Enhancing of Heritage Awareness and Sustainability of Built Environment in Architectural and Urban Design Higher Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enhancing of Heritage Awareness and Sustainability of Built Environment in Architectural and Urban Design Higher Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

HERSUS proposes enhancing and testing of innovative teaching practices in the field of sustainability of the built heritage. The project strives to enhance the competence and motivation of educators and researchers to include curricula elements that will have tangible results, preparing students and educators to become real actors of the environmental change.

The practice and education in the field of architectural and urban design related to the awareness raising about the sustainability of the built environment and heritage face numerous challenges such as social transformation, climate change, globalisation, urbanisation and housing issues. HERSUS target groups (teachers/trainers/tutors, and students) need specific training and teaching activities within the frame of sustainability of the urban and architectural heritage: (1) a new profile of an architect/urban designer, a professional that is trained in the broad architectural domain, who owns technical, technological, socio-humanistic and artistic skills and, therefore equipped to contribute to the socio-environmental challenges, and (2) a new profile of architectural educator capable of assuming responsibility for the improvement of education and training of the future architects to enable them to meet the expectations of 21st-century societies worldwide for sustainable human settlements in every cultural heritage.

The main objective of the project is creating and piloting new innovative courses/group of courses/extracurricular activities within existing study programs of participating HEI, which can contribute to bridging the gap between sustainability and heritage. HERSUS aims (1) to enhance existing study programs at the MSc level, and (2) to achieve a stable and sustainable education framework complementary to the globally established goals in the field of architectural and urban studies education.

More specifically, the project objectives are (1) to increase employability by targeting labour market needs in designing of a sustainable environment, (2) to develop and implement new courses and extracurricular activities in sustainability and heritage at the MSc levels at partner HEIs, (3) to increase capacity building for study, (4) to strengthen the teaching and pedagogical competences of academic staff, (5) to promote greater awareness about the types and methods of innovative and sustainable-directed teaching and learning, (6) to reinforce the network of project partners, and (7) to disseminate results.

HERSUS will bring together 5 HEIs from Serbia, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Spain which will work together to design and develop the courses and disseminate them through international training courses, workshops and a jointly built Sharing Platform. The project proposes a number of activities of cooperation between the research sector, private and public sector, targeting both local and regional support towards higher education-practical arena cooperation. Access to the outputs and activities will be open, and therefore useful to students and educators as well as to the broader audience.

The results of the HERSUS project and the longer-term impact lie in five perspectives:

(1) Research and action: analytical, process and problem-based research which is expected to result in (a) a review of good practices in the subject area, (b) a critical questionnaire report in the subject area, and (c) Statements for Teaching through design for Sustainability of the Built Environment and Heritage Awareness.

(2) Information and enhancing of awareness: to broaden and raise awareness of the importance of sustainability and heritage thematic frameworks, while disseminating results at national and European level. Sharing Platform will be an open and publicly available repository for education and strategies for strengthening it.

(3) Networking: in the sense of the transnational strategic partnership establishment between urban and architectural design schools in European border areas. The network has the potential for rollout to a large number of participating members and address common challenges through cooperation activities.

(4) Education and training: the improvement of the quality of teaching and curricula. Innovative methods developed through HERSUS will allow increasing and updating the educational offer in sustainability and heritage thematic framework within urban and architectural study programmes.

(5) Design and development: the development of new and innovative curricula and teaching methods for urban and architectural design schools in Europe.

The project should enhance the quality and relevance of human capital development in higher education and strengthen the knowledge triangle between education, research, and practical arena. Therefore, HERSUS will support the development of learning-outcomes-oriented curricula that better meet the needs of students aligning them with the labour market requirements.

Project Website

http://hersus.org/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 246922 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZITET U BEOGRADU & Country: RS

Project Partners

• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
• UNIVERSITA IUAV DI VENEZIA
• UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA