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Introduction to Urban Design & Development

This course is dedicated to enhancing and developing your English language proficiency in your expertise field. MIT and its educators are here at the head of the service. You would explore both the structure of cities and the ways they can change. This free online course talks about theories regarding how cities formed, and the practice of urban design and development, using U.S. and global examples. The course contains models of urban analysis, current theories of urban design, and implementation strategies.

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Course at a glance


Institution: MIT
Subject: Urban Studies and Planning
Level: Graduate
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor is required.
Language: English
Video Transcript: English


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About this course

This class introduces students to theories regarding how cities form and the practice of urban design and development, using U.S. and global examples.

MIT offers an optional recitation this year for those who are interested in urban design. The recitation will give the chance to participants to examine cases related to the ideas raised in class. It also provides recommendation and support on the two required research/design papers. The meeting will be on Fridays, 4 to 5 times throughout the semester. Scholars electing to participate in the recitation can attend the sessions and take part in the discussions. Time for discussion is limited in class, so we encourage students to regard this option, which will improve your learning.

Urban Design and Development in MIT course by applypedia
Parts of this course

This class is classified into two parts. The first one analyzes the forces, that shape and change cities. We start with Boston and examine how fundamental forces affecting current urban development, such as market economics, social forces, industrial production, the natural environment, public and private development, and motivations for better design. At least you can find how cities represent a vision for their future, plans and proposals.

The second part is focused on key models of physical form and social intervention to determine competing forces acting on the city. The models reflect the languages of city-making. You can discuss the development of models, practical results, and prospects for resolving urban problems and opportunities. The models consist of tradition, art, efficiency, ecology, security, emotion, and intelligence.

shape and changing the cities in MIT course by applypedia

Grading

You should prepare readings, two papers and participate in class. You will also be required to maintain a simple journal reflecting on the readings. Student grades will be specified as follows:
Research papers and journal assignment: 75%
Participation in classes, discussion sessions, and field trips: 25%
 

Course Calendar

Part 2 - Models of City-Making in MIT course by applypedia

Part 2 - Models of City-Making

1 - Values of Contemporary Urbanism
Urban design as a cultural language. Recurring themes: public and private; machine and nature; density and dispersion; local culture and global; the rich and the poor. Recurring elements: neighborhoods, production spaces, markets, streets, public spaces, transport spaces, and symbols. Class discussion on form, human behavior, and value systems.
Assignment 2 handed out

2 - Tradition
The grid and the line. The confluence of culture, geography, and form: Colonial towns in New England and Georgia, and their legacy. Neo-traditionalism: Poundbury, and British new town design.

3 - The Art of Placemaking
Symbolic places and form. From Baroque Rome to the Chicago and Worlds Columbian Expositions: City Beautiful and its continuing impact. Contemporary art of creative place-making: Georgy Kepes, Otto Piene, and CAVES at MIT.

4 - WaterFire, Walking Tour of Providence, R.I.
Host: Barnaby Evans, artist, creator, and producer of WaterFire.

5 - Case Study: Making a 21st Century Public Realm
Guest: Barnaby Evans, artist, creator, and producer of WaterFire

6 - Case Study: Mid-Century Modern City
Guest: Professor Hashim Sarkis, Dean of the School of Arcitecture and Planning at MIT
The architecture of urban design: Set, Neutra, and the ongoing legacy of Latin American urbanism.

7 - The Efficient City
The city as a mechanism for production. The utopian industrial city: from Pullman to the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Impacts on urban development policy: public housing, highways, and urban renewal. The outcome in China: a city for 130 million people.

8 - Case Study: Green Development
Guest: Bill Browning, CEO, Terrapin Bright Green

9 - The City in Nature
How do ideas of nature influence the way cities are perceived and built? How natural processes and urban form interact. The search for a green, sustainable city. The Garden City, new town, and ecocity models. The contemporary urbanist (density) vs. ecologist (sprawl) debate.

10 - The Secure City
Public safety vs. private safety. Impact of security on urban design. Debates on gated communities in Latin America, Asia, Middle East, and North America.

11 - Recitation Session
Please submit a journal (any length) reflecting on the readings in the second half of the course. Questions to consider: What planning strategies/tools could be employed to reshape the city or suburbs? What strategies/tools of change are in the plan you are studying? Required session.

12 - Experience City
Experience development as a force in urban design. Narrative places. The engagement of information and media in urban form. Disney World to Dubai.

13 - Productive Neighborhoods
Putting a “nervous system” into the city, and its effects on human behavior, activities and form. Smart urban systems that are sensed, continuously analyzed, and can incrementally respond over time. Stochastic as opposed to visionary urban design. Implications for theory and future practice: Rise of Innovation Districts: Seoul, Spain, Guadalajara, Mexico.

14 - The Good City
Reconciling ideals and the real. Discussion of languages of urban design and development, and their applicability in practice. Whose values should the city reflect?
Student Panel Session

15 - Wrap Up, Discussion of Assignment 2
Assignment 2 due

Part 1 - Forces That Shape Cities in MIT course by applypedia

Part 1 - Forces That Shape Cities

1 - Viewpoints On the City
How are cities understood? City themes and city culture, ways of representing cities. The idea of imaging a city from the viewpoint of its inhabitants: Kevin Lynch. Regeneration of Lowell, MA.
Assignment 1 handed out

2 - The Forces That Made Boston
How does a city grow? The city viewed as a process of cultural and physical evolution. How underlying forces are given form through design.

3 - Walking Tour of Boston
Required field trip: Meet at the Prudential Center Observatory lobby. Tour concludes in the North End for lunch.

4 - Economic Forces and Urban Form
The city viewed as a business. Land use, land value, and urban development. Understanding how uses are located: the bid rent curve; cities as central places. Functional patterns of market and form. From the walkable city to edge city.

5 - Social Foces and Urban Form
The city form the viewpoint of communities and their residents. Interrelationships of neighborhoods, class association and form. Public housing, Hope VI, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston.
Identify location for Assignment 1

6 - State Forces and Urban Form
The city viewed by those in power. Eminent domain. Public development and its arenas: infrastructure, redevelopment, and housing. How is public development financed and carried out? City design as a political endeavor: from Paris, New York, and New London.

7 - Recitation Session, Assignment 1: Urban Change
Research methods and topic development. How do you document urban change over time, and into the future? What resources are available? Using graphics to support an argument. References and citations. Attendance strongly recommended.

8 - City Making I: Planning the Formal City
Land allocation, use, and regulation of private development: zoning and incentives to influence what the market provides. Evolution of land use control to shape the “good” city and protect scares resources. Examples: New York and Sao Paulo.

9 - Case Study: Private Development and Public Benefits
Guest: Kairos Shen, former Planning Director, City of Boston
The city is made largely by individual private development and projects, working within a framework of zonging and other regulations. Are these regulations sufficient to protect the public interest? What additional public benefits can the city expect developers to provide? Examples of projects and controversies in Boston.

10 - City Making II: Non-Planning the Informal City
Guest: Dr. Jota Samper
Informal settlements amke up one-third of the world’s urban population. What is this form of urbanization? How can design affect security and regeneration of these neighborhoods? Examples: Medellin and Rio de Janeiro.

11 - City Making III: Public-Private Partnerships
The entreprenurial viewpoint. Joining public and private interests. Revitalizing downtowns and neighborhoods with new incentives, formulas for development, and types of projects. Examples: Vancouver.

12 - Recitation Session
Discussion will focus on the readings. Please submit a journal reflection on the readings thus far. Questions to consider: can you design places without designing buildings? Which tools of urban designs have shaped the place you are examining for the first assignment? Required session.

13 - Field Visit: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Host: Prataap Patrose
Meet at BRA offices, Boston City Hall.

14 - City Making IV: The Design and Development Process
Design as a tool of analysis, synthesis and decision-making. The importance of urban visions and who makes them. The development process: how is good design achieved?

15 - Discussion of Exercise 1, Student Presentations
Assignment 1 due

Introduction, Course Structure and Objectives in MIT course by applypedia

Introduction, Course Structure and Objectives

Can cities be designed?

Do you want to read more about this subject?
Here are the various articles for learning more about this topic.

  • The Open and the Enclosed: Shifting Paradigms in Modern Urban Design. Read
  • The Social Nexus. Read
  • City and Modernism, Notes on Urban Space, and Space, Territory, and Perception. Read
  • Introduction, Word Game, Fixes. Read
  • City Image and Its Elements. Read
  • Form Values in Urban History. Read
  • A Topographical History. Read
  • Cityscapes of Boston: An American City Through Time. Read
  • Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. Read
  • Inventing the Charles River. Read
  • The Urban System and Urban Structure. Read
  • The City as a Growth Machine. Read
  • Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street. Read
  • The Uses of City Neighborhoods. Read
  • Grand Design. Read

Assignments

Journal
Students should document their own ideas, comments, and challenges on the readings and class material. You can prepare your journal on any length, but it should discuss at least two readings/topics.

Assignment 1
Urban Change: Outline the growth of one place in Boston during the time, and predict its future.

Assignment 2
Urban Plans: Evaluate an urban design intervention of your choice, anywhere in the world, to answer the question: Was this a good plan?

About the Instructors

Prof. Dennis Frenchman and Colleen Xi Qiu;

Dennis Frenchman Colleen Xi Qiu
Prof. Dennis Frenchman and Colleen Xi Qiu by applypedia

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