Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Michael Janoschka (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Doing Transformative Urban Research

This lecture explores the concept and practice of transformative urban research, focusing on the ways in which cities are not only objects of study, but also active sites of social change. Rather than viewing urban transformation as an external process to be analysed from a distance, transformative research embraces engagement, co-production and reflexivity as core elements of knowledge creation. This involves navigating complex issues of positionality, power and responsibility - especially when working across disciplinary boundaries and in close collaboration with diverse actors from civil society, local government and everyday urban life.

The presentation will also explore the potential and limitations of experimental formats such as Urban Living Labs (ULLs) in enabling urban change. While often promoted as platforms for innovation and participation, ULLs can fall short of their transformative ambitions if they remain disconnected from broader political and environmental struggles. Drawing on recent work at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), I will present the Mobilab as an example of situated, practice-oriented research that engages directly with issues of housing, public space, climate adaptation and socio-spatial justice in the context of medium-sized cities.

The aim is to reflect on how researchers can contribute to urban transformation processes - not as neutral observers or external facilitators, but as participants in shaping just and sustainable urban futures through critical, embedded and imaginative forms of inquiry.

Preparatory reading:

Hölscher, K. & N. Frantzeskaki (2021): Perspectives on urban transformation research: transformations in, of, and by cities. Urban Transformations (3): 1-14.

Thambinathan, V. & E.A. Kinsella (2021): Decolonizing methodologies in qualitative research: Creating spaces for transformative praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 20: 16094069211014766.

Rizzo, A., Habibipour, A., A. & Ståhlbröst (2021): Transformative thinking and urban living labs in planning practice: a critical review and ongoing case studies in Europe. European Planning Studies 29(10): 1739-1757.

Lecturer: Dr. Susanne Gerstberger (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Title: Biosphere City

The “BiosphereCITY” is an Urban Transformation Strategy for cities in and in the context of the UNESCO biosphere reserves. On the one hand, it aims to design the city as a sustainable, climate-resilient, biodiverse and species-rich living, action and production space, based on the premise of a harmonious human-environment relationship and the equal coexistence of biosphere and city, and on the other, to shape this process sustainably and democratically at the interface between science, politics and society. One particular focus is on the integration of educational and research institutions.

The lecture presents the “Action-Plan for the initiation of the Urban Transformation Strategy:BiosphereCITY”, result of the design-based and application-oriented dissertation “Biosphere + City” – it shows 10 impulses that experiment the initiation of the urban transformation process on the basis of statutory framework of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program and the WBGU flagships reports.

Addtional Reading:

Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU (2011): Welt im Wandel – Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine Große Transformation. WBGU, Berlin.

Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU (1999): Jahresgutachten: Welt im Wandel, Erhaltung und nachhaltige Nutzung der Biosphäre, Springer.

Umweltbundesamt, UBA (2017): Transformationsforschung, Definitionen, Ansätze, Methoden,

UNESCO (2006): Urban Biosphere Reserves - A Report of the  MAB  Urban  Group. UNESCO, Paris.

Internationales Doktorandenkolleg Forschungslabor Raum, Hrsg. (2012). Spatial research lab-

Forschungslabor Raum. Berlin. Deutschland. Jovis Verlag GmbH.

Radkau, J. (2002): Natur und Macht: Eine Weltgeschichte der Umwelt. Verlag C.H. Beck, München.

Lecturer: Dr. Denise Böhnke (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Title: The challenge to adapt Cities to climate change

The lecture sheds light on the challenges that cities face and must solve with regard to climate change. The focus is on municipal climate adaptation, i.e. the tasks of municipalities to adapt today's urban neighbourhoods and buildings to the climate conditions in 10, 30, 50 years' time. The lecture provides background knowledge on the topic of urban overheating, heavy rainfall prevention and planning aspects. It offers scientific approaches to researching relevant climate change issues in this context and discusses their practical relevance. The lecture also provides a broad overview of existing solutions and strategies for increasing the climate resilience of cities.

Additional Reading:

Boehnke, D., Jehling, M., Vogt, J., 2023. What hinders climate adaptation? Approaching barriers in municipal land use planning through participant observation. Land Use Policy 132, 106786.

Boehnke, D., Krehl, A., Mörmann, K., Volk, R., Lützkendorf, T., Naber, E., Becker, R., Norra, S., 2022. Mapping Urban Green and Its Ecosystem Services at Microscale-A Methodological Approach for Climate Adaptation and Biodiversity. Sustainability 14 (15), 1-28.

Gallacher, C., Boehnke, D., 2025. Pedestrian thermal comfort mapping for evidence-based urban planning; an interdisciplinary and user-friendly mobile approach for the case study of Dresden, Germany (eng). Int J Biometeorol, 1-18.

IPCC (Ed.), 2022. Climate Change 2022 - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press.

Bastin, J.-F., Clark, E., Elliott, T., Hart, S., van den Hoogen, J., Hordijk, I., Ma, H., Majumder, S., Manoli, G., Maschler, J., Mo, L., Routh, D., Yu, K., Zohner, C.M., Crowther, T.W., 2019. Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues (eng). PloS one 14 (7), e0217592.

Lecturers: Prof. Aikaterini TSIKALOUDAKI/ Prof. Theodoros Theodosiou (Aristotle University Thessaloniki)

Title: Sustainable and Energy Efficient Buildings

The aim of the course is to introduce the overall environmental footprint of the building sector, following its evolution in time, from the first human settlements to modern building structures. During this progress students can understand the main causes of today’s problem of buildings being the main energy and resources consumption and the biggest single producer of waste (construction materials) and CO₂ emissions. Based on this analysis students can further understand the potential to elevate the energy and overall environmental performance of buildings, policies, approaches and tools already in action to support this transition and also approaches to further support the goals of climate neutrality.

Lecturer: Prof. Nicolaos Theodossiou (Aristotle University Thessaloniki)

Title: Urban Water Management

This lecture provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, challenges, and innovative solutions in managing water resources within urban environments. Participants will explore key topics such as urban hydrology, water supply and distribution systems, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and climate-resilient infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on sustainable and integrated approaches that balance environmental, social, and technical considerations. Through real-world case studies and interdisciplinary perspectives, the course equips learners with the knowledge and tools to address complex urban water issues in a changing world.

Lecturer: Prof. Yusak Susilo (University of Bodenkunde, Vienna),

Title: Transport, 15-Minutes Cities and Societal Changes

In this lecture we will talk about the roles and importance of transport infrastructures in shaping the city and in enabling behavioral transformation. Different concepts of spatial and city planning will be discussed, including the recent 15-minutes city concept. Different components of design elements of the built environment and how it can impact the environments and energy use of its residents will be touched upon.

Additional Reading:

Driving Urban Transformation (2024) Mapping of 15-minute City Practices, https://dutpartnership.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DUT_15-minute-City-Mapping_04-2024.pdf

Golledge, R. and T. Gärling (2004). Cognitive Maps and Urban Travel.

In: Handbook of Transport Geography and Spatial Systems, pp. 501-512, Elsevier.

Hägerstrand, T. (1970) What About People in Regional Science? Papers of the Regional Science Association, 24, 7-21.

Litman T. (2024) Transport and Land Use, http://vtpi.org/landtravel.pdf

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. K. Matthias Wantzen (University of Strasbourg)

Title: Human River Encounter Sites in Cities

Urban design aims to create pleasant, efficient, and long-term, low-risk life conditions for citizens. Nature is wild and dynamic, it undergoes a permanent turnover of matter and a patchy re-organization of space. Urbanism has homogenized wild space and stilled rhythmic dynamics, and thereby (fatally) changed the survival conditions for non-human life and for many life-supporting ecosystem functions (anthropocentrically termed “services”). The consequences of this practice have been visible for many years (e.g., water pollution, health issues) but are now menacing more and more human lifes, exacerbated by Climate Change. While humans are mostly indolent facing the biodiversity crisis and remain resilient against scientists’ predictions about future life conditions, the current critical events (e.g., frequently occurring extreme drought/heat/flood events, previously known as “millenial events”) may have a cathartic effect and set the stage for a new value system that is better adapted to nature. In my talk, I will present examples on how people have understood the necessity for changing urban design according to nature’s (and their own!) needs, e.g., from stream daylighting, riverfront design, human-nature-encounter sites, restoration, de-novo creation of urban waterbodies, and eco-social justice between metropoles and the hydrographic basin. I will also make a plea for a drastic, socio-ecological urban re-design inspired by Haussmann’s Paris.

Lecturer: Matt Thompson (University College London, guest researcher at Freiburg Univ.)

Title: New urban economic imaginaries - Experiences from Zagreb and Amsterdam

Diverse alternative development imaginaries pointing beyond neoliberal capitalism – from degrowth and doughnut economics to community wealth building and the foundational economy – are beginning to gain traction in cities and regions around the world. This lecture introduces the thinking behind these alternatives and explores how they have been mobilised and harnessed, to varying effect and with different challenges, in various cities and regions across Europe. It will focus on the experiences of Zagreb and Amsterdam, in particular, as cities where administrations aligned with the new municipalist movement are experimenting in different ways with post-neoliberal alternatives. And it will reflect on the differences between these alternative models and the prospects for their wider adoption.

Lecturer: Philipp Späth (Freiburg University)

Title: Collaborative Housing: past – present – future

The provision of housing is generally influenced by market dynamics, private property, and financial interests. Addressing negative implications of these circumstances, some housing initiatives aim to provide housing in explicitly alternative forms - labelled either “collaborative”, “community‐led” or “cooperative”. Housing provided by and for residents, according to many scholars, holds significant potential to provide more inclusive, more affordable, and more sustainable housing. Using such expectations as a heuristic device, we discuss observable or expectable achievements of a) the housing cooperative “Genova e.G.”, which built ~75 housing units between 1999 and 2001 in Freiburg-Vauban and b) the contemporary district development plan “Freiburg-Kleineschholz”. We conclude with a brief outlook on how collaborative forms of housing provision can be supported politically.

Additional reading:

Schmid, B. /Fricke, C. / Zengerling, C. (2024): Towards a “Freiburg Model” of Housing for the Common Good? Fostering Collaborative Housing in Urban Development.  Urban Planning; Volume 9, Article 8191; https://doi.org/10.17645/up.8191