Teaching sustainable transformation of industrial heritage places: insights from the NIT Urban Heritage Lab

In the autumn of 2021, the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT) offered a post-graduate course addressing the challenges and possibilities for the transformation of industrial heritage from a multi-disciplinary perspective. With a focus on Istanbul's industrial heritage, the course entitled "Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities" aimed to explore issues relevant to industrial heritage worldwide. The course took place partly online (lectures and discussions), partly on-site in Istanbul (field trips, study groups and workshops), and was open to early-career professionals or researchers of any discipline from higher education institutions in the Netherlands and Turkey. The course was organized as part of the NIT Urban Heritage Lab. Here we review the course's aims, format, and outcomes and reflect on the potential and limitations of an international, hybrid course on a topical cultural heritage theme.