BIP – Sustainability in Construction intensive week focused inventing new ideas to Piiri area
BIP – Sustainability in Construction intensive week brought together students from SEAMK, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (Austria), KEA Copenhagen School of Design and Technology (Denmark) and JADE University of Applied Sciences (Germany).
During the intensive week, students were tasked with developing the Piiri area. Johannes Karhu, the representative of the contractor, summarised that the students had been told not to think about budget at this stage.
– The ideas could be as crazy and extreme as they wanted. Among the presentations I heard, there were many very feasible ideas, including the construction of a few additional buildings and the introduction of a sauna in some of the buildings, Johannes says.
Seven SEAMK students participated in the intensive week. One of the students participating was Jussi Tuomi, a first-year construction engineering student. This was the first time Jussi participated in this kind of course.
– The week was really good. It was nice to get together with foreign students to work and develop the Piiri area. We got to see how dirrerently foreign students think and it was great to get to work with people from different cultures, says Jussi.
New connections and old acquaintances
Florian Gras, a student at JADE University of Applied Sciences in Germany, has taken part in courses like this before and has also visited Finland before. However, this was his first time in Seinäjoki and at SEAMK.
– I was really happy to see some people from Austria, Denmark and Finland again. The week was a really nice experience, and I liked that this was not a graded course. You could be totally free with your ideas, and no one was judged regardless of what kind of ideas you presented.
Learning new things also took place during the week. For example, by working in group students were able to see what kind of software students from other countries use in their studies. With this in mind, Jussi would gladly take part in a similar course again.
– There are probably two of these coming in the autumn, so it would be interesting to take part and see more new people and collaborate with them, he says.
In addition to working on the assignment, the schedule also included a more leisure activities. On Monday, the group had the chance to taste the delicacies of different countries in a snack bar, where everyone brought their own country’s snacks. On Thursday, the group had a dinner at SEAMK, where they could taste different Finnish dishes and flavours. The group also had the chance to explore Seinäjoki and during the week they also heard a lecture about Finnish traditions and words.
