First workshop week – February 2025 – Graz, GIBS
Second workshop week – May 2025 – Chalon-sur-Saône Lycée Niepce
Third workshop week – November 2025 – Elche, IES Carrús
Fourth workshop week – April 2026 – Aalborg, Tekniske Gymansium
Fifth workshop week – September 2026 – Graz, GIBS
The goal of all the workshops is to bring together young people from the four partner countries, to let them spend a week in the respective schools, to enjoy Austrian, Danish, French and Spanish hospitality in host families and to develop ideas for a better, more peaceful and sustainable way of life. It is a project focusing on green empowerment of schools, staff as well as students, and encompassing UN Sustainable Development Goals alongside the exchange of best practices, pedagogical innovations, and didactic development.
In September 2026, the Green Empowerment of Schools project has kicked off the last of the student workshops, which is held at GIBS. The first day was spent with a tour of historical and interesting places in downtown Graz, with the highlight being a visit to the town hall where we met the Mayor, Elke Kahr, learnt about the history of the Town Hall, and perhaps even more interestingly were introduced to the fact that the city has a children’s city council, which is something everyone could learn from. The students also spent time at a couple of different farmers’ markets (Bauernmarkt Lendplatz and Kaiser Franz Josef Markt) shopping local groceries, which they prepared and consumed for lunch the next day. The day finished with a spot of urban gardening at Gemeinschafts Garten Eggenberg. GIBS uses the community garden to plant, grow and harvest in addition to the school garden. Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and herbs spice up our afternoon care lunches and as decoration the beautiful flowers of the topinambur serve as decoration.
The last three days in Graz were centered around sustainable construction with wood and were kicked off with a walk in the woods around the beautiful Grüner See before we were invited for a tour of the facility at Mayr-Melnhof Holz and introduced to the steps involved in processing wood into a building material. Thursday, we attended a lecture at the Technical University of Graz by DI Giovanna Cassavia and were given a guided tour of the Quartier 7, the Trennmälzerei and AHS-Reininghaus, our partner school, before Friday’s culmination in a hands-on workshop where the students created architectural models with wood. Ivan Ginev charmingly and eloquently opened the world of architecture to our students. All in all, it’s been a wonderful week with loads of experiences, input and learning for students and teachers alike.
Funded by the European Union
Project partners:
TU Graz: DI Giovanna Cassavia
Haus der Architektur: Ivan Ginev
Bürgermeisteramt der Stadt Graz
Rani Ellingsgaard & Martina Pfistermüller-Czar
For the Erasmus+ Team
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