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11.302

Urban Design Politics

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries.

Spring 2010

Topics

  • Introduction: Urban Design Politics: From MIT to “The Capital of the World”
  • The Political Extremes of Urban Design 1: Mussolini’s Rome
  • The Political Extremes of Urban Design 2: Berlin, Pre-War to Post-Wall
  • The Political Extremes of Urban Design 3: Capital Cities
  • The Design Politics of Developing Public Housing
  • The Design Politics of Redeveloping Public Housing
  • The Design Politics of Urban Security
  • The Design Politics of Urban Resilience
  • Student Presentations 1
  • Student Presentations 2
  • Student Presentations 3

Readings

  • SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction: Urban Design Politics: From MIT to “The Capital of the World” · READINGS: [No readings]
    Reading assignment
  • Edelman, Murray. “Architecture, Spaces, and Social Order.” In From Art to Politics: How Artistic Creations Shape Political Conceptions . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 73-90. ISBN: 9780226184005.
    Listed reading
  • Hobsbawm, Eric. “Introduction: Inventing Traditions.” In The Invention of Tradition . Edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 1-14. ISBN: 9780521246453.
    Listed reading
  • Goodman, Nelson. “How Buildings Mean.” In Reconceptions in Philosophy . Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1988, pp. 31-48. ISBN: 9780872200524.
    Listed reading
  • Spain, Daphne. “Space and Status.” In Gendered Spaces . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1992, pp. 1-29. ISBN: 9780807843574.
    Listed reading
  • Fainstein, Susan, and Lisa J. Servon, eds. “Introduction: The Intersection Between Planning and Gender.” In Gender and Planning: A Reader . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005, pp. 1-12. ISBN: 9780813534992.
    Listed reading
  • Jarvis, Helen, with Paula Kantor, and Jonathan Cloke. “Homes, Jobs, Communities and Networks.” In Cities and Gender . New York, NY: Routledge, 2009, pp. 186-215. ISBN: 9780415415705.
    Listed reading
  • Logan, John R., and Harvey L. Molotch. “The Social Construction of Cities.” In Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place . Berkeley, CA: University of Califonia Press, 1987, pp. 1-12. ISBN: 9780520055773.
    Listed reading
  • Zukin, Sharon. “Market, Place, and Landscape.” In Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, pp. 3-23. ISBN: 978052007221.
    Listed reading
  • Peattie, Lisa. “Representation.” In Planning: Rethinking Ciudad Guayana . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1987, pp. 111-52. ISBN: 9780472080694.
    Listed reading
  • Payne, Stanley G. “What do We Mean by Fascism?” In Fascism: Comparison and Definition . Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780299080600.
    Listed reading
  • Painter, Borden. “Mussolini’s Obsession With Rome,” “Celebration and Construction, 1932-1934,” and “Architecture, Propaganda, and the Fascist Revolution.” In Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City . New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 1-38, and 59-90. ISBN: 9781403980021.
    Listed reading
  • Ghirardo, Diane Yvonne. “Italian Architects and Fascist Politics: An Evaluation of the Rationalist’s Role in Regime Building.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 39, no. 2 (May 1980): 109-27.
    Listed reading
  • Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. “Mussolini’s Aesthetic Politics.” In Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy . Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2000, pp. 15-41. ISBN: 9780520226777.
    Listed reading
  • Helmer, Stephen. Hitler’s Berlin: The Speer Plans for Reshaping the Central City . Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985, pp. 27-48. ISBN: 9780835716826.
    Listed reading
  • Speer, Albert. “Responsibility and Response.” Journal of Architectural Education 32, no. 2 (November 1978): 18. Translated by Dennis Domer.
    Listed reading
  • Krier, Leon. “Forward Comrades, We Must Go Back.” Oppositions 24 (September 1981): 26-37.
    Listed reading
  • Ockman, Joan. “The Most Interesting Form of Lie.” Oppositions 24 (September 1981): 38-47.
    Listed reading
  • Ladd, Brian. “Nazi Berlin,” “Divided Berlin,” and “Capital of the New Germany.” In The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 127-235. ISBN: 9780226467610.
    Listed reading
  • Wise, Michael Z. “Master Plan for a Government District,” “Choosing a Chancellery,” and “Norman Foster’s Reichstag: Illuminating Shadows of the Past.” In Capital Dilemma: Germany’s Search for a New Architecture of Democracy . New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998, pp. 57-80 and 121-34. ISBN: 9781568981345.
    Listed reading
  • Jordan, Jennifer. “Blank Slates and Authentic Traces: Memorial Culture in Berlin After 1945.” In Structures of Memory: Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond . Stanford University Press, 2006, pp. 23-58. ISBN: 9780804752770.
    Listed reading
  • Vale, Lawrence J. Architecture, Power, and National Identity . London: Routledge, 2008, 2nd ed., chapters 3-5. ISBN: 9780415955157.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Mediated Monuments and National Identity.” Journal of Architecture (Winter 1999): 391-408.
    Listed reading
  • Wright, Gwendolyn. The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780226908489.
    Listed reading
  • Goodsell, Charles T. The Social Meaning of Civic Space: Studying Political Authority Through Architecture . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1988. ISBN: 9780700603473.
    Listed reading
  • Gropius, Walter. “Sociological Premises for the Minimum Dwelling of Urban Industrial Populations,” and “Houses, Walk-ups or Highrise Apartment Blocks?” In The Scope of Total Architecture . New York, NY: Collier Books, 1962.
    Listed reading
  • Vale, Lawrence J. “Building Selective Collectives.” In From the Puritans to the Projects: Public Housing and Public Neighbors . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 162-266. ISBN: 9780674002869.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Standardizing Public Housing.” In Regulating Place: Standards and the Shaping of Urban America . Edited by Eran Ben-Joseph and Terry Szold. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 9780415948746.
    Listed reading
  • Franck, Karen A., and Michael Mostoller. “From Courts to Open Space to Streets: Changes in the Site Design of U.S. Public Housing.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 12, no. 3 (Autumn, 1995): 186-220.
    Listed reading
  • Newman, Oscar. “Housing Design and the Control of Behavior” and “Site-Planning Guidelines for Housing.” In Community of Interest . Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1981, pp. 48-77, and 193-213. ISBN: 9780385111232.
    Listed reading
  • Calthorpe, Peter. “HOPE VI and New Urbanism.” In From Despair to Hope: HOPE VI and the New Promise of Public Housing in America’s Cities . Edited by Henry Cisneros and Lora Engdahl. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2009, pp. 49-64. ISBN: 9780815714255.
    Listed reading
  • Low, Setha. “Unlocking the Gated Community.” In Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America . New York, NY: Routledge, 2004, pp. 7-26. ISBN: 9780415950411.
    Listed reading
  • Nelson, Robert H. “Introduction: A Constitutional Revolution.” In Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government . Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press, 2005, pp. 1-18. ISBN: 9780877667513.
    Listed reading
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency. “ Site and Urban Design for Security: Guidance Against Potential Terrorist Attacks .” FEMA 430 . Washington, DC: FEMA, December 2007. Chapters 1 and 4. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Coaffee, Jon, David Murakami Wood, and Peter Rogers. “Controlling the Risky City,” and “The Intensification of Control: Towards Urban Resilience.” In The Everyday Resilience of the City: How Cities Respond to Terrorism and Disaster . New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 67-109. ISBN: 9780230546738.
    Listed reading
  • Vale, Lawrence J., and Thomas J. Campanella, eds. “Introduction: The Cities Rise Again,” and “Conclusion: Axioms of Resilience.” In The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 3-23, and 335-355. ISBN: 9780195175837.
    Listed reading
  • Coaffee, Jon, David Murakami Wood, and Peter Rogers. “States of Protection and Emergency: The Rise of Resilience.” In The Everyday Resilience of the City: How Cities Respond to Terrorism and Disaster . Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 110-32. ISBN: 9780230546738.
    Listed reading
  • Klein, Naomi. “Blanking the Beach: The Second Tsunami,” and “Disaster Apartheid: A World of Green Zones and Red Zones.” In The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism . New York, NY: Picador, 2008, pp. 487-534. ISBN: 9780312427993.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Same subject as 4.253[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Sources