As a novelty in the history of GDI, KISD partnered with urbz, an international urban research collective that focuses on community-led development and inclusive urbanism. The workshop Third Places in Cologne: Designing Transformations for Convivial Encounters was developed and co-led by Rahul Srivastava and Clarissa Pelino from urbz and Philipp Heidkamp from KISD. This partnership is an exciting step forward for the GDI Network, demonstrating its commitment to promoting interdisciplinary learning, fostering global collaboration, and driving positive change in our cities. The collaboration provided both faculty and students unique insights into innovative approaches to explore, frame and design in a specific urban context in close collaboration with local partners. This workshop aimed at recognizing, understanding and supporting (pre-identified) spaces of sociability, exchange, and urban resistance in Cologne. By engaging in observation and dialogue with the different stakeholders in these spaces and drawing from experiences and settings from their hometowns, students explored opportunities to understand their potential to imagine, project and prototype possible and desirable futures for them.

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