Dreams and Seeds: The role of campuses in sustainable urban development

The role of universities is changing, expanding from being purely education and research institutions towards one of being active partners in local and regional urban development. As incubators for knowledge development, critical thinking, and innovations, universities and campuses are becoming increasingly important for identifying, designing, and implementing pathways to sustainable urban development. The project Live Baltic Campus has explored how university campuses can serve as local living labs and guides for new planning and design approaches. The project has aimed to build capacity in urban planning and design to harness the potential of changing social, ecological and financial contexts. Six higher education institutes in cities around the Central Baltic area have collaborated to utilise participatory design methods in developing their local campuses, and to share the results on their findings. Campus development, much like urban planning in general, relates to the concepts of dreams and seeds: visions of the future, and a continuous flow of, often small, actions and decisions required for bringing the visions into reality. This book is a compilation of the insights, perspectives and practical examples encountered and produced during the two-year joint exploration to find the ingredients and the correct local measurements for sustainable urban campuses.