Disrupting the Corridor. New Scenarios for Water/Ground Mobilities (Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme)

The E+ BIP “Disrupting the Corridor: New Scenarios for Water/Ground Mobilities” investigates how water, land, and energy infrastructures interact across the Adriatic land-sea basin. In particular, it centers on the terraqueous corridor between Albania and Italy (Apulia) and its main “material anchors”: the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), thermoelectric power complexes (such as Brindisi-Cerano) and the port cities (Brindisi, Bari, Durrës). 

The programme seeks to challenge and redefine what “corridor mobility” means, as well as the epistemic tools for envisioning a fair ecological future. Throughout the BIP, students will interrogate corridor mobility as a material, social, and ecological infrastructure that design and planning disciplines often overlook. This programme embodies interdisciplinarity by redefining mobility corridors not as mere physical routes but as hydrosocial and energetic flows. While these infrastructures often create dependence, extraction, and conflict, they can also become spaces where pathways to sustainability, justice, and care are shaped and negotiated. 

By actively adopting theoretical multidisciplinary analysis, archival tools, spatial ethnography, and a researchby-design approach, students will develop an “Atlas of Stories” composed of relational cartographies and speculative scenarios. The aim is to produce actionable policy and design strategies to mitigate and redefine infrastructural effects and to propose innovative, context-sensitive approaches that reframe these infrastructural impacts through ecological care, spatial justice, and territorial transformation. 

This BIP constitutes the educational pillar of the broader research project awarded the 2025 SOMFoundation Research Prize, serving as the primary platform for disseminating its innovative methodology within the ENHANCE Alliance.

Main objectives of the BIP: 

Focusing on the Adriatic corridor between Albania and Italy, the BIP explores how mobilityinfrastructures, such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and thermoelectric power complexes, mediate flows of water, energy, nature, capital, ideas, space, and politics. The programme is guided by two fundamental questions: 

1. What landscape transformations and asymmetries are produced? 

2. To what extent can these infrastructures address their materiality, immanence, and openness to decolonial and ecological projects of care? 

To address these questions, the BIP pursues the following main objectives: 

• To analyse landscape transformations: Investigate physical and social impacts through a multi-scalar lens. 
• To apply transdisciplinary methodologies: Train students in the integrated use of archival research, spatial ethnography, and research-by-design. 
• To develop the “Atlas of Stories”: Synthesize findings into a collective document composed of relational cartographies and speculative scenarios. 
• To formulate actionable strategies: Produce innovative policy and design strategies to mitigate infrastructural effects and propose approaches based on ecological care, spatial justice, and territorial transformation.

Specific learning outcomes: 

Knowledge 

By the end of the BIP, students will be able to: 

• Recognize mobility and energy infrastructures and hubs (e.g., the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, thermoelectric power complexes, port cities) as material, spatial, political, ecological, and socio-technical systems that shape the Adriatic region. 
• Analyse how infrastructures mediate flows of water, energy, freights, capital, nature, ideas, and governance, producing landscape transformations and territorial asymmetries between Albania and Italy. 
• Define the concept of "hydrosocial territories" and its relevance to contemporary environmental and urban design. 
• Critically engage with multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks, including Political ecology, Infrastructure and mobility studies, Decolonial and extractivist theories, Ecological transition. 
• Understand and compare research methodologies such as: Archival and historical analysis, Ethnographic and field-based inquiry, Relational and critical cartography, Research-by-design as a mode of knowledge production. 
• Situate Adriatic infrastructural systems within broader Mediterranean and global ecological and geopolitical dynamics. 

Skills 

Students will be able to: 

• Develop multi-scalar analyses linking local landscapes to transnational infrastructuralsystems. 
• Produce relational cartographies and spatial representations that visualize material flows, socio-environmental impacts, and power relations. 
• Apply research-by-design approaches to critically reinterpret infrastructure and propose alternative spatial imaginaries. 
• Conduct field-based research, including stakeholder mapping, interviews, spatial observation, and archival investigation. 
• Translate theoretical insights into actionable spatial and policy strategies addressing mitigation, adaptation, or transformative ecological care. 
• Synthesize multidisciplinary data into a collective "Atlas of Stories" using graphic and multimedia tools. 

Competences 

Students will strengthen the capacity to: 

• Work collaboratively within multidisciplinary and transnational teams, managing different perspectives. 
• Critically assess the environmental, social, and political implications of large-scale infrastructure projects. 
• Integrate ethical perspectives (such as spatial justice, ecological and decolonial perspectives) into planning and design thinking. 
• Communicate complex territorial and infrastructural issues through written, visual, and oral formats suitable for academic and policy contexts. 
• Demonstrate reflexivity in engaging with local communities and sensitive environmental data during fieldwork.

Target group: 

The BIP is primarily addressed to Master’s and PhD students with an advanced academic background in spatial, territorial, and socio-environmental studies, particularly those interested in infrastructure, territorial transformation, and critical spatial practices. It is specifically targeted at profiles linked to the two complementary dimensions of the programme: 

• Design and Planning profiles: students with a background in Architecture, LandscapeArchitecture, Urban Planning, Urban Design, Design, and Environmental Engineering. These participants are expected to be familiar with (or interested in) research-by-design methodologies, GIS/spatial mapping, speculative scenarios, and creative visual products. 
• Analytical and Critical profiles: students with a background in Urban and RegionalGeography, Urban Sociology, Political Ecology, and Ethnography. These participants providethe critical tools to interrogate power asymmetries, hydrosocial territories, and the social impacts of infrastructure through fieldwork and theoretical inquiry. 

While interdisciplinary in nature, the programme is specifically designed for participants who can engage with complex territorial dynamics through design research, fieldwork, and theoretical inquiry. 

Prerequisites: 

• Specific Skills: As the BIP involves the production of an “Atlas of Stories,” applicants are expected to contribute with a selection of skills relevant to their specific field. These include, but are not limited to: 
• Spatial representation and design software (i.e., GIS, CAD, BIM, or Adobe Suite). 
• Prior coursework in qualitative research and visual storytelling tools (i.e., photography, video editing, or creative writing) is welcome. 
• A genuine interest in critical studies, political ecology, and infrastructural transformations is highly encouraged. 
• Language Proficiency: A working knowledge of English is required, as lectures, discussions, and collaborative activities will be conducted in English. 
• Technical Equipment: Participants are required to bring their own laptop with the necessary software preinstalled to ensure autonomy during both the virtual and physical components of the programme.

Online component (22 hours in total):

• Tuesday 01.09.2026 (8 hours): Preparatory modules focusing on research design and methodology, serving as a prerequisite for the hands-on component of the program.
• Friday 18.09.2026, date TBC (8 hours): Online review session, one week after the physical component. 
• Friday 25.09.2026 or 02.10.2026, date TBC (8 hours): Final presentation of refined outputs, dedicated to the final delivery of the “Atlas of Stories”. The final presentation will take place after the on-site component. 

On-site component (58 hours in total):

Monday 07.09.2026 – Saturday 12.09.2026. The physical component of the BIP is hosted at Politecnico di Milano (Campus Leonardo) and is organized into 6 days of intensive activities.

Individual component for each student (20 hours in total):

Furthermore, students will be allocated dedicated time for independent study to complete course modules and assignments.

The two-level mutual trust-based quality assurance scheme has been adopted:

• at the university level: Politecnico di Milano has applied its internal quality assurance procedures and structures to the proposal of Disrupting the Corridor. New Scenarios for Water/Ground Mobilities (Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme) it submitted to ENHANCE and to its implementation - the related learning activities,
• at the Alliance level: the body composed of Education Officers has made decisions regarding the inclusion of Disrupting the Corridor. New Scenarios for Water/Ground Mobilities (Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme) proposed by Politecnico di Milano to the Innovative Learning Campus part of the joint ENHANCE educational offer, based on the compliance with the formal requirements and ENHANCE goals.

+ 20h of self-study and asynchronous teaching. Indeed, the course involves reading texts (papers and chapters), delivering a poster on the contents, and compiling an atlas of stories (both in groups).

Students, organized in multidisciplinary groups, will be assessed according to the following: 

A) Evaluation of the four daily "instant products”, produced during the physical workshop. This 

evaluation includes active participation in the expert-led seminars, collective debates, and in-class activities. (50% of the final mark). 

B) Evaluation of the final delivery and presentation. It considers the presentation during the closing seminar at Politecnico di Milano (last day of the physical component) as well as the final delivery and presentation of the refined digital product. (50% of the final mark).

Each institution is responsible for recruiting their students following local selection procedures. In particular:

For Polimi students only: send a Portfolio, CV of 2-3 pages with a motivation letter to simonetta.armondi@polimi.it and agim.kercuku@polimi.it

For ETH students only: apply via the following link. 

For administrative questions, please read our website, especially the information regarding recognition and the scholarship.

For academic questions contact Nancy Couling (coulingn@ethz.ch) and Milica Topalovic (mt@arch.ethz.ch)

For RWTH students only: contact Elena Batunova (batunova@staedtebau.rwth-aachen.de)

For TU Berlin students only: contact Moritz Ahlert (moritz.ahlert@tu-berlin.de)

For TU Delft students only: contact Nelson Mota (n.j.a.mota@tudelft.nl)

For UPV students only: contact Alejando Campos Uribe (a.camposuribe@upv.es)

For students coming from different universities from those listed above, please follow the procedure specified for Polimi students.

The BIP adopts a student-centred pedagogical model designed as a mapping and research-by-design sprint. The methodology bridges theoretical inquiry with active mapping and production of scenarios, structured as follows: 

• Blended Learning 
• Challenge-Based “Daily Sprints” 
• Leveraging Student Talents 
• Research-by-Design Methodology 
• Collaborative Peer-Review and Refinement

Online and on-site at Politecnico di Milano (Leonardo Campus).