Urban interventions in a post-soviet city. An educational experience

Abstract

Is it possible to develop, in an academic context, a proposal for the urban transformation of a former industrial area into a new mixed-use neighborhood? What happens if this brownfield is located 3500 Km away from the place where these proposals are going to be developed, in a former soviet republic, which none of the students participants have ever visited? What’s the way of explanation to show to the students about the urban and cultural differences that exist in between Alicante and Minsk? Which strategies have been developed to achieve the selected target? This paper will show the different on-site and on-line actions developed to complete this transnational educational experience developed at the University of Alicante collaborating with the Belarusian National Technical University by 40 students attending to Urban Design 6, a theoretical-practical signature of the Degree in Architecture. Also the different proposals developed for the new urban settlement at Liahovka peninsula in the city of Minsk will be presented, linking the methodology applied to the results achieved.