Presentation on 8 July: How can campus spaces in cities and universities be rethought?

Universities are important drivers for their cities and regions. Internationalisation by the STARS EU alliance, in which Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences (HSB) is designing a European University together with eight international universities of applied sciences (HAW), is creating new impetus to rethink campus spaces in cities and universities - socially, spatially and structurally. Students from the School of Architecture at HSB and the Integrated Design programme at Hochschule für Künste Bremen (HfK) have developed ideas and visions in their collaborative project ‘Interspace’. They will present their results on Tuesday, 8 July 2025, at a public final presentation between 12 and 4 p.m. in the School of Architecture at campus Neustadtswall in the white AB building of HSB (room S12, 10th floor, Neustadtswall 30, 28199 Bremen). Interested parties are welcome to attend. The event is in English and will be broadcast online.

The 35 students will show models, drawings, installations and artistic positions that deal with the future of the campus in the field of tension between space, structure and European cooperation. An interdisciplinary jury will assess the results and award prizes.

Collaboration in the real laboratory

‘In our real-world laboratory “Interspace - Ou(te)r Campus”, students are using co-creative processes to investigate how real university spaces can be transformed into spaces for learning, living and opportunity,’ says HSB Professor Ulrike Mansfeld. Together with Professors Maria Clarke and Dr Claudia Kromrei (both HSB) as well as Professor Detlef Rahe, Falk von Zobeltitz from the HfK and Janina Ebner (HSB and HfK), they are leading and coordinating the project.

The result is concrete proposals for internationalisation and for artistic interventions on site as well as visionary designs that question and rethink existing ideas of campus, studies and teaching.

How do people feel Europe in Bremen?

The projects deliberately look beyond Bremen: inspired by HSB's participation in the STARS EU alliance, the students have also explored the idea of a European campus in concepts for transnational learning spaces and new forms of academic collaboration.

Discussion already took place at national level in Berlin

These concepts were already discussed at the 9th University Day of the National Urban Development Policy in Berlin in June 2025. In a specially designed workshop entitled ‘The city as a campus - how can universities and their students contribute to urban transformation?’, students discussed participatory urban planning culture with experts from planning, science and politics across generations.

Outlook: Further development as a European teaching format

‘Interspace - Ou(te)r Campus’ is not over at the end of the semester - on the contrary: the experience gained so far forms the starting point for the next project phase at European level. Together with all nine STARS EU partner universities, the format is to be opened up internationally in 2026.

The aim is to take up the impetus from the current semester, think it through further - and translate it into longer-term, institutionally anchored developments.

This will create a European space that can meet the needs of students and in which ideas can grow - across disciplinary and geographical boundaries - the co-creation campus.

Hybrid event for STARS EU partners

For STARS EU Alliance partners, the event will be held in English and hybrid. Participation is therefore also possible online via Zoom.Access link: hs-bremen.zoom.us/j/62050073397

Meeting Code: 844030

Information for members of the press

Representatives of the press are cordially invited to the presentation of the best works and to a discussion with the authors on Tuesday, 8 July 2025, at 4 pm at the Neustadtswall Campus in the AB building (white high-rise building, room S12, 10th floor, Neustadtswall 30, 28199 Bremen). Contact: Professor Ulrike Mansfeld, e-mail: ulrike.mansfeld@hs-bremen.de Phone: +49 421-5905 2303.