everything.study
11.328

Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City

4-2-2 units · Graduate

Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329[J] .

Fall 2004

The course is designed to be an introduction to methods of analyzing, evaluating, and recording the urban environment first hand. Its aim is to supplement existing courses that cover theory and history of city design and planning and to better prepare students without prior design background for the studio sequence.

Readings

  • SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction · READINGS: Inam, Aseem. “Meaningful Urban Design: Telelogical/ Catalytic/ Relevant.” Journal of Urban Design 7, no. 1 (2002): 35-58. Kallus, Rachel. “From Abstract to Concrete: Subjective Reading of Urban Space.” Journal of Urban Design 6, no. 2 (2001): 129-150.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 2 · TOPICS: Walk - East Cambridge/Kendall · READINGS: Jacobs, Allan B. “Starting to Look.” In Looking at Cities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985, pp. 1-13.
    Reading assignment
  • Fleming, Ronald Lee. “Questions to Ask a Space.” Places 6, no. 4 (Summer 1990): 12-13.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 3 · TOPICS: A Methodology For Physical Analysis · READINGS: Jacobs, Allan B. “Clues.” In Looking at Cities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985, pp. 30-83.
    Reading assignment
  • “Site Inventory.” 1992.
    Listed reading
  • Krier, Leon. “Urban Components.” 1979.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 4 · TOPICS: Walk - South End/Back Bay · READINGS: Moudon, Anne Vernez. “A Catholic Approach to Organizing What Urban Designers Should Know.” Journal of Planning Literature 6, no. 4 (May 1992): 331-348.
    Reading assignment
  • Bookout, Lloyd W., and James W. Wentling. “Density by Design.” In Urban Land. June 1988, pp. 10-15.
    Listed reading
  • Jacobs, Allan B. Great Streets. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1993.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 5 · TOPICS: Freehand Sketching and Drawing Types I · READINGS: Guptill, Arthur L. Rendering in Pen and Ink . Edited by Susan E. Meyer. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976.
    Reading assignment
  • Browning, Hugh C. The Principles of Architectural Drafting: A Sourcebook of Techniques and Graphic Standards. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1996. (Reference.)
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 6 · TOPICS: Walk - Fens/Muddy River · READINGS: Dramstad, Wenche E., James D. Olson, et al. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996, pp. 18-45.
    Reading assignment
  • Calthorpe, Peter, and Sim Van der Ryn. “Introduction: Ecology and the Commons.” In Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs and Towns. San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1986, pp. viii-xvii.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 7 · TOPICS: Freehand Sketching and Drawing Types II · READINGS: Francis, Mark, ed. “Parking Gardens.” In The Meaning of Gardens. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990, pp. 130-137.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 9 · TOPICS: Rendering By Hand · READINGS: Doyle, Michael E. Color Drawing: A marker/colored-pencil approach for architects, landscape architects, interior and graphic designers, and artists. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1980. (Reference.)
    Reading assignment
  • Adams, Thomas. The Design of Residential Areas: Basic Considerations, Principles and Methods. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1934.
    Listed reading
  • Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
    Listed reading
  • ———. A New Theory of Urban Design. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Anderson, Stanford Owen, ed. On Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1978.
    Listed reading
  • Appleyard, Donald. Livable Streets. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981.
    Listed reading
  • Bacon, Edmund N. Design of Cities. New York: Viking Press, 1967.
    Listed reading
  • Barnett, Jonathan. An Introduction to Urban Design. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Elusive City: Five Centuries of Design, Ambition and Miscalculation. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.
    Listed reading
  • Benevolo, Leonardo. The Origins of Modern Town Planning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1967.
    Listed reading
  • Broadbent, Geoffrey. Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold (International), 1990.
    Listed reading
  • Calthorpe, Peter. The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993.
    Listed reading
  • Calthorpe, Peter, and Sim Van der Ryn. Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs and Towns. California: Sierra Club Books, 1986.
    Listed reading
  • Cullen, Gordon. The Concise Townscape. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1961, 1971.
    Listed reading
  • Duany, Andres, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Towns and Town-Making Principles. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 1991.
    Listed reading
  • Easterling, Keller. American Town Plans: A Comparative Time Line. Princeton Architectural Press, 1993.
    Listed reading
  • Gehl, Jan. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Gosling, David, and Barry Maitland. Concepts of Urban Design. London: Academy Eds.; New York: St. Martinís Press, 1984.
    Listed reading
  • Greenbie, Barrie B. Spaces, Dimensions of the Human Landscape. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1981.
    Listed reading
  • Hester, Randolph. Neighborhood Spaces: User Need and Design Responsibility. Dowden Hutchinson & Ross, 1975.
    Listed reading
  • Jacobs, Allan B. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
    Listed reading
  • Kostof, Spiro. The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form through History. Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1992.
    Listed reading
  • Krier, Rob. Urban Space. New York: Rizzoli, 1979.
    Listed reading
  • Lang, Jon T. Urban Design: The American Experience. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994.
    Listed reading
  • Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1971.
    Listed reading
  • ———. A Theory of Good City Form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.
    Listed reading
  • Marcus, Clare Cooper, and Carolyn Francis, eds. People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.
    Listed reading
  • McCluskey, Jim. Roadform and Townscape. London: Reed International, 1979.
    Listed reading
  • Moudon, Anne Vernez, ed. Public Streets for Public Use. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
    Listed reading
  • Newman, Oscar. Defensible Space; Crime Prevention through Urban Design. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
    Listed reading
  • Perry, Clarence Arthur. Housing for the Machine Age. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1939.
    Listed reading
  • Porter, Douglas R. Flexible Zoning: How It Works. Washington D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Sitte, Camillo. City Planning According to Artistic Principles. New York: Random House. (orig. 1889, 1965.)
    Listed reading
  • Southworth, Michael and Eran Ben-Joseph. Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Trancick, Rogers. Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986.
    Listed reading
  • Unwin, Raymond. Town Planning in Practice. London: Fisher Unwin, 1909.
    Listed reading
  • Whyte, William Hollingsworth. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington D.C.: Conservation Foundation, 1980.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Same subject as 4.240[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 4-2-2 units

Sources