Expedition Week Vienna: Solving Societal Challenges
At the Expedition Week in Vienna from 22 to 26 May 2023, two challenges were set, one with the City of Vienna and one with Caritas Wien. Kian chose the City of Vienna with two other teams. The project was on social housing in Vienna. During the week, the teams visited the sites in District ten of Vienna.
„The architect that was the challenge owner explained us many different issues and led us to decide what we want to work on. Our team decided to work on engaging new residents in the neighbourhood. Given the big complexes of social housing it can be hard to become a member of this society, especially when people feel isolated by a particular group affiliation, such as immigrants, disabled, and people from different age groups. So our objective was to promote inclusivity and a sense of community.”
The two other groups were working on water saving and energy reducing. Throughout the week the students had several opportunities to meet architects, builders and others involved, having discussions and do interviews with the residents. In addition, there were workshops on design thinking and crash courses to improve the skills for the project and for pitching the ideas.
“Our final idea was to create a super app for the social housings, that would serve as a platform for resource sharing, event scheduling, and communication between residents and construction companies. Although we did not win in the end, the architect suggested to combine all three ideas and imply them in the social housing.”
The winner team on water management pitched a system to monitor water usage in each construction and incorporating an accounting system. To visually represent water savings, they suggested displaying a virtual flower on screens that would grow and be watered by the amount of water saved by the residents. The energy reduction team proposed an event series to educate the community, accompanied by a coupon system as a reward for energy transition.
“The week was very intense. We challenged many difficulties, had arguments, but in the end we were rewarded with friendships. I think that's also an important part of those events to make new friends, to network, and to exchange. For me, however, the best part was discovering myself. I clearly see my strengths and weaknesses now, what I can offer to a team, what I should not promise to attain. And this is the merit of doing such an expedition week.”
Besides the hard work the 29 participants from all the ENGAGE.EU universities also had the opportunity to sightsee the beautiful city of Vienna, enjoy Sacher cake and take a ride on the big wheel at Prater with the amazing view over the city.