Bildungsauftrag (Inter-)Kulturelles Lernen - (Wie) kann er im Rahmen eines Seminars an der Hochschule gelingen? Ein Praxisbeispiel

The heterogeneity of society and its effects are often discussed, in particular how people with different sociocultural biographies can live together in the context of internationalization. We understand dealing with (inter)cultural identity and the related learning process as an integral part of the curriculum. The expansion of developing a life long intercultural competence (EU 2018) and the ability to reflect (OECD 2002) has been avocated by the EU frame of reference. The seminar "Developing (inter)cultural competence" at European University Viadrina takes up this connection with its teaching content. It has been evaluated since winter semester 2013/2014. The evaluation focuses on the self-evaluation of competence acquisition of the students. Dealing with the conditions for successful learning at universities, we encourage a discussion about the complex meaning of cultural diversity in studies and the development of personality in the global worldview. The aim here is to discuss the extent to which the intercultural learning process in a culturally heterogeneous seminar group is more conducive to the educational mandate.Die Heterogenität der Gesellschaft und ihre Auswirkungen werden häufig diskutiert, u. a. wie das gemeinsame Leben von Menschen mit unterschiedlichen soziokulturellen Biografien im Rahmen von Internationalisierung gelingt. Die Autorinnen verstehen die Beschäftigung mit (inter-)kultureller Identität sowie dem damit verbundenen Lernprozess als einen festen Bestandteil des Curriculums. Der EU-Referenzrahmen spricht sich für den Ausbau einer lebenslang zu entwickelnden interkulturellen Kompetenz (EU 2018) und die Ausbildung der Reflexionsfähigkeit aus (OECD 2002). Das Seminar "(Inter-)Kulturelle Kompetenz entwickeln" an der Europa-Universität Viadrina greift mit seinen Lehrinhalten diesen Zusammenhang auf. Es wird seit dem Wintersemester 2013/2014 begleitend evaluiert. Die Evaluation fokussiert den selbst eingeschätzten Kompetenzerwerb der Studierenden. Vor dem Hintergrund von Gelingensbedingungen an das Lernen an Hochschulen regen die Autorinnen eine Diskussion über die komplexe Bedeutung von kultureller Vielfalt im Studium und die Entwicklung der Persönlichkeit im globalen Weltbild an. Hierbei soll diskutiert werden, inwiefern der interkulturelle Lernprozess in einer kulturell heterogenen Seminargruppe lernförderlicher für den Bildungsauftrag ist

"Interkulturelle Kompetenz erwirbt man nicht in einem Semester!": empirische Ergebnisse eines interkulturellen Seminars

An der international ausgerichteten Europa-Universität Viadrina wird interkulturelle Kompetenz in Lehre und Studium gefördert. Vor diesem Hintergrund belegen Studierende ein einführendes Theorieseminar zu den Grundlagen der Interkulturellen Kompetenz. Um zu überprüfen, ob es zu einem Kompetenzzuwachs bezüglich der zugrunde gelegten Lernziele kommt, wird ein standardisiertes Evaluationsverfahren eingesetzt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Evaluation werden vorgestellt und kritisch analysiert. Darüber hinaus wird deren Bedeutung für die Weiterentwicklung des Faches Interkulturelle Kompetenz und der Qualität in der Hochschullehre diskutiert

Creating ecologically sound buildings by integrating ecology, architecture and computational design

1. Research is revealing an increasing number of positive effects of nature for humans. At the same time, biodiversity in cities, where most humans live, is often low or in decline. Tangible solutions are needed to increase urban biodiversity. 2. Architecture is a key discipline that has considerable influence on the built-up area of cities, thereby influencing urban biodiversity. In general, architects do not design for biodiversity. Conversely, urban conservation planning generally focuses on the limited space free of buildings and does not embrace architecture as an important discipline for the creation of urban green infrastructure. 3. In this paper, we argue that the promotion of biodiversity needs to become a key driving force of architectural design. This requires a new multi-species design paradigm that considers both human and non-human needs. Such a design approach needs to maintain the standards of the architectural profession, including the aim to increase the well-being of humans in buildings. Yet, it also needs to add other stakeholders, organisms such as animals, plants and even microbiota. New buildings designed for humans and other inhabitants can then increase biodiversity in cities and also increase the benefits that humans can derive from close proximity to nature. 4. We review the challenges that this new design approach poses for both architecture and ecology and show that multi-species-design goes beyond existing approaches in architecture and ecology. The new design approach needs to make ecological knowledge available to the architectural design process, enabling practitioners to find architectural solutions that can facilitate synergies from a multi-species perspective. 5. We propose that a first step in creating such a multi-species habitat is the design of buildings with an ecolope, a multi criteria-designed building envelope that takes into account the needs of diverse organisms. Because there is no framework to design such an ecolope, we illustrate how multi-species design needs to draw on knowledge from ecology, as well as architecture, and design computation. 6. We discuss how architectures designed via a multi-species approach can be an important step in establishing beneficial human-nature relationships in cities, and contribute to human well-being and biodiversity conservation.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

MindSpaces:Art-driven Adaptive Outdoors and Indoors Design

MindSpaces provides solutions for creating functionally and emotionally appealing architectural designs in urban spaces. Social media services, physiological sensing devices and video cameras provide data from sensing environments. State-of-the-Art technology including VR, 3D design tools, emotion extraction, visual behaviour analysis, and textual analysis will be incorporated in MindSpaces platform for analysing data and adapting the design of spaces.</p

A framework for artificial coral reef design: Integrating computational modelling and high precision monitoring strategies for artificial coral reefs – an Ecosystem-aware design approach in times of climate change

Tropical coral reefs, one of the world’s oldest ecosystems which support some of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet, are currently facing an unprecedented ecological crisis during this massive human-activity-induced period of extinction. Hence, tropical reefs symbolically stand for the destructive effects of human activities on nature [4], [5]. Artificial reefs are excellent examples of how architectural design can be combined with ecosystem regeneration [6], [7], [8]. However, to work at the interface between the artificial and the complex and temporal nature of natural systems presents a challenge, i.a. in respect to the B-rep modelling legacy of computational modelling. The presented doctorate investigates strategies on how to apply digital practice to realise what is an essential bulwark to retain reefs in impossibly challenging times. Beyond the main question of integrating computational modelling and high precision monitoring strategies in artificial coral reef design, this doctorate explores techniques, methods, and linking frameworks to support future research and practice in ecology led design contexts. Considering the many existing approaches for artificial coral reefs design, one finds they often fall short in precisely understanding the relationships between architectural and ecological aspects (e.g. how a surface design and material composition can foster coral larvae settlement, or structural three-dimensionality enhance biodiversity) and lack an integrated underwater (UW) monitoring process. Such a process is necessary in order to gather knowledge about the ecosystem and make it available for design, and to learn whether artificial structures contribute to reef regeneration or rather harm the coral reef ecosystem. For the research, empirical experimental methods were applied: Algorithmic coral reef design, high precision UW monitoring, computational modelling and simulation, and validated through parallel real-world physical experimentation – two Artificial Reef Prototypes (ARPs) in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia (2012–today). Multiple discrete methods and sub techniques were developed in seventeen computational experiments and applied in a way in which many are cross valid and integrated in an overall framework that is offered as a significant contribution to the field. Other main contributions include the Ecosystem-aware design approach, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for coral reef design, algorithmic design and fabrication of Biorock cathodes, new high precision UW monitoring strategies, long-term real-world constructed experiments, new digital analysis methods and two new front-end web-based tools for reef design and monitoring reefs. The methodological framework is a finding of the research that has many technical components that were tested and combined in this way for the very first time. In summary, the thesis responds to the urgency and relevance in preserving marine species in tropical reefs during this massive extinction period by offering a differentiated approach towards artificial coral reefs – demonstrating the feasibility of digitally designing such ‘living architecture’ according to multiple context and performance parameters. It also provides an in-depth critical discussion of computational design and architecture in the context of ecosystem regeneration and Planetary Thinking. In that respect, the thesis functions as both theoretical and practical background for computational design, ecology and marine conservation – not only to foster the design of artificial coral reefs technically but also to provide essential criteria and techniques for conceiving them. Keywords: Artificial coral reefs, computational modelling, high precision underwater monitoring, ecology in design.Charakteristisch für das Zeitalter des Klimawandels sind die durch den Menschen verursachte Meeresverschmutzung sowie ein massiver Rückgang der Artenvielfalt in den Weltmeeren. Tropische Korallenriffe sind als eines der ältesten und artenreichsten Ökosysteme der Erde besonders stark gefährdet und stehen somit symbolisch für die zerstörerischen Auswirkungen menschlicher Aktivitäten auf die Natur [4], [5]. Um dem massiven Rückgang der Korallenriffe entgegenzuwirken, wurden von Menschen künstliche Riffsysteme entwickelt [6], [7]. Sie sind Beispiele dafür, wie Architektur und die Regenerierung von Ökosystemen miteinander verbunden werden können [8]. Eine Verknüpfung von einerseits künstlichen und andererseits komplexen, sich verändernden natürlichen Systemen, stellt jedoch eine Herausforderung dar, u.a. in Bezug auf die Computermodellierung (B-Rep Modellierung). Zum Erhalt der Korallenriffe werden in der vorliegende Doktorarbeit Strategien aus der digitalen Praxis neuartig auf das Entwerfen von künstlichen Korallenriffen angewendet. Die Hauptfrage befasst sich damit, wie der Entwurfsprozess von künstlichen Korallenriffen unter Einbeziehung von Computermodellierung und hochpräzisen Überwachungsstrategien optimiert werden kann. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Techniken, Methoden sowie ein übergeordnetes Framework erforscht, welche zukünftige Forschung und Praxis in Bezug auf Ökologie-geleitete Entwurfsprozesse fördern soll. In Anbetracht der vielen vorhandenen künstlichen Riffsysteme, kann man feststellen, dass die Zusammenhänge zwischen Architektur- und Ökosystem-Anforderungen nicht genau untersucht und dadurch bei der Umsetzung nicht entsprechend berücksichtigt werden. Zum Beispiel wie Oberflächenbeschaffenheit und Materialität eine Ansiedlung von Korallenlarven begünstigt oder wie eine räumlich vielseitige Struktur die Artenvielfalt verbessern kann. Zudem fehlt ein integrierter Unterwasser-Überwachungsprozess, welcher Informationen über das Ökosystem liefert und diese dem Entwurf bereitstellt. Zusätzlich ist eine Unterwasser-Überwachung notwendig, um herauszufinden, ob die künstlichen Riffstrukturen zur Regenerierung beitragen oder dem Ökosystem gänzlich schaden. In dieser Forschungsarbeit werden empirische und experimentelle Methoden angewendet: Algorithmisches Entwerfen für Korallenriffe, hochpräzise Unterwasser-Überwachung, Computermodellierung und -simulation. Die Forschung wird seit 2012 bis heute durch zwei Riffprototypen (Artificial Reef Prototypes – ARPs) in Gili Trawangan, Indonesien validiert. Zusätzlich wurden weitere separate Methoden und Techniken in insgesamt siebzehn computergestützten Experimenten entwickelt und so angewendet, dass viele kreuzvalidiert und in ein Framework integriert sind, welches dann als bedeutender Beitrag dem Forschungsgebiet zur Verfügung steht. Weitere Hauptbeiträge sind der Ökosystem-bewusste Entwurfsansatz (Ecosystem-aware design approach), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) für das Gestalten von Korallenriffen, algorithmisches Entwerfen und die Herstellung von Biorock-Kathoden, neue hochpräzise Unterwasser-Überwachungsstrategien, reale Langzeitexperimente, neue digitale Analysemethoden, sowie zwei webbasierte Softwareanwendungen für die Gestaltung und die Überwachung von künstlichen Korallenriffen. Das methodische Framework ist das Hauptergebnis der Forschung, da die vielen technischen Komponenten in dieser Weise zum ersten Mal getestet und kombiniert wurden. Zusammenfassend reagiert die vorliegende Doktorarbeit sowohl auf die Dringlichkeit als auch auf die Relevanz der Erhaltung von Artenvielfalt in tropischen Korallenriffen in Zeiten eines massiven Aussterbens, indem sie einen differenzierten Entwurfsansatz für künstliche Korallenriffe offeriert. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass ein digitales Entwerfen einer solchen „lebendigen Architektur“ unter Berücksichtigung vielfältiger Anforderungen und Leistungsparametern machbar ist. Zusätzlich bietet sie eine ausführliche kritische Diskussion über die Rolle von computergestützten Entwerfen und Architektur im Zusammenhang mit Regenerierung von Ökosystemen und “Planetary Thinking”. In dieser Hinsicht fungiert die Doktorarbeit als theoretischer und praktischer Hintergrund für computergestütztes Entwerfen, Ökologie und Meeresschutz. Eine Verbesserung des Entwerfens von künstlichen Korallenriffen wird nicht nur auf technischer Ebene aufgezeigt, sondern es werden auch die wesentlichen Kriterien und Techniken für deren Umsetzung benannt. Schlüsselwörter: Künstliche Korallenriffe, Computermodellierung, hochpräzise Unterwasser-Überwachung, Ökologie im Architekturentwurf

Toward multi-species building envelopes: A critical literature review of multi-criteria decision-making for design support

&lt;p&gt;Rapid urbanization negatively affects the built and biotic environment, necessitating interdisciplinary mitigation strategies. Current nature-based solutions that are integrated into building envelope design have proved to be beneficial. These solutions, however, are primarily anthropocentric and often overlook the potential to support other living organisms, such as animals and microbiota. Thus, a multi-species approach is envisioned to facilitate more holistic envelope-design solutions. While integrating ecological knowledge into architectural design often introduces decision-making complexity, multi-criteria decision-making can support multi-species building envelope design. This paper reviews such decision-making applications in two domains: building envelope design and ecological planning design. Using a systematic literature review methodology to compile relevant publications for full-text analysis, the results show significant disparities between the two domains. This is primarily driven by decision-making applications, the scale of analysis, criteria typology and external decision-maker engagement. However, we identified opportunities to sequentially employ multi-objective optimization and multi-attribute decision-making to mitigate the technical differences and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, we discuss future developments using hybrid multi-criteria decision-making to facilitate better architectural and ecological computer-aided design.&lt;/p&gt

ECOLOPES, BEYOND GREENING. A multi-species approach for urban design

Urbanization, due to its contribution to climate change and loss of biodiversity, damages ecosystems, thereby affecting human health and well-being. Current urban and architectural design approaches, that aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, include, among other strategies, the integration of greening systems but focusing primarily on the potential benefits for humans. Other organisms such as animals and microbiota and the self-dynamic development of plant communities, which could play a central role in increasing biodiversity, are not considered in the planning process. This paper describes how the ECOLOPES project overcomes this strictly anthropocentric view, developing a systematic design approach for architecture in a multi-species perspective to create regenerative urban ecosystems

Innovations in pharmaceutical policies and learnings for sustainable access to affordable medicines

ABSTRACTSustainable access to affordable medicines remains a public health issue globally, including for high-income countries. To foster the debate on avenues for the future, the fifth PPRI Conference held in Vienna on 25 and 26 April 2024 will offer a forum for the debate on innovating pharmaceutical policymaking to develop and implement futureproof policy options, which are able to address current and future challenges. The Conference invites a broad audience of stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, payers, patients, industry and health professionals. The conference topics are organised in three strands: Strand 1 on ‘Local challenges, global learnings’ aims to contribute to lively discussions on the implementation of pharmaceutical policies across the globe. Best-practice examples will be presented, supplemented by case studies of less effective policies which can offer rich learnings. Strand 2 on ‘Strengthening the evidence base’ is the place for presentations and discussions on topics such as health technology assessments, managed entry agreements and real-world data. Strand 3 ‘Futureproofing pharmaceutical policies’ is particularly dedicated to explore innovation in policymaking to achieve sustainable access to affordable medicines

ECOLOPES

Urban areas are facing significant challenges regarding degradation of environments and ecosystems, species loss, and increased vulnerability to climate hazards, all of which impact negatively upon human health and well-being. Focusing on building envelopes can offer an effective approach to the regeneration of urban ecosystems, by providing new spatial opportunities in dense urban environments. The H2020 FET Open project ECOLOPES - ECOlogical building enveLOPES aims to develop a game-changing design approach for regenerative urban ecosystems. An Ecolope is a building envelope designed as a multi-species living space for four types of inhabitants: plants, animals, microbiota, and humans. ECOLOPES adopts a holistic multi-species approach, going beyond the provision of ecosystem services (i.e., benefits provided by nature to society and the economy). The goal is to develop the technology to plan and design urbanization with an integrated approach that addresses the requirements of the urban ecosystem. The paper presents an overview of the first steps towards this approach with focuses on data selection and integration, algorithmic modelling, and on developing an urban classification system that will be used for the project development