#Critical thinking #strategic thinking #innovation

Course Description

Before there is an emerging technology, there is future technology. Forward-thinking managers, innovators, and decision-makers need to explore the uncharted territories of tomorrow’s technology landscape. The purpose of this course is to enable students to develop an understanding of various future technologies that lie at the edge of R&D (horizons 4 into 3 or TRL 0). The course delves into speculative realms from quantum computing to neural augmentation to sentient AI, discussing their potential impact on industries, societies, and human existence.

Content · Four Horizons model of innovation.

• Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and industry variations.
• Various speculative future technology areas.
• Concepts of ”bleeding edge” versus ”leading edge”.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Describe and apply the Four Horizons model of innovation.
• Analyze the application and limits of the TRL scale and its industry variations

Competence and skills. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Apply the TRL scale to identify various speculative technologies on the cusp of emerging.
• Imagine and model a future state where one benchmarked future technology has progressed from emerging technology through nascent technology to a scaled solution.
• Build a well-researched benchmark and roadmap for converting a speculative technology into a viable, testable technology.
• Develop and communicate a plan to advance a future technology area.
• Demonstrate how to convert a speculative future technology into a viable set of milestones to attain a breakthrough.

Judgement and approach. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Discuss the importance of capturing outcomes from experiments and reflections. Critically discuss the application of future technology benchmarking and invention as an industry tool.

Prerequisites

General entry requirements

How to Apply

Please send us an email by 10/08/26 including the course you would like to participate in, your study program at your home university, your name and date of birth, your phone number, and your transcript of records to in.exchange[at]bth.se. We will contact you with further details regarding your registration if there are available seats.

#Active Learning #Critical Thinking #Communication #Innovation

Course Description

Key capabilities of improving an organization's processes, culture, systems, and teams are abilities to surface and solve Wicked Problems. The course aims to give the participants the mindset and skillset to continuously improve an organization's performance. Participants will be introduced to Needfinding (human observation, data synthesis, developing research insights) and Inventing (asking questions, structuring imagination, proposing experiments, field testing prototypes, communicating learning) as tools to understand, define, and propose opportunities for improvements of complex systems.

Content:

• Observation methods of users and processes.
• User interview techniques.
• Ethnographic techniques and data synthesis.
• Prototyping and testing tools related to needfinding.
• Examples of organizational change using needfinding.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Explain what defines a practice of needfinding and the historical highlights of the discipline.

Judgement and approach. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Discuss the importance of capturing outcomes from experiments and reflections.
• Identify when and how to apply observational needfinding for organizational change.
• Critically discuss the application of need-based organizational change as a tool within a team.
• Describe examples of observation-based needfinding.

Describe examples of needfinding in terms of organizational change. Competence and skills. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Identify latent organizational needs through experimental observation.
• Design and conduct an experiment to transform observation-based insights within an organization into actionable improvements.
• Develop and communicate an organizational change plan related to needfinding.

Prerequisites

General entry requirements

How to Apply

Please send us an email by 10/10/26 including the course you would like to participate in, your study program at your home university, your name and date of birth, your phone number, and your transcript of records to in.exchange[at]bth.se. We will contact you with further details regarding your registration if there are available seats.

#Hybrid Learning Labs #System thinking #Software use and development

Course Description

The course aims to provide students with the fundamental concepts of distributed systems and cloud computing, like Service Oriented Computing, Microservices, Virtualization, Autonomic Computing, Scalability and Elasticity, scalable file systems, and scalable noSQL databases. Moreover, in the course, you will practice using cloud technologies such as Docker containers and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The course foreseen practical exercices (2 labs and 1 Projects) to experience the to use virtualized environments at infrastructure and platform layer. Labs and project will require the use of the amazon web service platform.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding. On completion of the course, the student willbe able to:

• describe and explain the general concept related to distributed systems
• describe and explain the concept of resource virtualization and application containerization
• describe and explain the concept of cloud computing, Scalability, Elasticity, Autonomic Computing, scalable file systems, scalable noSql Databases
• design cloud solutions
• evaluate the performance of cloud solutions
• Skills and abilities

On completion of the course, the student willbe able to:

• present laboratory results in a short report and oral presentation
• select, configure, and deploy cloud services, elastic infrastructure and scalable applications by using management GUI and API offered by cloud service providersconfigure and to deploy cloud services, elastic infrastructure and scalable applications by using the management GUI and API offered by cloud service providers

Prerequisites

Admission to the course requires completion of a course in Programming, 15 ECTS credits.
Datastructures and Algorithms, 6 ECTS credits.
Operating systems 6 ECTS credits.

How to Apply

Please send us an email by 10/10/26 including the course you would like to participate in, your study program at your home university, your name and date of birth, your phone number, and your transcript of records to in.exchange[at]bth.se. We will contact you with further details regarding your registration if there are available seats.

#Intercultural awareness #National identity and sense of belonging #Mediation between cultures

Course Description

New Perspectives programme week is bringing together students, higher education professionals, and administrative staff to explore the fundamental principles of architecture and construction: the concept of Ur-Architecture. This is the original and most essential act of building, the response to the basic human need of residence and the search for the foundational form from which all later architectural expressions evolved.

Learning Outcomes

Through academic sessions, modern v/s old knowledge and time-tested building methods, interactive workshops, collaborative activities, discussions, and case studies, participants will reflect on sustainability, intercultural context, and the evolution of architectural practice.

How to Apply

Deadline: 30/06/2026; Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9K87HpkrcJEw84u8q-51spx2IZSVvh-MrGzvu0oL0dDNrLA/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=111576313746791689957 

#Critical thinking #Sustainable #Systems and strategic thinking

Course Description

The purpose of the course is for the student to develop

1. knowledge about, and understanding of, society’s sustainability challenges and the basic reasons for these,
2. knowledge about, and understanding of a structuring and coordinating methodology for strategic sustainable development, including its scientific foundations, and
3. skills in critically reflecting on a structuring and coordinating methodology for strategic sustainable development.

The course contains:

1. sustainability challenges such as climate change, reduced biological diversity, eutrophication, and reduced trust and increasing inequality in society.
2. the framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) as a structuring and coordinating methodology for strategic sustainable development.
3. scientific foundations of ecological and social sustainability such as scientific laws, biogeochemical cycles, theories of human needs, social resilience and trust theory.
4. research areas related to strategic sustainable development such as systems thinking, complex systems and economic theory.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

1. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:
2. describe and reflect on society’s sustainability challenges and their underlying causes.
3. describe and reflect on the major components of a methodology for strategic sustainable development (FSSD).
4. describe and explain scientific concepts relevant to ecological and social sustainability.
5. Competence and skills

On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

1. communicate and discuss with a variety of peers, in writing and orally, about the sustainability challenge and what it means to be strategic in this context.
2. use the FSSD to structure and coordinate knowledge, concepts, methods and tools for analysis, assessment, and planning within the area of sustainability.
3. Judgement and approach
4. On completion of the course, the student will be able to:
5. critically discuss core concepts of strategic sustainable development and justify one´s approach in the context of strategic sustainable development.
6. critically reflect on how different strategic sustainable development concepts relate to one´s individual field of study/work.

Prerequisites

Admission to the course requires 120 completed credits. English 6.

How to Apply

Please send us an email by 10/10/26 including the course you would like to participate in, your study program at your home university, your name and date of birth, your phone number, and your transcript of records to: in.exchange[at]bth.se. We will contact you with further details regarding your registration if there are available seats.

#MigrationGovernance #CriminalLaw #TransnationalLandscapes #SpatialGovernance  #HumanRights

Hosting institution: University of Bergamo (Italy)
Partner institutions: University of Macedonia (Greece), Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France), Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France)

Course Description

This Blended Intensive Programme examines migration as a legal, spatial, social, humanitarian and geopolitical phenomenon. It focuses on how migration routes and migration-related spaces — including borders, transit zones, detention centres, refugee camps, informal settlements, humanitarian corridors and maritime routes — operate as complex migration landscapes where legal norms, political choices, human rights obligations and social practices interact. The course brings together criminal law, migration law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, public international law, migration studies, humanitarian studies and crisis management, landscape studies, spatial and urban studies, governance, and policy analysis. Students will explore migration governance, criminalisation, border enforcement, detention, irregular entry, trafficking in human beings, exploitation, vulnerability, and access to protection, while also analysing how migration reshapes territories, border spaces, urban environments and transnational landscapes. The programme connects legal, territorial, humanitarian and social perspectives to understand migration as a field where law, vulnerability, sovereignty, inclusion and fundamental rights intersect.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyse migration governance within legal, spatial and socio-political frameworks; understand the interaction between migration, criminal law, vulnerability, and protection; evaluate legal implications of migration-related security and humanitarian challenges; identify how borders, transit zones, detention facilities, refugee camps, informal settlements and humanitarian corridors function as migration landscapes; and apply interdisciplinary methodologies to case studies concerning migration governance, displacement, vulnerability, and protection. Students will strengthen their ability to work in international and interdisciplinary teams, produce policy-oriented analyses and develop collaborative proposals addressing migration-related challenges. The learning outcomes align particularly with the New European Bauhaus dimension of inclusiveness and also relate to sustainability through rights-based and context-sensitive models of migration governance.

Prerequisites

The course is intended for students with a background or strong interest in migration studies, law, human rights, geography, international relations, political and social sciences, urban studies or related fields. Previous basic knowledge of migration, human rights or public/international law may be helpful but is not strictly required.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#SystemsFacilitation #StrategicSustainableDevelopment #FSSD #LeadershipInComplexity #RegionalSustainabilityTransitions

Hosting institution: Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Partner institutions: Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France), University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (Bulgaria), Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal)

Course Description

This BIP trains students to act as systems facilitators for complex sustainability challenges at the regional level. Grounded in real-world cases linked primarily to climate, energy, and mobility in the Blekinge region of Sweden, students design, plan and facilitate multistakeholder processes that support organisations and communities in developing strategic pathways towards sustainability.
The course centres on two complementary theoretical pillars.
The first is the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), a science-based, structured methodology for working systematically and strategically with sustainability across disciplines, sectors, and scales. The FSSD enables organisations to define their own vision of a sustainable future, identify current gaps, generate ideas for transitioning towards that vision, and prioritize steps into an economically viable strategic plan. Its process methodology, based on backcasting from boundary conditions for sustainability, provides students with a rigorous, transferable tool for guiding organisations through complex sustainability transitions.
The second pillar is leadership in complexity — the practical, relational and facilitative capacities that leaders need when working with diverse stakeholders who hold different backgrounds, values, and interests. This component emphasizes dialogue, co-creation and inclusive stakeholder engagement, and prepares students to navigate the messy, human dimensions of systemic change.

The result of each student-led facilitation process is a strategic sustainability plan for a specific case organisation, project or initiative, primarily addressing challenges in climate, energy and mobility. Students thus work at the intersection of systems analysis, strategic planning and inclusive facilitation — a combination that is inherently cross-disciplinary.
The interdisciplinary character of the course operates across all four dimensions identified in the call.
First, the topic itself — regional sustainability transitions — is relevant to students from a wide range of disciplines, from engineering, planning, and economics to social sciences, design and management. The challenges of climate-neutral futures and regional transformation
benefit directly from diverse disciplinary input.
Second, the teaching team brings together expertise in strategic sustainability methodology (Dr. Lisa Wälitalo), sustainability leadership education and facilitation design (Dr Ayers), and the theme of inclusion and sustainability (Dr. Sarah Croché), providing students with complementary methodological and pedagogical perspectives. In addition, several teachers bring in knowledge and experience for different fields of expertise (e.g. architecture, sustainable transport and agro-food industries) that could serve as support for student groups.
Third, the course explicitly targets students from different faculties and degree programs, and diverse disciplinary backgrounds are treated as a resource: students act as each other's 'personas' in facilitation exercises, bringing different stakeholder perspectives into the room.
Fourth, the pedagogical design accounts for heterogeneous prior knowledge by structuring a shared methodological foundation in the pre-phase, before students apply that foundation to their specific case contexts in interdisciplinary groups.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the course, students will be able to:

1. Analyze system dynamics and sustainability challenges in a regional context, applying the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) to map current conditions, identify sustainability constraints, and assess gaps between present reality and a sustainable future vision.
2. Apply the FSSD process methodology — including backcasting from sustainability boundary conditions — to strategic planning and transition design for organisations and communities facing climate, energy and mobility challenges.
3. Design and facilitate inclusive, multi-actor processes that engage stakeholders with diverse backgrounds, interests and knowledge, using dialogue and co-creative methods to build shared understanding and strategic commitment.
4. Exercise leadership in complexity by demonstrating the relational, adaptive and facilitative capacities needed to guide diverse groups through uncertainty, conflict and collective decision-making in sustainability transitions.
5. Reflect critically on their own facilitation practice and learning, identifying strengths, blind spots and areas for development as systems facilitators.

Alignment with New European Bauhaus:
The learning outcomes align strongly with all three NEB dimensions.
In terms of sustainability, the entire course is built on science-based sustainability boundary conditions and strategic planning methodology, equipping students to contribute concretely to the climate-neutral, circular and regenerative transitions that the NEB envisions. The FSSD is explicitly designed to guide organisations and regions towards full sustainability — not merely incremental improvement — placing sustainability at the center of every learning outcome.
In terms of inclusiveness, the course foregrounds inclusive multi-actor processes as a core competency. Students learn to design and facilitate workshops that bring together citizens, civil society, public authorities and private actors.
The NEB's emphasis on 'prioritizing the places and people that need it most' resonates directly with the facilitation methodology, which requires students to identify who is affected, whose voices are absent, and how to create conditions for meaningful participation. The social sustainability dimension brought by the FSSD and BTH team further grounds this in a science-based understanding of social systems and human needs.
In terms of beauty and quality of experience, the course draws on the theme of Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society. The facilitation processes students design and deliver are conceived as creative, participatory experiences — not bureaucratic procedures. Students are trained to attend to the quality of the process itself: how people feel, whether they are genuinely listened to, and whether the experience builds trust and shared ownership. This attention to process aesthetics and relational quality is intrinsic to the leadership-in-complexity framework.

Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites; basic familiarity with sustainability challenges is beneficial but not required.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#Human Resource Development #Community Building

Course Description

This Staff Week provides a platform for exchanging experiences on existing career and human resource development systems at the partner institutions, as well as on the diverse national frameworks that shape career development, mobility, and employment. Together, we will explore ways to build connections between career development, skills development, and professional mobility across BAUHAUS4EU.

Key questions to be explored include:

• What forms of career and professional development across universities could be envisioned within the BAUHAUS4EU alliance?
• What might a shared career and development space for alliance staff look like?
• Which legal, contractual, administrative, and institutional frameworks facilitate or hinder the establishment of cross-university career pathways?
• Which competencies and development opportunities would be needed to support mobility and career progression across institutional and national borders?
• What role can e.g. human resource development, talent management, and leadership programmes play in shaping such career pathways?
• What opportunities could arise for strengthening the alliance’s attractiveness as an employer network and for the long-term recruitment, development, and retention of talent?

• This Staff Week is a space for mutual learning, strategic reflection, and new ideas. The goal is to develop a shared understanding of what is needed for BAUHAUS4EU to become not only a common European education and research area but also a shared space for career and professional development.

Learning Outcomes

This Staff Week focuses on examining the potential for a common career and development framework for staff across the alliance.

How to Apply

Registration period until 30.09.2026
Registration link: https://veranstaltungen.uni-weimar.de/de/events/019e921b-deb9-7ec8-8c56-93860dc90278/apply   

#Academic advising #career advising

Course Description

This staff week brings together colleagues working in (general) academic advising. Throughout the week, we will explore how demographic change and increasingly diverse student profiles are reshaping our work. We will reflect on inclusive advising practices, discuss effective support structures for students with disadvantages, and examine current approaches to career entry and internship guidance.

The Staff Week aims to create space for meaningful exchange, peer learning, and the development of sustainable cooperation across institutions.

In addition, participants will have the opportunity to experience the Christmas magic of Weimar during the social programme and networking events.

Learning Outcomes

In this staff week, we will explore how demographic change and diverse student profiles are reshaping our work, focusing on inclusive advising.

How to Apply

Registration period until 30.09.2026
Registration link: Anmeldung · Staff Week: Current Trends and Challenges in (General) Academic Advising (BIP) · Veranstaltungen · Veranstaltungs-Manager der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar - Congeno

#PublicAnthropology #ResearchCreation #UrbanEcologies #SensoryEthnography #MultimodalResearch #CreativeMethods #EcologicalTransitions

Hosting institution: University of Macedonia (Greece)
Partner institutions: Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France), University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski" (Bulgaria)

Course Description

An interdisciplinary BIP combining public anthropology, sensory ethnography, urban studies, and artistic research. Through immersive fieldwork in Thessaloniki, Lyon, and Plovdiv, students explore urban environments, ecological transitions, cultural heritage, and collective memory, producing multimodal outputs such as podcasts, sensory maps, visual portfolios, and performances.

Learning Outcomes

Students will develop competencies in public anthropology, sensory ethnography, multimodal research, intercultural collaboration, and public engagement. They will learn to critically analyse urban environments, ecological transitions, and cultural heritage while producing creative and publicly accessible outputs.

Prerequisites

Background in Anthropology, Ethnology, Cultural Studies or related Social Sciences is recommended. Interest in public anthropology, urban environments, cultural heritage, fieldwork, and creative research methods is expected.

How to Apply

The course is open to at least 15 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#RailwayResearch #MobileFieldwork #SpatialPractice #MobilityInfrastructures #PlaceBasedLearning

Hosting institution: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany)
Partner institutions: University of Bergamo (Italy)

Course Description

This Blended Intensive Programme investigates railway mobility as a cultural, social and spatial practice through artistic research. It is grounded at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where it is developed through preparatory workshops in audiovisual field methods and railway-based artistic research. From there, the course extends into stations, disused railway spaces, railway corridors and trains themselves. The railway journeys between Weimar and Berlin/Erkner, and between Weimar and Dessau, function simultaneously as route, classroom, field site and studio. Students conduct observation, documentation and artistic production while travelling, working within the rhythms, interruptions, encounters and changing perspectives specific to railway travel. In the Weimar phase, students work directly with the local railway environment, including visits to Weimar station and former interlocking towers in Eisenach and Camburg, and exchanges with railway employees. The course addresses the New European Bauhaus challenge of Regaining a Sense of Belonging through railway infrastructures as shared European spaces linked to ecological transition and sustainable mobility. As George Revill has argued, railways are not only technical systems but cultural environments shaping movement, landscape and social interaction.

The course examines how stations, trains and mobility networks structure relations between places and people, producing orientation and collective experience across regions and borders. Railway travel generates co-presence through shared compartments, waiting areas, routes and timetables, making visible how mobility shapes social life and connects diverse communities, so that belonging emerges through movement and shared public space. All practices on trains remain within normal passenger activities and require no special permission from the railway company. The programme engages with the thematic areas Climate, Energy and Mobility and Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society. Conducting the mobility phase by train includes sustainability directly within the course structure. Students analyse rail systems as infrastructures of low-carbon mobility while examining their social, spatial and cultural dimensions. Particular attention is given to accessibility, intermodality, regional connectivity and the role of public transport in shaping everyday experience. Interdisciplinarity is embedded in the composition of both the student cohort and the teaching team. The programme brings together participants from art, design, architecture, media studies, geography, urban studies, engineering, literature and more. Students work in mixed groups throughout the course, combining analytical, spatial and artistic approaches to a common research object. Teaching is shared between practitioners of artistic research, audiovisual production, mobility geography and urban studies, creating a framework in which questions of perception, infrastructure, territory and urban transformation can be addressed simultaneously. The methodological approach combines artistic and spatial research techniques. Students work with photography, moving image, sound recording, drawing, mapping, field notes and site observation. Methods from mobility studies and human geography complement these practices, enabling participants to analyse railway environments at multiple scales, from experiences of travel to wider questions of territorial organisation and infrastructure planning. The aim is to produce knowledge through direct engagement with mobility environments. The course draws on recent railway-focused artistic and academic research. The Railway Aesthetics conference (2025), held on trains from Vienna to Istanbul, showed how railway space can function as a site of knowledge production, discussion and cultural exchange. Building on this, the train forms the spine of the programme, where teaching, observation, conversation and artistic work unfold in direct relation to the infrastructures under study. This understanding of the train as a research and teaching environment is grounded in prior practice-based collaborations between the partners from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and includes the archival and pedagogical legacy of the Bauhaus in Dessau as an additional reference framework for situating mobility, travel and spatial production within historical modernist practices. The field research phase brings students on the traces of the Bauhaus and conveys access to further disused spaces of Deutsche Bahn. Students analyse the station as a mobility node, public space and site of urban regeneration, paying particular attention to accessibility, intermodality and the relationship between transport infrastructure and everyday urban life. In Berlin/Erkner, this includes visits to the S-Bahn Werk Erkner and former interlocking towers, alongside exchanges with actors involved in railway infrastructure and S-Bahn operations. In Dessau, this includes engagement with Bauhaus-related archival contexts and institutional sites, situating contemporary railway mobility within historical trajectories of design, pedagogy and spatial experimentation. Further investigations address case studies of sustainable mobility, adaptive reuse of former railway spaces, multiple usages of railway corridors and connections between urban and peri-urban territories. Site visits, mapping exercises and discussions examine the social, ecological and spatial implications of mobility systems and the coexistence of trains, trams, bicycles and pedestrian movement. The programme connects academic learning with regional ecosystems through exchanges with railway employees, mobility operators, planners and cultural practitioners. The course concludes with a public exhibition at Weimar Hauptbahnhof, where research materials and artistic works produced during the journey are presented within an operational railway environment, returning the results of the project to the infrastructures from which they emerged.

Learning Outcomes

The course develops students’ ability to investigate and represent railway mobility as a cultural, social and spatial phenomenon through artistic research across stations, trains and urban infrastructures. Students work with railway environments as field sites where perception, interaction and spatial organisation emerge through movement, enabling differentiated perspectives on train travel and its role in shaping contemporary territories and everyday life. Students gain practical experience in artistic and spatial research under conditions of mobility. This includes working on trains as mobile spaces of observation, interaction and creative practice and adapting photography, moving image, sound, drawing and writing to changing light, limited stability, interruptions and encounters with other passengers. Research is organised in motion, including documentation strategies within public transport environments.
A central learning outcome is the ability to read and analyse railway infrastructures as socio-spatial systems composed of stations, corridors and urban interfaces. Students examine how mobility networks structure relations between places, including accessibility, waiting, transfer and duration as elements of everyday experience. They identify forms of co-presence and their effects on social interaction within shared infrastructure. During the theoretical phase, students engage with external practitioners working in railway-related artistic and research contexts.
Through fieldwork in Weimar, Berlin/Erkner and Dessau, they contextualise railway systems within urban transformation and regional connectivity. In Weimar, this includes stations and interlocking towers as well as exchanges with railway employees, allowing access to operational and user perspectives. In Berlin/Erkner, students study the S-Bahn network, including the Ringbahn, S-Bahn Werk Erkner and former interlocking towers, focusing on mobility nodes within urban regeneration, intermodality, accessibility and the relation between transport infrastructure and public space. In Dessau, students engage with Bauhaus-related archival contexts, situating railway mobility within historical trajectories of design, pedagogy and spatial experimentation. Students examine interactions between transport modes within shared territorial structures and the effects of infrastructure reuse and expansion on relations between urban and peri-urban areas.
An additional outcome is the integration of artistic research with approaches from mobility studies, human geography and urban studies. In interdisciplinary groups, students combine observation with spatial analysis and produce outcomes in artistic and analytical formats, including spatial narratives, audiovisual essays, (story) mappings and installations, developed collaboratively.
Students work across disciplinary backgrounds in art, design, architecture, media studies, geography and urban studies, combining methods within shared fieldwork and presentation formats, with attention to how different disciplines shape observation and interpretation.
The course develops understanding of mobility infrastructures as social and cultural environments. Through railway spaces as sites of co-presence, students analyse how belonging is produced through movement, shared time structures and public infrastructure, and how attention, orientation and interaction are organised across contexts.
Students gain experience presenting work in non-academic settings. The final public exhibition at Weimar Hauptbahnhof presents results within an operational railway environment, addressing passengers, railway staff and local audiences. Overall, the course develops an interdisciplinary practice connecting artistic research with spatial and social analysis in European railway environments.

Prerequisites

Students from all backgrounds are welcome, including those with initial experience in artistic, design, architectural, media-based or social practice. Prior engagement with collaborative, site-based or participatory formats is an advantage. Participation requires willingness to work in transnational teams, undertake rail travel, and engage directly with infrastructural environments such as railway systems, stations and transit corridors. No specific technical skills are required; however, openness to working with (either) image, sound, text, drawing and documentation methods is essential.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way. Planned for early 2027.

#SmartMobility  #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #SmartCities #SustainableUrbanDevelopment

Hosting institution: POLIS University (Albania)
Partner institutions: University of Bergamo (Italy)

Course Description

The course “BAUHAUS4EU MoveSmart Hack: AI-Driven Smart Mobility for Inclusive and Connected Communities” focuses on smart urban mobility and how digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-driven methods, can support more sustainable and inclusive cities. It addresses key urban challenges such as accessibility, environmental impact, and mobility efficiency.
The course is interdisciplinary, combining computer science and machine learning for data analysis and intelligent systems, urban planning and architecture for understanding cities' spaces and infrastructure, and social sciences and accessibility studies to ensure inclusion and equity in mobility systems. It also integrates human-computer interaction and design thinking to develop user-centred and practical solutions. Through hackathon-based collaborative work, students from different disciplines will jointly analyse urban mobility problems and design innovative solutions. The course promotes a holistic approach that combines technology, urban space, and social needs to create sustainable, inclusive, and human-centred mobility systems aligned with the New European Bauhaus values.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply basic concepts of smart urban mobility, use data analysis and machine learning to explore urban challenges, and propose simple, data-informed solutions for mobility problems with the acquired data interpretation skills. Students will also gain experience in interdisciplinary teamwork, working with peers from different fields to design prototype solutions in a hackathon setting. They will strengthen their communication and collaboration skills in addressing complex urban issues.
The course promotes a human-centred approach, enabling students to consider the needs of diverse users, including vulnerable groups, when designing mobility solutions. They will also develop awareness of the ethical and social implications of data-driven technologies in cities.
In relation to the New European Bauhaus, the learning outcomes align with sustainability by promoting environmentally friendly mobility ideas, inclusiveness by ensuring accessibility for all users, and beauty by encouraging intuitive and user-friendly urban solutions.

Prerequisites

Applicants should be Master's-level students from a variety of disciplines. While students from Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, and related fields are encouraged to apply, the course also welcomes students from Urban Planning, Architecture, Mobility Studies, and other relevant disciplines, reflecting its interdisciplinary approach. There are no mandatory technical prerequisites for participation. However, students with prior experience in tools and simulation environments commonly used in hackathons and smart mobility research,such as SUMO, OMNeT++, PyCharm, Python, GIS tools, or similar software—will have an advantage in engaging with the practical activities and collaborative challenges.

How to Apply

The course is open to approximately 30 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#Employability #Inclusiveness #CareerDevelopment #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalTransformation #HumanCentredDesign

Hosting institution: University of Macedonia (Greece)
Partner institutions: POLIS University (Albania), University of Bergamo (Italy)

Course Description

The BAUHAUS4EU Career Lab Hackathon is an international, interdisciplinary, and challenge-based learning experience that brings together students, academics, career professionals, employers, and alumni from across the BAUHAUS4EU Alliance. Working in multicultural teams, participants will address real employability and career-readiness challenges by designing and developing innovative digital tools, applications, and services. Through mentoring, collaborative problem-solving, AI-supported innovation, and stakeholder engagement, students will strengthen their career management skills, entrepreneurial mindset, digital competencies, and intercultural collaboration abilities. The Hackathon combines online preparation activities, local hackathon events, and an international final competition, fostering creativity, inclusion, lifelong learning, and meaningful connections between higher education and the labour market.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the Hackathon, participants will be able to analyse employability challenges, collaborate effectively in international and interdisciplinary teams, apply digital and AI tools to real-world problems, and design innovative, inclusive, and user-centred solutions that support career development and labour-market readiness.

Prerequisites

No specific prior knowledge or technical expertise is required. The Hackathon is open to students from all disciplines who have an interest in employability, career development, innovation, digital technologies, and the future of work. Participants are expected to demonstrate motivation, curiosity, openness to interdisciplinary collaboration, and a willingness to strengthen their career management skills and personal development through active engagement in challenge-based learning activities.

How to Apply

The course is open to at least 30 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#ClimateFresk #ClimateLiteracy #SustainableUrbanDevelopment #CircularEconomy #UrbanResilience

Hosting institution: POLIS University (Albania)
Partner institutions: University of Bergamo (Italy)

Course Description

The proposed course is a hybrid Hackathon that uses the Climate Fresk methodology as a starting point for climate literacy and then transforms it into a local, action-oriented urban challenge. The course begins from the global logic of climate change - causes, feedback loops, impacts and human consequences - and asks students to translate this systemic understanding into the specific context of construction-intensive cities, with Tirana as the initiating case.
The core challenge: How can rapidly developing cities reduce the environmental and air-quality impact of intensive construction while remaining liveable, inclusive, economically active and architecturally ambitious? Tirana is used as a living laboratory because of the visible pressure created by high-rise buildings, large construction surfaces, excavation, demolition, logistics, energy use, material flows, dust, traffic interaction and the transformation of urban open space. These pressures are explored as interconnected spatial, environmental, social, cultural and governance issues.
The Hackathon is interdisciplinary by design. Architecture and urban design contribute spatial diagnosis, public-space quality and the NEB dimension of beauty. Civil engineering and construction management contribute knowledge on construction processes, materials, site organization, dust mitigation, life-cycle thinking and circularity. Environmental studies contribute climate literacy, air-pollution logic, and ecosystem impacts. Mobility studies address construction logistics, traffic pressure, and emissions. Design and communication disciplines support visual storytelling, exhibition design, and public engagement. ICT/data-oriented students can contribute mapping, dashboards, indicators, or digital collaboration tools. Social sciences and economics contribute stakeholder analysis, behavioural change, local governance, and feasibility.
The course builds on POLIS University's previous experience with a Climate Fresk workshop, where students worked in groups with visual climate cards, reconstructed the causal logic of climate change, drew links and produced expressive visual outputs. The new proposal adds a higher level of ambition: the Climate Fresk becomes the methodological platform for a 60-hour international Hackathon involving parallel partner university hubs connected online.
The expected final output is a Tirana Climate and Construction Action Fresk: a visual causal map linking climate change, air pollution, construction processes, urban development and public health, accompanied by a practical team proposal. Depending on team expertise, proposals may take the form of a clean-construction toolkit, a site-management protocol, a public-awareness campaign, a prototype for temporary green buffering, an urban-design intervention, a policy brief, or a digital communication/dashboard concept. This structure ensures that students move from understanding to diagnosis and from diagnosis to actionable design.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to understand climate change as a system of interdependent causes, effects and feedback loops, rather than as a linear or purely technical problem.
Through the Climate Fresk method, they will acquire climate literacy in a collaborative and visual way, learning how greenhouse-gas emissions, global warming, extreme events, biodiversity loss, resource pressure, migration, public health and social vulnerability are connected.
Students will also be able to translate global climate knowledge into a local urban challenge. Using Tirana as the initiating case, they will identify how intensive construction activity, building logistics, material use, dust generation, transport, loss of permeable surfaces, energy demand and urban heat can affect air quality, livability and public wellbeing. This local translation is central to the Hackathon: students do not only learn about climate change; they learn how climate and environmental pressures become visible in the everyday city.
A second learning outcome is interdisciplinary problem framing. Students will learn to work across architecture, urban planning, civil engineering, environmental studies, mobility, design, data, social sciences and communication. They will practice building a shared vocabulary between disciplines, negotiating different types of evidence, and combining technical, spatial, social and aesthetic criteria into one coherent proposal.
A third learning outcome is action-oriented design. Student teams will move from analysis to tangible output by producing a local causal map and one practical response. This response may be a design prototype, toolkit, policy recommendation, awareness strategy, mapping/dashboard concept or construction-site mitigation proposal. The objective is not only to produce a beautiful final board, but to create an idea that can be communicated to citizens, universities, municipalities, developers, and construction stakeholders.
In line with the above, our partner institution University of Bergamo would contribute to facilitating collaborative learning experiences, supporting the dissemination of climate literacy, and sharing good practices in integrating climate action. There are foreseen also some local climate-related case studies from participating regions to connect global challenges with local realities.
Students will additionally develop transferable competencies: teamwork under time pressure, online and hybrid collaboration, systems thinking, visual communication, public presentation, critical reflection, stakeholder awareness and rapid prototyping. These competencies are highly relevant for future professionals working in the built environment, especially in cities where climate adaptation, construction pressure and social expectations must be addressed together.

Prerequisites

No prerequisite is required. Students should have an interest in climate action, cities, design, construction, environment, economy, accounting, management, or marketing. Working knowledge of English and availability for online collaboration are required. Prior knowledge of Climate Fresk is not required; the method is introduced during the Hackathon.

How to Apply

The course is open to approximately 25 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#AIAgents #AutonomousSystems #RegionalResilience #SeriousGames #SustainableDecisionMaking

Hosting institution: Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Partner institutions: University of Macedonia (Greece), University of Economics in Katowice (Poland)

Course Description

AI Agents for Resilient Regions is a 48-72 hour European Bauhaus hackathon in which interdisciplinary student teams design autonomous AI agents for a regional resilience serious-game. Each team creates a group of AI agents representing a set of simulated policymakers for a European region. Once the official game rounds begin, the agents run autonomously: they read the game state, reason over constraints, make decisions, communicate where allowed, and allocate limited resources such as budget, human capacity, infrastructure investment, emergency response, and sustainability measures.
The simulation is inspired by real regional challenges in Europe but uses anonymised or hybrid regions rather than direct replicas of specific places. The scenario includes demographic change, economic pressure, climate and environmental shocks, inter-regional dependencies, infrastructure needs, sustainability targets, and return on investment. Teams must balance welfare, sustainability, resilience, and revenue rather than optimise for a single score.
The hackathon connects AI, sustainability, serious games, and regional development. From the AI side, students learn how autonomous agents can plan, negotiate, cooperate, use tools, handle uncertainty, and justify decisions. From the sustainability side, they confront trade-offs between short-term gains and long-term resilience, including delayed consequences and unexpected regional incidents. From the serious-game side, students experience model-based learning, competition, collaboration, and reflective debriefing. From the social and design side, they must communicate assumptions, explain agent behaviour, and consider whether technically successful decisions are also legitimate, inclusive, and understandable.
The design is inspired by serious sustainability simulations such as STRATAGEM, REXUS, SIM4NEXUS, Fishbanks, and the Adaptive Planning Game. These references show the educational value of repeated decision cycles, resource constraints, feedback loops, stakeholder roles, environmental shocks, negotiation, and structured learning outputs. This course extends that tradition by shifting from human-only decision-making to student-built autonomous AI agents acting in a shared regional simulation.
The course is interdisciplinary in both content and team structure. Students are not asked only to build AI agents software; they are asked to build agent behaviour that can be defended from technical, sustainability, ethical, and educational perspectives. Each team must deliver a functioning AI agent system, a final demonstration, and a reflection on design choices, sustainability trade-offs, and responsible AI implications.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the hackathon, students will be able to design and prototype autonomous AI agents that act in a rule-based, hidden rule, and stochastic simulation environment; explain how agent decisions are shaped by constraints, objectives, uncertainty, and communication rules; analyse sustainability and resilience trade-offs in regional decision-making; work in interdisciplinary teams where technical, social, environmental, and design perspectives are integrated; evaluate AI-agent behaviour not only by performance, but also by explainability, responsibility, inclusiveness, and long-term consequences; communicate a complex AI-enabled sustainability concept to peers, teachers, and external stakeholders; and reflect critically on the role of AI in supporting or distorting regional decision-making.
The learning outcomes align directly with the New European Bauhaus dimensions of Sustainability, Inclusiveness, and Beauty.
For Sustainability, the course asks students to design agents that operate within resource limits and confront delayed impacts. Environmental pressure, resilience, circular thinking, and long-term regional viability are built into the simulation as design constraints, not added as abstract values after the technical work. Students learn that optimisation without systems thinking can create fragile or unfair outcomes.
For Inclusiveness, the course is built around mixed target groups and regional equity. Students must consider places and communities under pressure, including how decisions affect different groups, regions, and future time horizons.
For Beauty, the course treats the simulation as a meaningful collective learning experience. Students create agents and game interactions that make complex regional systems understandable, engaging, and discussable. Beauty is interpreted as quality of experience: a clear, compelling, and memorable environment where participants can imagine more resilient futures together.

Prerequisites

No single disciplinary prerequisite is required. Students work in mixed teams with roles for AI/software, sustainability/resilience, game or interaction design, communication, coordination, evaluation, and ethical reflection. Starter templates and a common simulation interface will be provided so that students can start testing their idea.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#SustainableDevelopmentGoals #Education  #Inclusion  #InclusiveRegions #SustainableSocieties

Hosting institution: Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France)
Partner institutions: Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden), Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal), University of Bergamo (Italy)

Course Description

Education is regarded as a key driver for achieving all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 by the United Nations, by developing the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for building fairer and more sustainable societies. Two major challenges face education systems: supporting the transition towards sustainable societies capable of addressing environmental challenges; and ensuring the inclusion of all people, regardless of their social, cultural or geographical backgrounds or their specific needs. This course addresses the following questions: How can education systems contribute to the development of inclusive regions and sustainable societies? How can students be trained to design and implement innovative educational solutions that address regional, social and environmental challenges? This course explores these questions through a European, interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. It invites students to analyse the interactions between education, social inclusion, territorial development and environmental sustainability, whilst jointly devising projects with regional impact alongside teachers and stakeholders (local and regional partners from the public and educational sector, civil society, environmental organisations). The programme is organised around five modules, with teaching hours and site visits (e.a. inclusive and green schools, ecological gardens, nature reserve):

1. Education and Sustainable Development Goals
2. Inclusion and social justice
3. Regions & regional dynamics (rural, urban, peripheral; citizen mobilization and educational third place)
4. Comparative education systems
5. Transformative practices

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to: understand the interactions between social inclusion, sustainable development, environmental protection and regional development; understand and evaluate European and international policies on education, inclusion, and sustainability in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); identify the social, environmental and challenges facing European regions, in urban and rural contexts; identify and bring together the contributions of different disciplines to understanding the challenges of inclusion, sustainable development and regional development; adopt a systemic approach to understanding the interdependencies between actors, regions, institutions, and ecosystems; work in interdisciplinary and intercultural teams; contribute to the development of small-scale educational proposals addressing local or regional, social and environmental challenges; develop critical thinking. One of the course’s key learning outcomes is to enable students to design educational solutions that simultaneously promote social inclusion and the ecological transition. 

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

How to Apply

The course is open to at least 15 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#GreenCampus #InclusiveCampus #SustainableDevelopment #WholeInstitutionApproach #LifeCycleAssessment

Hosting institution: Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal)
Partner institutions: Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France), Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)

Course Description

This Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) focuses on the multidimensional transition toward a green and inclusive university campus. Recognising that sustainability is not a purely technical challenge, the course adopts a "Whole Institution Approach" (WIA), as defined within the BAUHAUS4EU strategic framework. This holistic perspective ensures that environmental responsibility and social equity are not treated as isolated initiatives but are integrated across all institutional axes: governance, operations, education, research, and community engagement.
The curriculum is built upon two complementary thematic pillars, supported by a third layer of strategic leadership and comparative international research.
The first pillar, Green Campus, addresses the technical and environmental requirements for institutional transition. Following an introduction to the core principles and goals of sustainable development, students explore specific environmental management models, criteria, and indicators. Central to this track is the application of the DPSIR framework (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Response) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies to the physical and operational realities of university campuses. Students learn to use environmental management system (EMS) tools and ecological foot printing to design regenerative solutions that promote circular and life-cycle thinking.
The second pillar, Inclusive Campus, focuses on the social dimension of sustainability through the lens of Equality, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EEDI). This track examines models and indicators for assessing inclusion and provides practical training in developing institutional equality and inclusion plans for higher education institutions. Students engage in deep discussions regarding the different areas related to inclusion in all its dimensions - from physical and digital accessibility to social belonging and institutional culture.
The course integrates a strategic sustainability methodology. This layer contributes to a systemic, systematic, and strategic perspective, moving beyond incremental adjustments toward transformative change. Students are introduced to frameworks needed to drive inclusive leadership and address complex ecological and societal challenges in an economically viable manner. By educating and empowering future leaders, this component equips students with the skills to facilitate transition within their own regional ecosystems.
The academic depth of the course is further enriched by a comparative study titled "The Impact of Sustainable Development on University Campuses: A Comparative Study of Belgium and France". This research demonstrates how universities have become "labs of ecological transition," committed to sustainable development in response to climate pressures, social responsibility, and student expectations regarding food, mobility, and green spaces. Through detailed case studies, students compare different national approaches:

• Belgium: Models include the institutional model of UC Louvain, the collective projects at the University of Liège, and the inclusive campus focus of the Free University of Brussels, alongside student-driven "bottom-up" initiatives at KU Leuven (Green Office) and UGent.
• France: Models include the University of Poitiers' focus on SD&CSR labels, the "eco-campus" projects at Clermont Auvergne University, and the "sustainable campus in a sustainable city" certification at the University of Savoie Mont Blanc.

The interdisciplinary character of the course is structural and operates across four dimensions:

1. Thematic Integration: The challenge of creating a green and inclusive campus inherently requires a synthesis of Environmental Management (LCA, resource efficiency), Psychology and Sociology (EEDI frameworks, human behaviour), and Strategic Planning and Law (equality plans, governance).
2. Teaching Team Diversity: The team combines expertise in Environmental Planning, Strategic Sustainable Development, Comparative International Education, Sociology, and Social Inclusion.
3. Student Cohort: The BIP targets a diverse international cohort of Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral students from all faculties. Disciplinary backgrounds are treated as a resource, allowing students to exchange perspectives on how their specific fields (e.g., engineering, social work, arts) can contribute to a "Whole Institution" transition.
4. Pedagogical Design: The course structure moves from a shared theoretical foundation in the virtual phase to a challenge-based learning environment in the physical phase. During the Mobility Week at IPCB, students work in interdisciplinary groups to develop a transformation plan for an ideal campus that aligns with the New European Bauhaus dimensions of Sustainability, Inclusiveness, and Beauty.

By the end of the course, students act as facilitators of systemic change, capable of drafting formal proposals for transition within their home universities, thereby ensuring the BIP's impact extends across the European University Alliance.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the course, students will be able to:

1. Core Concepts and Framework
   • Define and differentiate between Equality, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EEDI): Students will gain a deep understanding of these concepts in the specific context of higher education institutions, moving beyond simple definitions to understand their implementation in all dimensions of campus life.
   • Understand and apply environmental sustainability models and indicators: Students will be trained to use technical tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the DPSIR framework (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Response) to assess the environmental footprint of university operations.
2. Strategic Planning and Leadership
   • Develop a transformation plan for an ideal campus: Students will learn to design strategic proposals that align with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) dimensions of Sustainability, Inclusiveness, and Beauty.
   • Apply methodologies for strategic sustainability integration: Drawing on the expertise of Dr. Lisa Wälitalo, students will learn to adopt a systemic and systematic perspective on sustainability, equipping them with the leadership skills needed to drive transformative change within complex ecological and societal challenges.
3. Comparative and Critical Analysis
   • Analyse the impact of sustainable development policies on university campuses: Through the comparative study provided by Dr. Sarah Croché and Dr. Jake Murdoch, students will be able to evaluate how climate pressure and social responsibility transform campuses across different national contexts.
   • Contrast institutional models of transition: Students will be able to distinguish between collaborative, bottom-up institutional models (such as those in Belgium) and certification-focused eco-campus approaches (such as those in France).
4. Inclusive Practice and Design
   • Design solutions for universal accessibility: Students will be able to identify and address physical and digital barriers on campus. Under the guidance of Ana Ribeiro, they will learn to discuss inclusion in all its dimensions - from access and infrastructure to institutional equality and inclusion plans.
   • Facilitate multi-stakeholder workshops: Using challenge-based learning, students will develop the ability to co-create concrete solutions for real-world campus challenges, such as sustainable food, mobility, and green space management, while ensuring all voices are represented.

Alignment with the New European Bauhaus
The learning outcomes ensure that every student acts as a facilitator of transition. By integrating the technical requirements of a Green Campus with the social imperatives of an Inclusive Campus, the programme moves students beyond incremental adjustments toward the explicit transformation phase of the NEB framework. This approach ensures that sustainability is not a purely technical goal, but a holistic principle embedded across governance, operations, education, and research.

Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites; basic familiarity with sustainability and inclusivity challenges is beneficial but not required.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#SpatialPlanning #Architecture #CulturalHeritage #UrbanTransformation #SustainableUrbanDevelopment

Hosting institution: Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Partner institutions: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany), Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal)

Course Description

This Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) explores the spatial, social, and cultural implications of military expansion in heritage-sensitive urban environments, using Karlskrona, Sweden, as its primary case study. This UNESCO World Heritage Site simultaneously functions as Sweden's principal naval base and faces growing pressure for military expansion amid climate change impacts and rising sea levels. The course investigates how spatial planning and architectural design can support balanced, future-oriented development when defence-related demands, urban growth, heritage preservation, and climate adaptation intersect.
Through an interdisciplinary and challenge-based approach, students will explore how spatial planning can respond to and mediate between national security, municipal development, cultural heritage protection, climate resilience, and local community life to support resilient and sustainable futures.
The program brings together students and teachers from planning, architecture, urban studies, and cultural heritage from Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco, with open invitations to other alliance partners. By combining perspectives from different national and disciplinary contexts, the course encourages critical reflection on how European cities can respond to complex societal challenges while safeguarding local identity.
The course combines lectures, site visits, mapping exercises, stakeholder dialogue, and collaborative design workshops. Students will analyse the spatial consequences of military growth on heritage preservation, land use, housing, mobility systems, infrastructure, landscapes, waterfronts, and public life.
The interdisciplinary perspective is central to the course structure. Spatial planning students contribute expertise in strategic planning, spatial analysis, and the development of future-oriented spatial concepts across different territorial scales. Students in Urban Studies contribute with knowledge related to the social dimension of the build environment. It means the analysis of space, uses, needs as well as socio-economical issues, but also about functions, and spatial qualities of urban environments. Heritage perspectives contribute knowledge about conservation, identity, and place values, particularly regarding how cultural environments can be preserved and adapted in times of societal change. Sustainability perspectives address resilience, inclusion, climate adaptation, and long-term spatial adaptability, supporting integrated approaches to complex urban and environmental challenges. Together, these complementary perspectives provide students with a holistic understanding of sustainability, where spatial, social, cultural, environmental, and aesthetic dimensions are understood as interconnected and mutually dependent. The course aligns particularly strongly with the New European Bauhaus dimensions of Sustainability and Beauty. Sustainability is addressed through resilient and adaptive planning strategies that consider environmental, social, and institutional dimensions. Beauty is explored through the preservation and reinterpretation of cultural landscapes, historical environments, and meaningful public spaces. The programme also contributes to Inclusiveness by engaging with questions of public participation, community identity, and social coexistence in times of geopolitical uncertainty. Students will work in mixed international teams to explore spatial and societal challenges related to military transformation, cultural heritage, climate adaptation, and sustainable urban development in Karlskrona. Through collaborative and experimental design processes, students will investigate how spatial planning and architectural thinking can contribute to resilient, inclusive, and future-oriented environments under conditions of environmental, social, and geopolitical change. The final outcomes may take different forms depending on the focus and methods of each student team. These may include spatial visions, planning strategies, conceptual masterplans, policy recommendations, speculative design proposals, spatial interventions, or temporary installations and experimental prototypes that explore alternative futures and planning responses. By allowing a diversity of outputs, the course encourages creativity, critical reflection, and interdisciplinary exploration while engaging with real-world spatial challenges and local contexts.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Apply interdisciplinary methods from spatial planning, architecture, urban analysis, and heritage studies in a collaborative international setting.
• Collaborate effectively in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams.
• Analyse spatial challenges related to military expansion, climate adaption, cultural heritage preservation, and sustainable urban development.
• Develop and communicate future-oriented spatial concepts, planning strategies, and experimental design responses that balance resilience, functionality, and cultural values.
• Communicate spatial analyses and design proposals through maps, visualisations, presentations, and strategic narratives.

The course aligns with several dimensions of the New European Bauhaus initiative:

Sustainability

• Students will explore resilient and adaptive planning and design approaches that support long-term environmental, social, and institutional sustainability. The course addresses sustainable land use, mobility, infrastructure, climate adaptation,
• and urban resilience in relation to geopolitical uncertainty and changing coastal conditions.

Inclusiveness

• The programme highlights the importance of participatory and collaborative perspectives in planning processes that involve multiple societal needs and interests. Students will reflect on how spatial planning and design can support coexistence,
• social cohesion, accessibility, and democratic dialogue in urban environments undergoing environmental, social, and geopolitical transformation.

Beauty

• The course emphasises the cultural, spatial, and experiential qualities of heritage environments and investigates how historical urban landscapes can be preserved, adapted, and reinterpreted while accommodating new societal needs.
• Through spatial concepts, visualisations, and experimental design approaches, students will explore how functionality, identity, and aesthetic values can be integrated in sustainable urban futures.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge in planning, urban studies, heritage studies, cultural studies or architecture or a strong interest in this field of study.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#ClimateAdaptation #SustainableUrbanDevelopmentAndTransformation #AdaptivePlanning #SpatialResilience 

Partner institutions:  University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (Bulgaria), University of Macedonia (Greece), University of Economics in Katowice (Poland), Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany)

Course Description

The program addresses climate adaptation through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates architecture, structural engineering, economics, and technological systems. It provides participants with both theoretical foundations and practical tools for designing climate-responsive buildings and infrastructure, while considering structural performance under extreme conditions and multi-hazard resilience. Equal emphasis is placed on economic evaluation, including cost–benefit analysis and investment strategies for adaptation, as well as on technological solutions such as environmental monitoring systems, data-driven management, and ICT tools. Through case studies and applied methods, the program demonstrates how these fields work together to support sustainable, resilient, and inclusive responses to climate change.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the COIL the students will be able to:

1. Sustainable and Climate-Responsive Architecture: Understand the principles of climate-responsive and sustainable architecture. Integrate sustainability into design approaches and analyse architectural responses to environmental and climatic challenges. Evaluate post-disaster housing and emergency shelter solutions, considering social and spatial quality, and examine architecture's role in recovery and community stability. Engage with interdisciplinary perspectives across related fields. These learning outcomes promote sustainable architectural practices, address the needs and well-being of diverse communities affected by environmental and disaster-related challenges, and encourage design approaches that enhance the spatial and aesthetic quality of the built environment.
2. Climate Adaptability Assessment: Learn about the climate adaptability measurement, metrics specification, environmental data analytics, and forecasting the climate consequences.
3. Energy Management Information Systems (EMIS): Design and implement EMIS and collect data to support performance measurement and process improvement. During workshops, students will have opportunities to collect EMIS data and learn how to apply ongoing performance metrics to support process improvement in specialized business contexts.
4. Inclusive Climate Adaptation: Identify risks of social exclusion in climate change responses and design inclusive climate accommodation strategies in education, services, and policies. Understand climate accommodation's relationship to human rights, accessibility, and climate justice, and identify vulnerable groups at higher risk of exclusion (people with disabilities, migrants, rural communities, etc.).
5. Structural Resilience and Disaster Risk: Understand key characteristics and mechanisms of earthquakes and windstorms. Analyse structural performance under single- and multi-hazard loading, interpret building codes using performance-based and resilience-oriented frameworks, and apply disaster management case studies to improve structural resilience.

Prerequisites

Students with a strong interest in climate change, and humans' adoption to these changes, and a background in a variety of disciplines: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Urban Planning, Economics, Management, and others related.

How to Apply

Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#UrbanVisualNarrative #StorytellingAsResearch #ComicsForArchitecture #AccessibleDesignStories

Hosting institution: Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France)
Partner institutions: POLIS University (Albania), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany), Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal), Lviv National Academy of Arts (Ukraine)

Course Description

Aim: To create an innovative dialogue between architecture, design, and graphic storytelling, using local urban environments as narrative inspiration while using comics to communicate architectural and social challenges accessibly to wider audiences.  

Framework & Partnership: Comics and graphic novels serve as the central interdisciplinary medium, leveraging existing teaching practices at partner institutions such as the Université de Picardie Jules Verne and Lviv National Academy of Arts. This shared visual language enables collaboration among students from architecture, design, illustration, and storytelling backgrounds.  

Implementation & Deliverables: Throughout the year, intercultural and interdisciplinary student teams will explore local buildings and regional narratives to co-create visual worlds. The collaboration will culminate in a hackathon in May/June 2027, organized alongside the "Les Rendez-vous de la bande dessinée d’Amiens" festival. The final outcome will be a shared graphic novel distributed across the BAUHAUS4EU alliance.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Use the visual and narrative tools of comics and graphic novels to communicate architectural, social, and urban challenges
• Explore architecture and local urban environments as meaningful sources of storytelling and visual interpretation
• Collaborate effectively in interdisciplinary and intercultural creative teams
• Develop accessible visual narratives for non-specialized audiences
• Apply storytelling methods to architectural and urban research
• Reflect on issues of sustainability, inclusiveness, and beauty through artistic practice and collaborative creation
• Reimagine relationships between people, architecture, memory, and urban environments through visual storytelling

The course aligns closely with the values of the New European Bauhaus initiative. Through storytelling and visual creation, students will engage with the dimension of Beauty by exploring emotional and aesthetic relationships with urban spaces. The collaborative and intercultural structure of the project supports Inclusiveness, while the exploration of post-industrial spaces, adaptive reuse, and local urban identity contributes to the dimension of Sustainability.

Prerequisites

The participants should have a background and interest in art and design, cartooning, architecture, or urban planning.

How to Apply

The course is open to approximately 45 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#TextileCultures #StitchingKnowledge #WeavingTraditions #CraftingConnections #RegenerativeDesign

Hosting institution: Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (Portugal)
Partner institutions: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany)

Course Description

The BAUHAUS4EU Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) “Cultures of Stitching and Weaving” is conceived as a long-term interdisciplinary collaboration between the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany) and the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (Portugal). The programme explores textile practices as cultural, artistic, social, and material forms of knowledge production through the investigation of the embroidery traditions of Castelo Branco and the weaving practices associated with the historical Bauhaus in Weimar.
The course addresses the thematic area „Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society“ through the intersection of cultural heritage, sustainable design practices, artistic experimentation, and critical reflection on the social and political dimensions of textile production. By bringing together local textile traditions from Portugal and Germany, the programme aims to foster intercultural dialogue, strengthen collective cultural awareness, and encourage regenerative and sustainable approaches to artistic and design practices.
The project is rooted in the understanding that theory and practice are not separate domains but mutually informing modes of inquiry. Subsequently, one of the primary educational objectives is to connect theory and practice through experimental and research-oriented learning formats. Textile practices are therefore approached simultaneously as practical techniques, cultural expressions, historical archives, aesthetic languages and forms of critical research. Students will investigate how textile traditions shape local identities and shared cultural spaces while also critically engaging with questions of sustainability and labor as well as questions of gender, race and class in the context of the historical marginalisation of textile practices within artistic and cultural discourses. 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants are expected to be able to:

• Understand textile practices as interconnected cultural, artistic, social, and material phenomena.
• Critically analyse embroidery and weaving traditions in relation to cultural identity and local heritage.
• Reflect on the social, political, and historical dimensions of textile production and labour.
• Apply interdisciplinary methods combining theoretical reflection and practical experimentation.
• Develop collaborative artistic or design-based projects informed by local textile traditions.
• Integrate sustainable and circular approaches into creative and design processes.
• Experiment with textile techniques and material practices in innovative ways.
• Communicate and collaborate effectively within interdisciplinary and international learning environments.
• Critically reflect on the relationship between art, craft, design, and cultural production.
• Translate research findings into small-scale practical outcomes, prototypes, or artistic interventions.

New European Bauhaus dimensions:

Sustainability and Circular Thinking:
Once central focus of the programme lies in the exploration of circular and regenerative approaches to textile production and design. Students will critically engage with the ecological and social consequences of industrial textile production and fast-fashion systems while exploring sustainable alternatives.
The programme encourages students to:

• Understand textile production through life-cycle thinking
• Experiment with sustainable materials and regenerative design practices
• Reflect on local and small-scale forms of production and craft knowledge
• Investigate the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable futures
• Explore the role of artistic and design practices in ecological transformation

Through the integration of traditional textile knowledge and contemporary sustainability debates, the programme positions textile heritage as a resource for imagining alternative and more sustainable cultural and material futures.

Social Inclusion and Cultural Reflection:
The course critically addresses the historical and contemporary marginalisation of textile practices and textile labour. Particular attention is given to the relationship between textiles and questions of gender, class, race, labour and cultural representation. Students will investigate how textile practices have historically been positioned between art, craft, design and domestic labour and how these categorizations continue to shape cultural hierarchies and forms of visibility.
By engaging with textile traditions from different local contexts, the programme promotes intercultural dialogue and reflection on processes of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, and representation. The course thereby contributes to a broader understanding of cultural diversity, social participation and shared cultural spaces.

Prerequisites

The programme is open to students from art, design, architecture, humanities, and related fields who are interested in textile cultures, interdisciplinary collaboration, sustainable design, and the relationship between making, research, and cultural heritage. Prior experience in textile techniques is welcome but not required.

How to Apply

The course is open to approximately 20 participants across partner institutions. Stay tuned — more details are on the way.

#ArtificialIntelligence #CircularEconomy #Entrepreneurship #Sustainability #WasteInnovation

Course Description

This immersive course invites students from different European universities to explore how artificial intelligence, design thinking and entrepreneurial approaches can help tackle one of today’s most pressing sustainability challenges: waste.
Throughout the course, participants will investigate the social, ecological and economic dimensions of waste, from circular economy and recycling to overconsumption, fast fashion, urban resources, pollution and global production chains.
The programme combines expert input, hands-on workshops, field visits and a two-day “Prompt-a-thon” - a creative, AI-supported innovation format inspired by hackathons - in which interdisciplinary teams develop early-stage startup ideas for a more sustainable future.
The central question of the week is: How can we use creativity, AI tools and entrepreneurial thinking to develop new solutions for waste-related challenges?
The course is designed for students interested in sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship, design, technology, society and future skills. No previous startup experience is required.

Online Preparation

Before the on-site week in Weimar, participants will take part in two digital preparation workshops introducing key methods and tools for the course. Planned online sessions include:

• Design Thinking Intro
• Crash Course: Prompting & Visualization

These sessions will prepare participants for the on-site programme and support them in using AI tools creatively, critically and effectively during the Prompt-a-thon.

Week in Weimar

The on-site week in Weimar brings together international participants to explore waste, circular economy and sustainable innovation from different perspectives. After an initial arrival and welcome phase, students will get to know each other, connect with local students in Weimar and engage with the topic through interdisciplinary exchange, expert input and hands-on formats.

At the centre of the week is the two-day “Too Much Waste!” Prompt-a-thon, where participants work in teams on waste-related challenges and develop first startup ideas using AI tools, design thinking methods and entrepreneurial approaches.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• apply AI tools for ideation, research and concept development,
• develop a first startup idea in an interdisciplinary and international team,
• understand basic principles of circular economy and waste innovation,
• further develop ideas in a user-centred way and present them in a pitch format,
• critically reflect on the opportunities and limitations of AI in innovation processes

Prerequisites

The course is open to students from BAUHAUS4EU partner universities within the alliance.

Students from all disciplines are welcome, especially those interested in:

• sustainability and circular economy,
• entrepreneurship and startup thinking,
• artificial intelligence and digital tools,
• design thinking and creative methods,
• social innovation and future skills,
• interdisciplinary and international teamwork

No previous knowledge of entrepreneurship, AI tools or circular economy is required. Participants should be open to working in teams, experimenting with digital tools and developing ideas in a hands-on format.

Good English language skills are recommended, as the course is designed for an international group of participants.

How to Apply

The course is open to approximately 15 participants across partner institutions, there will be a waiting list if more participants apply so please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Please send us a short email including the name of the course you would like to participate in, your name and date of birth, your study program at your home university, and your matriculation number to: b4eu-courses[at]uni-weimar.de 
Registration deadline: until 06/09/2026

#ClimateCrisis #Sustainability #ClimateJustice #SustainableTransformationAtUniversities

Course Description

This course introduces participants to the basics of the climate crisis and its causes and effects in European regions and the world. It also goes into detail about issues such as climate anxiety, coping with individual vs. systemic responsibility, and how universities as actors can make a difference. In specific targeted modules, participants will be able to discover exactly what they can do in their position at their university to contribute to a green and inclusive (campus) transformation.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to understand and relay the causes and effects of the climate crisis as well as how the concept of climate justice needs to be taken into account when approaching topics of sustainability. Participants will also pledge one action themselves which can contribute to a green and inclusive campus.

Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites are required for this course.

How to Apply

This is a self-learning course. There is no deadline to register or to complete the course.

Please send us an email including the course you would like to participate in, your study program at your home university, your name, and date of birth to b4eu-courses@uni-weimar.de