The Winter School is an activity organised by the European Campus of City Universities (EC2U), a multicultural alliance of seven European universities, plus the Ivan Franko University of Lviv as an associate strategic partner of the project since April 2022.

34 students from the seven universities and 2 students from the Ukrainian university of Lviv attended the seminars organised in the framework of the Winter school. Also, 2 Professors from Coimbra and Iasi gave lectures to students and this enriched the intercultural dimension of the school.

The topics discussed during the week were tightly linked with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, and more in particular with point #11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. The objective was to constitute and expand links and connections between students, researchers, and administrative functionaries of the partner universities and municipalities. It is important to stress that participants had different disciplinary backgrounds, therefore the exchange of knowledge between different disciplines was one of the main points of the value of winter school.

The school was coordinated by Prof. Marco Morandotti and by the engineer Elisabetta Doria. A delegation from the municipality of Pavia opened the school and enlighten the collaboration among the two institutions. The technical lectures were presented by different professors from the universities of the EC2U Alliance. Sustainability and reuse of architectural complexes of historical value were the key themes of the week; furthermore, the focus was on how these buildings can be integrated for the benefit of local communities, and on the importance of adopting new technologies within historic structures without damaging their cultural value.

Throughout the week, specific case studies were presented by representatives of the municipalities, who are members of the Alliance. Furthermore, the students received technical notions and had the opportunity to visit points of architectural interest in the city of Pavia.

Finally, students had the opportunity to expand their knowledge on these issues, to interact, and learn how the various municipalities participating in the EC2U project are promoting and giving new life to architectural structures to integrate them in a sustainable and efficient way to make them available to the community small town. These events are important as they broaden and strengthen the links between the students, professors, universities, and municipalities of the EC2U Alliance.

Students actively participated to the discussion and working group. They also contributed to the realisation of the EC2U Flashmob organised at the University of Pavia during that week. The organisers received very positive feedback as students reported to have enriched their knowledge as well as their soft skills (communication, team building, etc.), had fun and made new friends.