The collaborative summer school took place in March 2018 within the framework of a Brazilian-German research cooperation, and with the sponsorship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. The project engaged 13 Germans and 15 Brazilians students coming from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban and spatial planning, and urban design from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Open Space Planning and the Department for Urban Renewal and Sustainable Development of the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Design of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg), and the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU/UFRJ). Along with the students, the project involved an interdisciplinary team of academic experts – 2 professors and 3 teachers coming from the abovementioned university departments in cooperation with the Institute for Applied Research in Urban Futures of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. The summer school also counted with the contribution and support from members of MUDA, a UFRJ group that develops teaching, research and extension activities and has been focussing on agro-ecological experiences in Solano Trindade since 2016. Furthermore, the summer school featured the active participation and interest of various members of the National Movement for Housing Rights (MNLM) as well as the dwellers from the occupation Solano Trindade. 

​

Focusing on self-organized settlement structures and their mechanisms of spatial production, the German-Brasilian summer school targeted the self-organized occupation of Solano Trindade in Duque de Caxias in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro to develop various interactive and conceptual approaches with the intention of improving housing and open spaces as well as local infrastructure. In the context of self-organized settlements the summer school aimed at facilitating and transferring integrated knowledge about the current research fields of urban metabolism and the social production of space and infrastructures.

 

The core of the summer school was a collaborative on-site workshop that included the participation of students, lecturers, residents, and a locally active cooperative. By stimulating interactive knowledge production the summer school resulted in a practical initiative to present current teaching and research approaches to global issues (such as climate change and planetary urbanization) to students and scientists, and to apply them in the practice. The summer school also represented an opportunity for the intercultural interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary German-Brazilian exchange between the participants and the institutes to expand.