[The unsung heroes of the ALT/BAU network ]

As is so often the case and in so many companies, the ALT/BAU network also had students working as interns. We would like to thank them today for their valuable contributions.

We would like to thank ...

Chiara Bergeretti (Turin)

Chiara Bergeretti is a young graduate in European Studies at the University of Torino. During her internship at Torino Urban Lab she supported the project team in the organization of the URBACT Local Groups, including preparing the presentations, drafting the minutes and reporting about the discussion results. This experience helped her acquiring new knowledge in the field of sustainable urban development thanks to the local practices brought to ALT/BAU by the involved stakeholders.

Eleonora Gualtieri (Turin)

Eleonora Gualtieri is an expert in urban marketing graduated at the University of Verona. Her training experience at Torino Urban Lab included the support to the EU project team for the communication and dissemination activities. She contributed to the drafting of texts and posts promoting ALT/BAU on Torino Urban Lab social media channels, to the preparation of vox-pops and videos, and to the editing of the Italian version of the ALT/BAU Guidebook.

Sarah Tankoano (Seraing)

Sarah Tankoano, who spent 4 months working with Eriges 4 days a week. Sarah did the survey of vacant buildings and was 1 or 2 days on the field to collect all the information concerning the buildings and taking pictures. She reports on the inventory in her Transfer Diary Entry. Sarah is now in Master 1 degree Urban Planning at Liege University. She continues to take a close interest in the problem of housing vacancy and in the progress of the ALT/BAU project thanks to the regular contact that we have maintained.

Vitaly Matveev (Seraing)

Based on the information collected by Sarah, Vitaly digitalized our inventory of vacant buildings in collaboration with the GIS specialist from the urbanism city service and reported on it in an article.

Aleksander Krajewski (Rybnik)

Aleksander Krajewski is not a student or an intern, but the ULG coordinator in Rybnik. Aleksander Krajewski – an architect works in the field of revitalization, housing, and sustainable construction. He organizes and coordinates participatory processes that allow the society to be involved in shaping public spaces and the city's spatial policy. As Coordinator of ULG in ALT/BAU project he organized webinars and meetings with experts and managed the work of the “AREA Student’s Research Circle”.

The “AREA Students’ Research Circle for Urbanized Space”, associated with the University of Economics in Katowice deals with changes in space and new concepts of urban development. Their work consisted in making an inventory of housing stock within the city centre, focused on the vacant buildings. The inventory was based on the site visits and analyses of collected information. The data was analysed, filed and collected in one document to be used by Rybnik authorities, describing the state of vacancies in the city centre.

We would like to thank Mr. Aleksander Krajewski for his dedicated involvement in ALT/BAU project as ULG Coordinator, eagerly sharing his expertise urban knowledge and practical skills and promoting the solutions developed within the project among our fellow citizens, architects, urban practitioners and academia. He was even willing to make one of the infamous vox pops.

We would also like to thank the students associated in the “AREA Students’ Research Circle” for their invaluable contri-bution to prepare the inventory of vacant buildings, especially for their field visits in Rybnik to collect necessary data, even in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

AREA Research Circle at the site in Rybnik

Franziska Fuchs, Matthias van Veldhuizen and Jule Stein (Chemnitz)

Franziska (called Franzi), Matthias and Jule have been very active in helping us to prepare the two network meetings in Chemnitz in 2018 and 2019. The preparation and effort required for such a meeting is often underestimated. We couldn't have done it without the three of them. Jule even wrote her bachelor thesis about the Housing Agency and the ALT/BAU network. Franzi has magical skills when it comes to graphic design and regularly creates communication outputs for ALT/BAU. Franzi and Jule both work at WGS now. (WGS mbH is the private company that operates the Housing Agency and ALT/BAU on behalf of the city of Chemnitz.) Matthias is now studying History in Potsdam.