Workcamp in Higher Education in Urbanism: experience from Danurb+ Building Camp for Students in Golubac, Serbia

Abstract

Urban design belongs to the professional fi elds where public welfare is of great concern. This means that common practice in urban design involves the various forms of the active participation of different actors and stakeholders, positioning it as a signifi cant segment in the professional ethos of urban designers. Hence, public participation is also one of the integral parts of higher education in contemporary urban design. Urban design curriculum usually has a few courses dedicated for participation as the core topic, while other courses indirectly touch it. Their practical side is often in the form of public audits, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, which students conduct as an on-site or online training with citizens, experts and/or stakeholders. The form of a workcamp, where students-volunteers work and live together with local community on a short-term basis and for a not-for-profi t cause, is rarer simply because it is more demanding to be included into formal higher education. However, such workcamps have many advantages related to learning about the participation process, such as democratic awareness, mutual understanding, increased independence, and self-reliance. This paper presents one building camp for students, organised within DANUrB+ INTERREG Project in Golubac, Serbia, in June 2022. The aim of the camp was to realise, materialise a small scale ‘design and build’ urban project which connects with the revealed underused local heritage or cultural potential, as a tangible implementation of an intangible potential. The paper intends to show how this process involved both students and the local community to jointly develop, design and build a smallscale public square in the Danube Riverfront of Golubac Town.