Designing Inclusion Erasmus Project

Project Title

Designing Inclusion

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

European regions are struggling with how to plan more inclusive cities and face more and more complex urban dynamics, especially considering the recent refugee crisis and the already existing pressures the welfare state has been subject to. Planning and designing cities for hospitality and social-spatial integration requires innovative approaches and methods to understand the urban phenomenon and enable transnational knowledge exchange because of the shared nature of the challenge and the beneficial consequences of a transnational response. Indeed, an increase in the capacity to operate at transnational level and share knowledge beyond singular national settings is crucial. In the academic context, this challenge calls Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) involved in teaching Urban Design and Planning into particular account. HEIs are called to assume new awareness, as actors committed in the treatment of urban and social issues, taking on new social responsibilities. Relevant teaching tools and methods need to be refined, novel competences are required, and new narratives and representations need to be developed in order to produce a more in-depth knowledge of urban phenomena, prepare urban practitioners to tackle them and contribute to more incisive urban policies towards more just cities.
The University of Sheffield (UK), KU Leuven (BE), Politecnico di Milano (IT), Architecture Sans Frontières International (FR) and Housing Europe (BE) are the proponents of this project. The underlying motivation of this strategic partnership was to produce new pedagogical approaches and tools in spatial design and planning, addressing questions of displacement and migration in European cities. The partnership cooperated and exchanged expertise and experiences in order to:
(1) co-produce innovation in the educational process towards capacity development of current and future urban practitioners, to better understand and face hospitality and social inclusion challenges in European cities;
(2) develop innovative approaches to raise quality in teaching and learning activities within the HEIs;
(3) create opportunities for organisations, educators and learners to innovate and to adapt traditional teaching methods offering a mix of learning possibilities, also through increasing the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) thanks to the MOOC developed within the project.
All project partners participated to the achievement of the project’s objectives and results, which revolved around the production of three three Intellectual Outputs:
(O1) New learning needs: Challenges and approaches in spatial design and planning for inclusion. This output addressed civil society organisations interested in approaching new competences and skills to improve their ways of acting.
(O2) New modes of learning & teaching: Learning inclusion in action. This output addressed educators as well as graduate and postgraduate students, who have the need to improve their specific and transversal competences.
(O3) New teaching abilities: Developing pedagogies for inclusion. The third output addressed educators who wish to update their skills. It consists in the design and implementation of a MOOC on the applied pedagogical approach.
In terms of impacts, the handbook (O1) will be used by civil society partners to articulate and make more explicit emerging innovations in hospitality practice. The teaching modules (O2) will inform spatial design and planning courses within each of the institutions involved, which will ensure their sustainability over time. The MOOC (O3) is hosted by the existing open knowledge platform of Politecnico di Milano, which will ensure continuity over time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 291109 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD & Country: UK

Project Partners

• ARCHITECTURE SANS FRONTIERES- INTERNATIONAL (ASF-INT)
• COMITE EUROPEEN DE COORDINATION DE L’HABITAT SOCIAL AISBL
• POLITECNICO DI MILANO
• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN