International contest

Initial situation

The objective of the “Urban Futures Workshop” is to encourage innovative thinking about the challenges of urban sustainability. Students submit projects that are aligned with sustainable development goals.

In previous editions of the course, students have worked in the field during two weeks (San Francisco in 2018, Dakar in 2019 and Athens in 2020). The partner institutions on site hosted the UNIGE students and ensured collaboration with local authorities and NGOs. The choice of cities was motivated by the research conducted by the teaching team and by the identification of a sustainability issue (e.g., development of an urban flood zone in Dakar, sustainability issues around airports).

Due to the sanitary context of 2020-2021 and the impossibility of going to the field, the pedagogical team looked for a way to digitalize this experience. They decided to join the C40 Students Reinventing Cities online contest to give students an experience that comes close to reality.

Project implementation

As part of the “Students Reinventing Cities” international competition, launched by the C40 Cities organization (a network of cities committed to sustainable development and ecological transition), students were invited to propose their vision of greener and more inclusive urban neighborhoods. This competition allows academics and students to collaborate with cities all over the world. Together, a vision of more sustainable and inclusive cities is envisioned, including rethinking the way neighborhoods are planned.

The objectives of the contest are not only to develop greener cities, but also to build a broad coalition of young climate activists, representatives of unions, businesses, universities and civil society. Each of the 18 participating cities (e.g., Athens, Bogota, Chicago, Dakar, Reykjavik…) identified neighborhoods, city blocks or streets to be redesigned and regenerated.

During the 13 weeks of the workshop, dedicated in part to the contest, the students, divided into multidisciplinary teams, are immersed in the professional world and are called upon to develop a whole range of transversal skills in project set-up and management (teamwork, respecting deadlines, communicating progress, drafting reports, drawings, sketches and maps of the development plan…). In parallel to the group projects, the course sessions help students to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge on urban planning tools.

In concrete terms, each team of students develops a project for the city with a complete action plan in collaboration with local universities. The actions and solutions proposed to regenerate the selected sites are in line with the 10 C40 principles (e.g., sustainable living) and the priorities defined by each city. The action plan must be consistent with a Terms of Reference as well as the selected cities’ strategy and planning regulations. It should include a budget, timeline with phases of implementation, specific technical challenges, key players, and their responsibilities.

Thoughts and advice

The implementation of this innovation to remedy for mobility restrictions required a great deal of adaptation on the part of the teaching team. The program and the objectives of the workshop were entirely rethought to meet the requirements and deadlines of the C40 contest.

The experience proved to be a unique opportunity to place students in a professional setting to develop generic project management skills while collaborating internationally.

This online format allowed students to access data shared by local actors without having to travel to the field. They were also able to discover new open source digital applications (Kobo Collect, Epicollect, Noisetube, Plum Air Quality and Open Street Map) and strengthen their methodological capacities in the context of the increasing digitalization of cities.

The students from Geneva have won the competition 4 times: twice as the winning project (Athens and Bogota) and twice as the special jury prize (Dakar and Reykjavik).

Student feedback

“This is a very interesting and engaging course. The projects we engage in are very practical and relevant to our careers.” “This course was very practical and well structured. The project proposal as a competition was very challenging, because we as students have a chance to use the theory and put it into practice.” “Well suited for distance learning.” “The communication, the reactivity of the professors and the rigorous accompaniment to allow us to better accomplish our tasks and facilitate our learning. In addition, the numerous external interventions are very useful to have concrete examples of the theoretical knowledge of the course”. “The teachers are present, provide high quality information and feedback as our project progresses, whether it be ideas, networking or improvements to be made. This course also allows us to develop new skills. The teachers were motivated and always tried to involve the students despite the distance learning format. Bravo! ”.