João Pedro Gouveia co-organised Workshop #3 – "MARS: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience Measures in the Built Environment among University Students" during the 38th PLEA Conference (Passive and Low Energy Architecture), held at the University of Costa Rica in San José. Under the overarching conference theme "Common Sense Architecture: Harnessing Local Wisdom for Sustainable Futures," PLEA 2026 brought together researchers, architects, engineers and practitioners from around the world to discuss climate-responsive design, bioclimatic architecture, resilience and sustainable built environments.

The workshop was jointly organised by Teresa Cuerdo (Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja – CSIC, Spain), João Pedro Gouveia (NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal), Carolina Rodríguez (Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Colombia), Claudia E. Vázquez Torres (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico), and Andrea Martínez (Universidad de Concepción, Chile), reflecting a strong international collaboration across Europe and Latin America.

The MARS Workshop created an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how universities can become living laboratories for climate action by integrating mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures into campus planning and the built environment. Participants explored topics including thermal comfort, climate vulnerability, resilient buildings, behavioural responses to climate change, sustainable campus design and strategies to enhance the wellbeing of university communities under increasingly challenging climate conditions.

Bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives and international experiences, the workshop fostered new research collaborations and knowledge exchange on how higher education institutions can contribute to more resilient, inclusive and sustainable built environments while preparing future professionals to address the impacts of climate change.