Proposals for sustainable urban growth through the conversion of industrial areas as a vertical transversal learning activity of the urban planning sub-module.

Through the methodology of a practical case study [1] of experiences of teaching based on projects [2], the learning results achieved in the subjects of the urbanism sub-module are exposed, analyzed, and studied in this research: City Planning from the third course, and City Workshop of the fourth course, both subjects linked to a learning activity with a common statement that follows the methodology of Vertical Workshop [3] and transversal between subjects.

The reclassification of the industrial land of the historic refinery of the CEPSA company located in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Fig. 1) into residential land, free spaces, public facilities, and tourism program is directly linked to the urban expansion of the city that began in the first decade of the 21st century towards the old neighborhoods of Cabo-Llanos. With what the structural systems projected and proposed by the students had to be established trying to give answers of integration and continuity with the existing axes and solutions to conflicts and problems detected in the previous phase of analysis [4].

All the land occupied by the CEPSA refinery makes up most of the Buenos Aires neighborhoods, which is part of the administrative district No. 4 Ofra-Costa Sur (Fig. 2).

Coinciding with the end of the 2021-22 academic year and for it to be taken into consideration in the preparation of the Learning Guides for the 2022-23 academic year subjects, the Universidad Europea defined what it came to call the six pillars of the Academic Model, which were substantiated in the following concepts: Simulated environments, Professional environments, Investigative interest and Data-Driven approach, Integrated Curriculum, Transdisciplinary, and One World.

For the definition of the common lines of the statement, the following were deepened:

The integrated curriculum, which, from a holistic approach, aspires to inclusive and transversal learning of contents, competencies, and learning results, linking the subjects of Integrated Drawing workshops [5] and project design with the submodule of urbanism that allows the student to interrelate knowledge and skills with professional practice.

The data/driven researcher approach encourages decision-making based on objective data extracted by the students themselves in their continuous research work, developing critical and analytical thinking with which to face the search and study of information. The conduct of architectural research outside the limits of the discipline itself is a relatively recent phenomenon, although climate design and the development of building products and systems seem to have been a focal point of research in the fifties, research in architecture and urbanism developed in the 1960s and early 1970s in a wide range of subject areas, including socio-economic issues, sustainable urbanism, design methods and energy consumption [6].

And finally, the third pillar of the academic model on which this activity is based is the so-called One World, in which students are encouraged not only to receive technical academic training, but also a base of values and social, ethical, and environmental commitments [7]. Likewise, this pillar aspires to train students capable of functioning in complex multicultural environments.