Neckar Now III: Transformative approaches to a sustainable future – cities for children

A city on a river holds many technical and architectural opportunities as well as challenges. This time, the participants of the Neckar Now III Summer School took a child’s perspective. Using an interactive water adventure playground for the City of Heidelberg as a case study, the participants worked in intercultural teams to develop sustainable urban designs for open space, harnessing their interdisciplinary expertise in water technology, (landscape) architecture, and urban planning, all while keeping children’s needs at the forefront.

“It was super exciting,” reported Belen Zevallos, academic assistant at the School of Engineering and Architecture, who organised the summer school with Professor Dr-Ing Ulrike Gayh. For the first time in its three-year history, the event was held 100 per cent in person. In total, international participants and lecturers from 13 different nations were represented: Albania, Brazil, China, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, India, Iran, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

The final presentation was at the Römerbad on the Neckar, and was supported by NeckarOrte, an association dedicated to raising awareness about the area. Here, the participants had the opportunity to present their projects to the general public in an outdoor poster session. “We are very satisfied with the week. We were all able to develop many new perspectives – even though the preparation and the days were of course exhausting,” Belen Zevallos noted, looking back with some relief.

The project team of the Neckar Now III Summer School:

Professor Dr-Ing Ulrike Gayh (project leader), Belen Zevallos (project coordinator), Professor Dr Cidalia Silva, Professor Dr-Ing Andreas Gerber, Professor Dr Mohammad Reza Ghomi, Dr Kenneth Bedu-Addo, Dr Enis Yazici

The Neckar Now III Summer School was  funded by the German Federal Foreign Office under the DAAD’s “Summer Schools in Germany” programme.