The Urban Laboratory

“It is the moral duty of academia to harness its resources for the benefit of the community and the city.” So said Prof. Marc Schlossberg of the University of Oregon, who is currently a visiting professor at the Technion, at a lecture on sustainable urban development.

This week a lecture was given at the Technion by Prof. Marc Schlossberg of the University of Oregon, who specializes in sustainable city planning, public transport accessibility and promoting walking and cycling. Prof. Schlossberg arrived at the Technion this summer as part of the Fulbright Program – at US government program that promotes the sharing of academic, professional and cultural knowledge between countries and exchanges of outstanding students and academics.

Prof. Schlossberg and Team

Prof. Schlossberg and Team

Prof. Schlossberg is the co-founder (with Prof. Nico Larco of the University of Oregon) of the Sustainable City Year Program – a project in which the University operates in surrounding cities and aids in their development, using the knowledge and experience of its students and lecturers. This model has been adopted at the Technion under the name of The Urban Laboratory. Ruti Donag, director of the project at the Technion, explains that this is the first adoption of the project at an Israeli university, and that the laboratory has already operated in Kiryat Yam and Nesher and will operate this year in Akko, with lecturers from various faculties at the Technion and the University of Haifa.

In his lecture, Prof. Schlossberg described the project that he founded at the University of Oregon and its expansion to dozens of other universities in the United States. “The idea is to bring courses, students and faculty from diverse disciplines to carry out intensive work in a single city for an entire year. Working together with the city administration and residents creates a meaningful and mutually fruitful dynamic that enriches all those who participate. We, as a university, get a lot from the project: forging ties between academic units and promoting interdisciplinary research at the university; providing students with experience in the real world and in coping with political, economic and planning constraints; motivation that stems from a sense of mission; and increasing the relevance of academia as an institution that is involved in real life and contributes to society. To me it is our moral duty to harness our knowledge and that of our students for the benefit of society, and in this project we are ultimately making use of existing resources – namely our knowledge and experience.”

Prof. Schlossberg is in Israel with his wife and their two children. “Beyond the professional aspects, I wanted to give my children the opportunity to experience life in Israel, with different and diverse people. We have already toured Haifa, the surrounding communities and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and now I’m planning a trip to the Negev. We made some of the trips with families that we met at the Technion. These experiences and these contacts have eased the difficulties, which have so far included two sandstorms, a particularly hot summer and an increase in violence in the region.”

This is his first time at the Technion, but not in Israel. “Six years ago I was in England, also on a Fulbright fellowship, and at the end of the year we decided to stop in Israel on the way home. Our family spent three weeks here and got a taste of history, the sea, local food and other attractions. Since then I’ve often thought that it would be really interesting to spend a longer period in Israel, and now the Fulbright Scholarship has given me this opportunity. This is a very interesting country from an urban and planning perspective. It’s a young country in an ancient land, with a desert climate and other climates, intensive immigrant absorption, construction for a diverse population and an turbulent environment in terms of security.

This past Yom Kippur made a huge impression from the environmental aspect. “It was my first Yom Kippur in Israel, and the sight of hordes of children of all ages riding bikes was very impressive. This shows that when you provide the public with good conditions for cycling – especially convenience and safety – people will travel more by bike. Fortunately, at the University of Oregon the level of awareness of this issue is very high. In fact, half the people who study and work there arrive by bike or on foot.

During his stay at the Technion, Prof. Schlossberg is teaching courses as a visiting lecturer at the Faculty and is examining various possibilities for cooperation at the Technion and in Israel, including co-authoring a book with Prof. Karel Martens of the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. “I chose the Technion for my Fulbright Scholarship because it is a world-renowned institution. It is especially important to me to help the Technion increase its cooperation with Haifa and other cities, in order to accelerate a positive change in the community and create better learning opportunities for students at the various faculties.”