Green campus. GUT agreement with the city of Gdańsk | Gdańsk University of Technology

As part of the agreement signed on 27 November by prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk University of Technology and Piotr Grzelak, vice-president of Gdańsk, research teams of employees, students and doctoral students will be included in the design process for the development of waterside areas as part of the Gdańsk Development Office's study ‘Policy of streams and small rivers. Sustainable management of riverside areas with respect for natural values and flood protection’. The study includes, among others areas located along the Royal Stream, thus largely running through the GUT campus.

– The GUT campus in a wider time horizon is to be opened towards the city. Our idea is to make it a green, modern ‘place to take a breath’ for Wrzeszcz. The aspects related to water will be an important element of solutions that will allow us to create an environmentally friendly campus - announced Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk University of Technology.

Cooperating with the city, Gdańsk University of Technology will prepare urban and architectural study projects for the areas along the stream. Then, representatives of project groups will present the developed solutions in the form of lectures for the Gdańsk Development Office, district councils and local communities.

– We want to use the academic potential, but it is also important to confront the designer [in this case, researchers, PhD students or students - ed.] and the public [district councils, local community - ed.] - said Vice President Grzelak when signing the agreement. – We are happy and thank you for the possibility of this cooperation - he added.

As Edyta Damszel-Turek, director of the Gdańsk Development Office, emphasized during the meeting at GUT, the projects of students and doctoral students will be consulted with the residents. Students and PhD students will also have the opportunity to work with materials related to city management.

– It will not only be a theory, they will face real problems. Of course, these will all the time be student projects or doctoral analyzes, but they will be based on a living organism – said the director Damszel-Turek.

Prof. Lucyna Nyka, dean of the Faculty of Architecture at GUT, plenipotentiary of the rector for campus development, announced that as part of cooperation with the city, a number of innovative ecological, technological and landscape solutions will be proposed, which have a chance to be implemented in the future.

– Although we are not pioneers in the field of incorporating the campus into the city, we are distinguished by history, historic buildings and unique location. The area of our university may become a unique, as the name of the project suggests, laboratory of pro-ecological solutions – explained prof. Nyka.

Let us add that Gdańsk University of Technology and the city of Gdańsk are already partners in the international research project ‘S.O.S Climate Waterfront’, carried out as part of the HORIZON 2020 program.