In spring 2022 the Faculty of Architecture at Poznan University of Technology began a cooperation with the global non-profit organisation Global Urban Development (GUD). GUD is a network with more than twenty years of activity and over 700 urban leaders and experts operating in cities across more than 60 countries — including Barcelona, Prague, London, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Panama City, Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, New York and Washington. GUD runs educational, research and implementation programmes that promote best practices, model solutions and the exchange of ideas that support sustainable, economically desirable and socially inclusive urban development worldwide.

Partnership within GUD has enabled the Faculty to establish collaborations with a number of notable research centres, with which it continues joint research and teaching activities, including under the Erasmus+ programme. Following cooperation with Dr Marc A. Weiss, the Faculty of Architecture initiated the EDIT POZNAN working group, bringing together scholars from various departments of our Alma Mater. Academics from Adam Mickiewicz University [AMU] — Faculty of Human Geography and Planning — are also engaged under a formal cooperation agreement. Activities undertaken within the GUD framework enjoy the patronage of our University authorities and the Faculty of Architecture.

The aim of the collaboration is to create in Poznań — following the example of ZISPOA in Porto Alegre — eco-districts of innovation and sustainable development within the two campuses of Poznan University of Technology and Adam Mickiewicz University, branded as “EDIT POZNAN” and given a recognisable pro-ecological identity as ECOCAMPUSES. The idea of creating such sustainable districts and university-linked innovation laboratories aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the strategic development objectives of the City of Poznań. We intend to build a platform for knowledge exchange, interdisciplinary research and implementation, operating across faculties and universities, nationally and internationally. The core aim is to promote solutions that balance spatial planning with socio-economic development and to coordinate actions that deliver tangible social and economic benefits. In the long term we aspire to expand the geographical reach of our activities beyond campus boundaries and to influence the shaping of green, intelligent, vibrant and economically attractive urban spaces across the city. From the vantage point of academic centres, we seek to support the city’s growth by fostering innovative entrepreneurship, creating a green and accessible city, nurturing friendly neighbourhoods and strengthening local communities.