The role of universities is changing: they used to be purely educators, today they move towards being innovators and regional developers. That is why their physical and social locations as hubs of development are increasingly important in urban planning.
The project Live Baltic Campus explored how university campuses can serve as local living labs and guides for new planning and design approaches. The project aimed to build capacity in urban planning and design to harness the potential of changing social, ecological and financial contexts. Six higher education institutes in cities around the Central Baltic area have collaborated to utilise participatory design methods in developing their local campuses, and to share their results.
The insights, perspectives, and practical examples stemming from the 2,5 year joint exploration to find the necessary ingredients and local measurements for sustainable urban campuses have been compiled into publications Dreams and Seeds : The role of campuses in sustainable urban development and Live Baltic Campus Development Ideas Book.
The Live Baltic Campus partnership consisted of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Lead Partner), City of Helsinki, Riga Planning Region, Stockholm University, University of Latvia, University of Tartu, University of Turku and Uppsala University. The project was funded by the Central Baltic Programme and the Regional Council of Southwest Finland and was running from 1st of October 2015 to 31st of March 2018.
