Students turn into explorers to identify urban solutions aiming to regenerate Brasov’s historic centre
City as Classroom is back! The 2024 edition kicked off on 25-26 May 2024.
12 high school pupils and 5 university students from the Faculty of Furniture Design and Wood Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, took part in the workshops, consisting of a series of research and exploration activities in the historical centre, treasure hunting as urban exploration and site investigating as urban analysis.
The project aims to change young students’ perception from simple city observers to non-conformist explorers. It paves the way for the HUB-IN Summer School, where students become proactive, designing and initiating projects for public spaces.
Discovering Brasov’s hidden gems
On the first day, the students discovered the Citadel. Split into four groups and guided by instructions, they investigated and used maps to find little-known, hidden architectural-cultural elements. They also received the keys to the defense towers of the Citadel. At the end of the day, the groups gathered at the Romanian Order of Architects headquarters in Ecaterina’s Gate to share the exploration results, discoveries, and lessons learned.
On the second day, participants, accompanied by mentors Arch. Irina Niculescu and Arh. Alexandru Belenyi, collected data in several distinct locations, such as streets, squares, and alleys. Each group analysed the locations by examining shaded and sunny areas, types of traffic (pedestrian, motorized, cycled, etc.), travel speeds, preferred routes, and places used for calming and rest. The students also interviewed residents and tourists to learn more about the local history, and the functions of adjacent buildings. The information gathered was recorded on maps and documented photographically. To conclude the experience, the four teams worked with mentors to develop narratives, clarify and refine field observations, and develop presentations highlighting the main findings of their research.
“Similar to last year, participants were very enthusiastically involved and completed almost all the tasks provided through instructions. They took snapshots, coordinated interviews and carefully studied the places they visited. Many of them said they were amazed and believe that participating in the workshop changed their perspective on the city’s space,” said Arch. Alexandru Belenyi, HUB-IN Mentor.
The City as Classroom is a HUB-IN educational innovation programme, proposing an accelerator of tactical urbanism ideas, through which pupils and students imagine site improvement measures and create prototypes of urban furniture in the historical area of Brașov. The innovation programme is experimental and involves an iterative process of analysis and reflection. It uses elements of the Design Thinking methodology and goes through stages of ideation, prototyping, testing, or pitching.
Find out more about the Brașov’s HUB-IN here!
