Learning in the urban lab in Singapore
Students from 12 departments took part in the first “ETH Singapore Month”, a “classroom” more than 10,000 kilometres away from the Zurich campus. Within an intensive month, they crossed disciplinary boundaries to develop proposals to address complex problems posed by urbanisation.
The ETH Singapore Month provides an interdisciplinary setting to examine the urban society and develop solutions to some of its challenges. The participants of the first edition are a group of 48 students from seven universities, among them MIT, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, National University of Singapore and University of Cambridge. Foregrounding the role of design and design thinking as a platform for transdisciplinary work, students are challenged with “wicked problems” arising from global urbanization processes tied to the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“We confront students from multiple disciplines to design a process in order to produce an exhibition and presentation. The design of the process became the key issue for them to tackle while addressing the SDGs,” explains Marc Angélil, Professor for Architecture and Design, who designed and facilitated the workshop.
Prototyping solutions for the urban society
“The spirit of the programme is very much aligned with the Singapore-ETH Centre, where we break down disciplinary and cultural barriers and tap on complementary skills and perspectives to make our future environment more sustainable, liveable, and resilient,” says Gerhard Schmitt, Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre.
Gerhard Schmitt and Marc Angélil both recognize that Singapore provides a unique setting to explore topics on the urban society. “The city state responds to the challenges of the urban society in an agile way, building on its stable governance, openness of the government to engage with research, and practice of prototyping solutions before scaling them up,” says Schmitt. Through exchanges with government agencies, enterprises, researchers, and simply by experiencing the city, the students quickly gained insights into Singapore.
Developing applicable propositions
Over the weeks, the students deployed their imagination and respective disciplinary knowledge to develop approaches to address SDGs including clean water and sanitation, inequality, and responsible consumption and production. Although working in an interdisciplinary setting proved to be the bigger challenge in itself, it was also the most cherished experience and lesson for participants such as Martin Stalder from the Department of Chemistry and Hager Al Laham from the Department of Architecture. Participants challenged models of governance, the definition of equality and basic rights, as well as the notion of place and boundaries with respect to SDGs. Many of these challenges would have taken seasoned policy-makers months, and sometimes even a political lifetime, to negotiate – in fact a “mission impossible” in one month.
Lifting students out of the comfort zone
At the finale, they presented proposals ranging from the pragmatic to the bold and radical, including engineering clouds to seed rain as a means for more equitable access to water, uniting oceans like how nations are sometimes grouped for more coordinated efforts toward cleaner oceans, and the introduction of a state-administered personal carbon credit system to promote sustainable production and consumption. “Years after I complete my studies, I may not remember everything I learned, but I will definitely remember this invaluable experience that ETH has made possible,” says Michail Karakikes from the Department of Process and Mechanical Engineering.
At the end of the day, the desired outcome is not about whether the proposals will be implemented tomorrow. Rather, the month in Singapore is a lesson for the leaders of tomorrow. “ETH wants to offer educational experiences that lift our students out of their comfort zone, challenge their assumptions, stretch their imagination, and dare them to dream the seemingly impossible,” says Sarah Springman, Rector of ETH.
