On July 1, 2024, the summer school “Shaping urban environments for tomorrow” was officially launched. The event, organized within the framework of the UniCities project, brought together students from four partner universities to not only provide theoretical knowledge in the field of nature-based, sustainable, and resilient solutions for community recovery and climate change adaptation but also to develop practical skills and present their project. The training takes place online and in person in Kyiv at the premises of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” and in Chernihiv at the premises of the Chernihiv National University of Technology. 

In their welcoming remarks, the school organizers noted that they are convinced that the projects developed will be a creative addition to the future project to restore the campus of the Chernihiv National University of Technology, which suffered from the brutal attacks of Russia on the civilian infrastructure of Ukrainian cities. 

The first day of the summer school allowed the participants to learn about Sweden’s experience in nature-based solutions for cities. 

Olga Kordas, Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and Director of the Viable Cities initiative shared her thoughts and experiences on the New European Bauhaus program and other EU strategic documents in the context of climate change adaptation: key principles and values. She paid special attention to the impact and application of the European experience for the recovery policy in Ukraine. Olga noted successful projects that have already been implemented and changed the lives of citizens for the better, including in Ukraine. Strategic approaches, solutions, and urban transformation through policies focused on global goals were discussed at the Valencia 2030 conference, which the lecturer attended. 

For example, she introduced the participants to the Sege Park residential area, which was a test space for implementing sustainable solutions. Sustainability, the sharing economy, and urban farming were the main pillars of the construction of more than 1,000 new living spaces.  The project managed to combine existing old structures with the latest innovative architecture.

In addition, Olga and the students managed to discuss the economic feasibility of implementing such projects. At the end of the workshop, the participants agreed on the importance of taking into account urban planning and the needs of citizens when developing projects. Not all experience is relevant to Ukraine, but it is important to study it to adopt and improve best practices. 

After the first lecture, Olena Pitrimova, Olena Vozniak, and Vadym Denysenko spoke about the state of damage to the campus of the Chernihiv National University of Technology and the specifics of working in groups. 

Serhii Bezborodko, Director of the Center for Startup Development and Innovation at the Chernihiv National University of Technology and founder of the NGO “Eco City” (Chernihiv), spoke about the specifics of cooperation between universities and municipalities. He also discussed its importance in the Build Back Better approach and their most successful cases, such as the StartUP school, HOPE initiative (collecting of plastic), and many others. 

The next lecture was delivered by Oleksiy Pasichnyi, a Researcher at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), and focused on technological solutions to ensure climate neutrality in cities. Special attention was paid to the Swedish experience.  

It is worth reminding that the project is being implemented by partner institutions: Royal Institute of Technology KTH (Sweden), Universidad Politechnica de Madrid, UPM (Spain), National Technical University of Ukraine Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, NTUU KPI (Ukraine), Chernihiv National University of Technology, CNUT (Ukraine), Academician Yuriy Bugay International Scientific and Technical University, ISTU (Ukraine), Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, NLUU (Ukraine), Charitable Fund CANactions, All-Ukrainian Association of Local Government Authorities “Association of Ukrainian Cities”, Public union «Association of the engineers of stable energy technologies of Ukraine», Ukrainian Research Hydrometeorological Institute, UHMI.