Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

The in: takt project is an exploratory teaching-project as well a bottom-up urban co-creation-space in the inner city of Magdeburg, Germany. It takes the approach of ‘engaged learning’ and ‘live project’ to create an open co-creation setting and an urban lab-situation. The project is based on an interdisciplinary seminar at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, which combines theory and practice. Open to students of all courses of study, it offers a space for self-organization, experimentation, and development. Furthermore it opens its rooms to all interested people and initiatives of the city: it invites citizens to collaborate and tries to enter transdisciplinary project work. Cross-cutting issues are the quality of urban live, sustainability, transformation and the democratic discourse. Per semester, own subprojects are developed and implemented, step by step collaborations are established, initiatives are networked. The project started as an interim use. It operates through an unstable, cross-sector collaboration between the university and local authorities, to some extent, the local business community. It is the attempt to establish a new kind of infrastructure where all kind of knowledge is taken seriously and all kind of people can co-create in a democratic and appreciative atmosphere. With it’s acting, the project enters the cultural and political sphere of the city. Students gain direct and hands-on experience, take responsibility for the place and the public. They become the owner of the place. The input will explain the approach and discuss its challenges, struggles, and potentials in the field of teaching, learning and urban development.