This Opening Seminar is part of the International Summer school "Experiencing Nature Outside!" and is open to all Professors and students from POLIMI. 

14:00 – 14:30
Urban Green Infrastructure – Are we sabotaging our best ally?
Speaker: Aude Zingraff-Hamed, TU Dortmund, Germany 
Urban green infrastructure is widely recognized as one of our best solutions for tackling urban heat, surface flooding, biodiversity loss, and negative impacts on human health. But are we forgetting that trees are not streetlamps—and that they, too, are living organisms struggling in a hostile urban environment? 

14:45 – 15:15
How are local voices shaping the future of green cities in the EU and UK?
Speaker: Husam El Waer, Dundee University, Scotland 
Urban ReLeaf brings together local communities and public authorities to improve urban climate resilience by filling critical gaps in air‑quality, heat‑stress, and greenspace data across six European pilot cities. By integrating citizen‑generated insights—such as tree registries and greenspace perception studies—into official planning, it ensures residents’ lived experiences shape more just, resilient, and nature‑rich urban environments. 

15:30 – 16:30
Socio-ecological Urbanism: Designing Pathways for Regeneration
Speaker: Arjan. van Timmeren,TU Delft, Netherlands 
Socio‑ecological urbanism is presented as an emerging approach to regeneration that treats liminal, in‑between spaces as opportunities for experimentation, adaptive reuse, and inclusive transformation toward more resilient futures. By expanding concepts of urban belonging to include ecological needs alongside human ones, the lecture illustrates how cities can foster shared stewardship, ecological justice, and regenerative socio‑ecological relationships across species