local development, cultural identity, and water pollution. On the other hand the process of Community Participation and Settlement Conservation but also the strategies for Local Economic Development through Responsible Tourism and the Transformation of Ecological Agriculture.
	lugulake.ifou.org >>

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