In the curricula of European architectural schools, issues of social and environmental responsibility in regional and international contexts play increasingly a central role. Universities prepare their students to assume leadership responsibility in various professional areas, but also in the social and environmental sense. Especially for architecture and planning, the environment lies at the focus of efforts to “strengthen the sense of responsibility towards society” through active “design and improvement,'' especially in a decade facing global challenges such as climate change and social inequality. SEIAA aims to support, awareness-raising about social and environmental and climate-change challenges in the field of architecture and planning and fosters dialogue among four different architecture faculties across Europe and cross-sector stakeholders about these topics. In the wider sense the SEIAA initiative supports the key Agenda 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations. Therefore, the SEIAA installs three workshops to provide students an inspiring teaching atmosphere to deal with these topics in a passionate and creative way. Beside architectural researchers & teachers (RTTs) also social and environmental experts are invited to contribute their know-how to the workshops. Furthermore, cooperations with NGOs and local communities are planned for more active participation in society and scaling the impact of the developed project by the architectural students. One major core of the project is to conduct 4 Social and Environmental Impact Academy for Architects (SEIAA) workshops at 4 different architectural partner schools. The aim of the SEIAA project is fourfold: 1. Conduct Impact oriented architectural workshops The results of the workshop to the services and products created by an architectural intervention as well as the effects achieved by this intervention within target groups, their immediate environment or broader society. The differentiation which we are aiming for with the results of the SEIAA is beyond the level of architectural services and projects as outputs, or results at the level of the target groups as outcomes, on a long-term SEIAA is dealing with issues at the societal level, which are referred to as social and environmental impacts. Target group: students > 5 days intensive learning events for students from various architectural schools with groups of experts to develop their social/environmental impact architectural/spatial project > 5 students from each university – up to 20 students or freshly graduates > Through the participation in the SEIAA the students will gain know-how for social-and environmental impact oriented project developed in architecture and planning and also strengthen their abilities required for personal growth, new professional architectural orientation and self-fulfillment 2. Exchange for social & environmental impact oriented teaching Target group: RTTs (Researchers, Teachers and Trainers) > 5 days intensive teaching and learning events for RTTs from various architectural schools with groups of external experts to share insights of strategies how to deal with social and environmental challenges in teaching and how to create collective impact tackling these issues > min. 1 RTT from each university – up to 8 RTTs and further external experts in the field of social innovation 3. Feedback-loops for curricula Target group: architectural schools Creation of Feedback-Loops: Through the input and competence building during the SEIAA workshops each partner university can critically reflect on their curricula, what are the key learning from the workshop and how could these inform the curricula further 4. Network with local communities and NGOs Reach-out strategy for collective impact: Large-scale social and environmental change requires a broad cross-sector coordination and collaboration. Therefore an expert for collective impact is invited to build up this strategy with students and RTTs. (collective impact initiatives typically have five conditions that together produce true alignment and lead to powerful results: a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support organizations) The SEIAA Strategic Partnerships Erasmus+ project aims to share innovative practices and promote cooperation, and exchanges of experiences for achieving social and environmental impact in the field of architecture and planning. Therefore, the project should be carried out in a transnational manner to scale up the reach-out and impact of this initiative. Large-scale social & environmental impact comes from better from exchange and cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organizations. The overall goal is to promote, discuss, develop architectural education approaches in alignment with the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG
The Social and Environmental Impact Academy for Architects (SEIAA) is an Erasmus+ project that was centered around innovative teaching formats, to educate responsible architects that have the skills and knowledge to support a transformation towards a sustainable society. From 2020 until 2023 the University of Liechtenstein (LI), Hasselt University (BE), Bergen School of Architecture (NO) and the Royal Danish Academy (DK) shared their transformative teaching formats, based on which, each of them organized a 5-day workshop focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the workshops 20 students worked in 5 mixed groups. The workshop program depended on the teaching format of the university as well as the needs of its context. Our aims were 1. to strengthen the responsibility and agency of the participants regarding the creation of resilient communities through architectural investigations, 2. to create a dialogue and build up a network among architecture faculties and cross-sector stakeholders from different fields, 3. to explore and test more effective formats and settings to “teach” sustainability in architecture schools, and 4. to scale the result of the developed project through cooperation with local actors.
We have applied for this project for four reasons: 1. To gain a better understanding of how future architects can contribute to the UN Agenda 2030. 2. To establish new and strengthen existing partnerships with other European Universities. 3. To develop innovative teaching formats to educate future architects and urban planners. 4. To collaborate with partners from practice and bridge the gap between science and society. The needs depended on the context and partners from practice, such as municipalities, high schools, neighborhood committees, and industries. 1. Environmental needs: In the workshop at the Bergen School of Architecture we focused on developing concepts for a more harmonic co-existence of the city and the sea. 2. Educational needs: At the Liechtenstein School of Architecture, we raised awareness in the next generation of the consequences of how we use our built environment. 3. Social needs: In the workshop at Hasselt University, we established strategies to include neighborhoods in the creation of architectural interventions to foster social interactions. 4. Economic needs: At the Royal Danish Academy we developed design principles for an architecture of reuse as a part of a circular building industry.