Application for research project funding from Nordforsk: NC-Labs project

Description

Nordic University campuses are undergoing intensive transformations due to the emergence of sustainable development and new ways of working, studying and living. Moreover, due to their effective systems of governance and their strategic and regional, national and international relevance, university campuses offer a promising ground to define, implement and test new urban and environmental models. Many University campuses are transitioning from mono-functional research and study centers to multi-functional urban cores where multicultural communities comprising a wide range of stakeholders work together under new urban paradigms, assuming both their forefront position and their responsibility in the elaboration of new solutions for new urban challenges. These aims are not different to the development principles of contemporary, advanced corporate campuses or urban sub-centres, but university campus development is clearly a forerunner.
Following these observations, this research project proposes to advance in the use of university campuses in the Nordic region as Urban Living Labs, to explore the definition of models, plans and governance systems supporting sustainable urban development and sustainability transformations. In this endeavor, the project will address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the EU sustainability urban agendas and the local sustainability visions in a strategically selected group of Nordic University campuses representing a wide range of cases and urban or peri-urban situations.
The proposed research plan will permit the aggregative and synergic co-creation of integrative knowledge, tools and impacts in the selected campuses. The project will respond to the urban Integration challenge by combining the different dimensions of urban sustainability through integrative tools for urban diagnosis and sustainable urban planning. These integrative tools will be jointly developed by the partners and third parties in order to maximize the mutual synergies between flows, planning and urban governance.
Concerning the co-production of knowledge, tools and impacts, the project will maximize the connection between knowledge, understanding and action by defining a set of local networks including academic, governmental, economic and social stakeholders. Partners and stakeholders will define together the agendas for both partial and integrative diagnostic and planning tools, and will make possible the real implementation and assessment of a set of strategic actions in the Campus Living Labs.

Period	24 May 2019
Held at	Department of Architecture
Degree of Recognition	International