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Bauhaus
Spring
School
11/03 – 20/03/2027

Design Thinking to Empower: Co-create inclusive Urban Future

Design Thinking to Empower: Co-create inclusive Urban Future

What if the city became your classroom? What if design can really empower people to shape more inclusive, resilient and meaningful places?

This interdisciplinary course introduces participants to Design Thinking as a tool for social innovation and community empowerment. Moving beyond traditional product and business innovation, the course explores how human-centred design can address complex urban challenges such as inclusion, accessibility, belonging, sustainability and civic participation.

Working in international and interdisciplinary teams, participants will investigate public spaces in Weimar through observation, community mapping, interviews and participatory placemaking methods. Together, they will analyse how different people experience the city, identify opportunities for improvement, and co-create innovative interventions that respond to real community needs.

Following the Design Thinking process: Understand, Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test, participants will develop creative concepts ranging from placemaking interventions and social enterprises to services, community programmes and digital solutions. Rather than focusing solely on economic value, the course introduces the concept of Inclusive Innovation, where successful ideas create social, environmental and community impact.

The course combines short lectures, interactive workshops, fieldwork, rapid prototyping and collaborative reflection. Participants will gain practical experience with tools such as community mapping, placemaking analysis, stakeholder engagement, storytelling and low-fidelity prototyping while strengthening their intercultural collaboration and creative problem-solving skills.

Online Component: Before arriving in Weimar, participants will join an online introductory session where they will be introduced to the 6 Bauhaus Spring School Design Thinking framework, receive reading materials, and complete a short reflection exercise analysing an everyday public space in their own city. They will share observations through a collaborative digital platform, creating an international collection of case studies that will serve as the starting point for discussion during the on-site workshop.

In-Class Component: During the Spring School, participants will apply these methods directly in Weimar. Through fieldwork, design sprints and collaborative prototyping, they will work on real urban challenges, develop and test ideas, and present their concepts to peers, practitioners and local stakeholders. The course concludes with a collective reflection on how Design Thinking can become a methodology for empowering communities and shaping more inclusive urban futures.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

  • Critically analyse how identity, diversity, accessibility and perceptions of safety influence the experience of urban public spaces from an intercultural perspective.
  • Compare different cultural approaches to public space, placemaking and inclusive urban development, recognising how social, cultural and spatial contexts shape the use of cities.
  • Communicate and present design concepts through visualisation, storytelling and prototyping, while reflecting critically on their social impact and feasibility.

Participants will gain transferable knowledge and practical skills in Design Thinking, placemaking, community engagement and inclusive urban innovation that can be applied in architecture, urban planning, design, social innovation and other interdisciplinary contexts.

 

Upon successful completion, participants will receive 3 ECTS.

Bachelor and Master Students in the areas of Design & Art, Architecture, Media, Urban planning (interdisciplinary).

Dr. Ammalia Podlaszewska is an urban planner, researcher, and cultural practitioner working at the intersection of placemaking, inclusive urban development, and community driven transformation. She holds a Ph.D. from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where she currently serves as a Senior Lecturer.

As Chairperson of Culture Goes Europe (CGE) e.V., she has led more than 30 European and international projects that connect universities, municipalities, cultural organisations, and local communities through participatory, place-based approaches. She has secured funding from the German Federal Foreign Office, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Erasmus+, Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, and Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE.

She is the initiator and co-founder of several impactful initiatives, including NEW INHERIT (Creative Europe), which developed community-driven models for adaptive reuse of heritage spaces; Social Impulse Hub (Interreg Central Europe), supporting social innovation and participatory urban transformation; and the August-Frö(h)lich-Platz Initiative in Weimar, focused on reclaiming public space through citizen participation and neighborhood activation.

In her teaching and facilitation practice, she applies methods such as design thinking, participatory action research, urban ethnography, and co-creation processes. Her work encourages critical reflection on sense of belonging, accessibility, cultural identity, and the “right to the city” across diverse international and intercultural contexts.

Your application should be submitted until November 2nd, 2026. It should include:

  • Letter of Nomination (applicants financed by the BIP scholarship from the partner universities)
  • CV
  • Portfolio (optional)
  • English language certificate (optional)
     

In addition to the documents listed above, you will be asked to answer questions and/or complete tasks related to your motivation as part of the online application process.

The course fee is 300 EURO and includes:

  • Orientation & Support
  • Programme according to description
  • Teaching materials
  • Certificate
  • Free use of library

 

The course fee does not include:

  • Travel costs
  • Accommodation
  • Insurance
     

Participants, coming from the partner universites in the framework of Erasmus BIP scholarship and BUW students don't pay the course fee.

Teaser

Reimagine everyday places! Discover how design thinking empowers communities to co-create inclusive, resilient and meaningful urban futures.

At a glance

  • Online-phase (part I): 16/02/2027 + 23/02/2027, 2.00 - 3.30 PM
  • On site-phase in Weimar (part II): 11/03 - 20/03/2027
  • Credits: 3 ECTS
  • course language: English
  • BIP ID/Component Code: tba.

Apply here by 2. november 2026!

Service Package

In addition to the Spring School courses, we offer a comprehensive Service Package. The booking of the Service Package for €70 is optional. It includes: *

  • participation in one excursion
  • participation in one guided tour
  • free entrance to one movie night
  • free lunch at the University’s cafeteria
  • free entrance to all museums belonging to Klassik Stiftung Weimar
  • Spring School welcome gift

 

Students who do not take up the Service Package are automatically required to pay a course deposit of €100. This is to protect us against costs incurred by non-participation. Since in this case, the universities will not receive any funding from the European Commission. The deposit will be refunded as soon as the participants start the course in Weimar.
 

* the total value of the services included in the service package is around 150€.