Frankfurt UAS International Newsletter
Article in the International Newsletter of Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, 2/2020.
Designing the Common City: U!REKA Urban Commons Lab Launches in Five Partner Cities.
Climate change, accessibility and mobility, education, or housing – can government and politics by themselves solve the problems today’s urban communities are facing? More and more, active citizens, local initiatives, and interest groups are collaborating to create solutions. Urban gardening, book exchanges, or volunteer groups aiding elderly or disabled neighbours with their daily tasks are bottom-up initiatives that seek to effect change locally. Choosing „Urban Commons“ as a subject for a U!REKA Lab, a format the partners in the Urban Research Education and Knowledge Alliance are currently developing, therefore struck the U!REKA partner universities in Amsterdam, Ghent, Frank-furt, Helsinki, and Lisbon as obvious. This interdisciplinary, combined learning and research project explored how such initiatives influence decisions about the future of our cities. Due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, collaboration between student and faculty researchers in the different cities was conducted online. An exhibition documenting the international results of this first lab took place from June 16 to 21, 2020 at the German Werkbund Forum in Frankfurt. Future edi-tions will include research excursions and summer universities. Find further information at https://urcommons.eu