U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons
[Amsterdam UAS, Frankfurt UAS, HOGENT, Metropolia Helsinki, IPL Lisbon, VSB Ostrava and Ostrava University]
The U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons, an international and interdisciplinary teaching and research project of the U!REKA European University partners Amsterdam, Ghent, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lisbon, VSB Ostrava and Ostrava University (external partner). Since 2019 the Lab has been focusing intensively on urban commons in theory and practice and how cities can develop into more sustainable, liveable, inclusive and (basic) democratic urban spaces. In an innovative blended-learning environment, students and lecturers examine various commons initiatives in the cities, such as communal housing projects, energy collectives, self-managed cultural projects, common kitchen initiatives or urban gardens. We organize the U!R Commons Lectures, exhibitions, summer schools, short-term mobilities, such as Erasmus+ BIPs as well as an online knowledge platform. In 2024 the lab was releasing a documentary video on the work in the past 5 years and a publication on the exemplary educational and research collaboration.
Commons Courses (international learning materials and input in local courses)
Urcommons.eu (knowledge platform)
U!R Commons Exchange Days (international online meetings)
U!R Commons Lecture Series (online lecture series, 2020 – 2022)
U!R Commons Expos (live and online, 2020 – 2025)
Summer Schools (Frankfurt 2021) & BIPs (Helsinki 2022, Ostrava 2023, Ostrava 2024, Ostrava 2025)
Online platform: https://urcommons.eu
Documentary: https://youtu.be/fbLv3Zf3Mqc
Publication: U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons (eds.): U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons. Co-Creating European University Education. Helsinki: Metropolia UP, 2024.
https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/874911
U!REKA Lab: Co-Creativity in Social Arts
[Napier Edinburgh, Frankfurt UAS, HOGENT, Metropolia Helsinki, IPL Lisbon, Hanze Groningen]
In the U!REKA Lab: Co-Creativity in Social Arts teachers and students from artistic and social oriented study fields of the U!REKA universities in Helsinki, Ghent, Edinburgh and Frankfurt, together with partners from Groningen (Hanze UAS), have developed an ongoing collaboration in order to exchange knowledge on the nexus of the arts and the social. The Lab focuses on the further development and transfer of participatory approaches and methods of artistic-ethnographic research and aesthetic education and cultural wellbeing into urban society. In projects of research-based learning and research-oriented cultural education, we investigate social fields and facets of the city in cooperation with local actors. Citizens are involved in research processes as experts of their social spaces and actively participate in shaping these processes. The transfer of artistic-research methods into the urban society not only generates new knowledge but also opens up new participatory ways of acting and possibilities of exchange in the sense of a co-creative sustainable design of urbanity – on the way to inclusive cities of the future.
So far international visits, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects as well as Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) were realized. The structure and contents of the events were co-developed with the students and complemented with on-site excursions and the invitation of practitioners and stakeholders. In this collective development, we see opportunities to make education more inclusive, practical and challenge-oriented, while fostering international and interdisciplinary exchange.
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), organised by Helsinki (2022)
Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP): Frankfurt (2023), Groningen (2024), Helsinki (2025)
International excursions & workplace visits
Staff mobilities, visits and presentations at International Weeks
Hackathons
[To be added later, projects in this area are under preparation] Lyudmila Lyubenova (Frankfurt) & Lisbon could write something
Excursions
[To be added later, projects in this area are under preparation] Jan Dieterle & Kaisa Kanerva will write something
Short Online Exchanges
[To be added later, projects in this area are under preparation]
