The Summer school ARS17 was organized and implemented by City College New York and the University of Iowa in cooperation with GUtech Oman.

This summer program in Berlin applied environmental and other context related parameters to the design of urban fabric, structure, layout and building envelope in a given urban context of Berlin, Germany. The challenges of a changing climate was one key parameter to be considered, while understanding and interpreting public space, circulation and infrastructure on the urban level as well as structure and organization of the building itself adding to the complexity. The urban building was thus considered an object in and of itself; a comfortable habitat and the boundary of urban space. Therefore were explored new typological approaches to a section of the city at the southern entrance to a new urban park (Gleisdreieck Park) developed on former railway corridor, addressing urban form, construction types, structure, circulation, the building envelope and the urban space between.