UvA's Placemaking course nominated for Dutch Education Award

Published on 16-05-2023 16:46

How can we design urban areas using local knowledge and qualities? UvA students learn this in the course 'Placemaking' offered by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. The course is in the running for €1.2 million, €800,000 or €500,000 in prize money. Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf will award the prize money during the Comenius Festival on 29 June.

In the Placemaking course, students work with local parties to improve the UvA’s campuses and surrounding areas together. Students immerse themselves fully in the local area. They then design interventions based on the insights they've acquired. In addition to generating support, involving local parties usually ensures that the intervention is followed up. Last but not least, students pass on the lessons learned to the local community and new student teams. Thanks to this relay format, the Placemaking course has built up a sustainable network of more than 40 local parties. The website www.placemakingamsterdam.nlExternal link lists almost 100 student projects.

‘At last – a course in our degree programme that lets me apply knowledge and theory to a real-world problem, for which we then need to come up with and actually build a solution. This is what makes Placemaking so cool! You’re really making a difference, our solutions are still there and they work!’ (Placemaking student, academic year 2021-2022, semester 1).

The Dutch Education Award

The Dutch Education AwardExternal link is awarded annually by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to recognise educational innovation and to honour outstanding and innovative achievements by teaching teams. The prize money is awarded to teaching teams in senior secondary vocational education (MBO), higher education with an applied emphasis (HBO) and research-oriented higher education with an emphasis on theory (WO).

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