Silesian University of Technology students at a workshop in Italy

The Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Technology participated in an urban planning workshop in Italy as part of the international ARCHEA project entitled. , "Designing the European medium-sized city".

The international project, funded by the European Union under the ERASMUS Action KA-2 series , is based on constructive cooperation and integration between five universities, research institutes and organizations, all of which provide expertise in urban research, urban space quality assessment and distance learning.

New urban planning proposals for Bologna

From November 23-30, 2019, a workshop was held in Cesena, Italy, with the participation of thirty students from five universities: Università di Bologna, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Università degli Studi di Parma, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Normandie and the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology. The purpose of the November meeting was to execute five urban planning proposals for a degraded, post-industrial thirty-hectare area of the Bolognina district in Bologna. The area, divided in two by a railway track, is slowly being revitalized. Some of the infrastructure has been built: roads and paths, as well as new facilities - a city office, office buildings and residential buildings.

working on a mock-up

photo: Joanna Golba

five universities and five projects

The result of the seven-day workshop was five ideas for a new and better Bolognina neighborhood presented in the form of mock-ups and boards. The students, working in groups, created designs that were digitally cut out and then presented in the form of 1:1000 scale 70×40 cm mock-ups, juxtaposed with a large 3D mock-up of Bolognina. With such capabilities and a good technical background, the work was an interesting challenge to see how the ideas and working models would fit into the existing environment. Most of the projects presented bold and modern solutions: the RWTH team proposed completely covering the track and building a park with high-rise buildings. A group of students from Italian universities created a network of new buildings and compositional axes, which are volumes up to 400 meters long. A park with organic crops and greenhouses is the proposal of a group from France.
The team of the Architecture Department of the Silesian University of Technology under the supervision of Dr. Tomasz Bradecki and Dr. Agata Twardowch, consisting of: Martyna Suchanek, Karola Subotowicz, Oliwia Tomas, Joanna Golba, Laura Konieczny and Anna Wieczorek designed a residential and business district with a building-strip architecture.

Working on the project (from left: Dr. Agata Twardoch, Laura Konieczny, Karol Sobotowicz, Dr. Tomasz Bradecki,
Anna Wieczorek, Martyna Suchanek, Laura , Oliwia Tomas)

photo: Joanna Golba

The workshop allowed for an exchange of ideas and comparison of different approaches to workshop work. The student teams were supervised by instructors from their home universities, and the presentation of the results itself was a public discussion trying to answer the question of whether a compact and compact city is the right solution for this area of Bologna. Opinions as much as projects were divided.

The November meeting was one of the many components of the ARCHEA project, which focuses on sharing experiences in the education of architecture students. The others are conferences, publications and ultimately an e-learning course on knowledge of public spaces. In May 2019, the project held a seminar and an exhibition at the Silesian University of Technology.