4.241
The Making of Cities
Examines the complex development of cities through history by tracing a diachronic accumulation of forms and spaces in specific cities, and showing how significant ideas were made manifest across distinct geographies and cultures. Emphasizes how economic, spiritual, political, geographic and technological forces have simultaneously shaped and, in turn, been influenced by the city.
Spring 2025
This iteration of 4.241 is structured around **four key topics**: 1) the city and the urban, 2) spatial forms of the political, 3) world systems and urban economies, and 4) environmentalism. We will analyze these topics both cross-historically and cross-geographically, consistently moving between historical and contemporary urban formations. The class explores these four topics by examining the various artifacts and mechanisms that make up the urban environment (infrastructures, buildings, plans) and the spatial structures they generate. Throughout, we consider cities as part of broader processes of territorial structuring, investigating how cities depend on these processes for their functioning while also contributing to their shaping. The class debates are complemented by an individual, semester-long design-research project, which is discussed through presentations and dedicated workshops.
Readings
- de Landa, Manuel, ”Geological History 1000–1700,” in A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History (New York: Swerve Editions, 2000), 26–56.
- Doxiadis, Constantinos, “Anthropocosmos Model,” Ekistics 72 (2005): 430–435.
- Easterling, Keller, “Zone,” in Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space (London: Verso, 2014), 22–62.
- Graeber, David, and David Wengrow, “Imaginary Cities. Eurasia’s First Urbanites—in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Ukraine, and China—and How They Built Cities Without Kings,” in The Dawn of Everything. A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), 276–328.
- Mattern, Shannon, “Urban Technologies,” in Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: Five Thousand Years of Urban Media . (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017)
- Mumford, Lewis, “The Crystallization of the City,” in The City in History: Its Origins, Transformations, and its Prospects (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World Inc, 1961), 29–54.
- Norberg-Schulz, Christian, Meaning in Western Architecture (New York: Praeger, 1975), 81–88.
- Ogilvie, Sheilagh, “Guilds, Cities, and Trade,” in Institutions and European Trade: Merchant Guilds, 1000–1800 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
- Ong,Aihwa, “Worldling Cities, or the Art of Being Global,” in Worldling Cities. Asian Experiments in the Art of Being Global , Ananya Roy and Aihwa Hong, ed. (Chichester, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2011), 1–26.
- Rossi, Aldo, “The Roman Forum” and “Monuments: Summary of the Critique of Context,” in The Architecture of the City (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991 [1966])
- Rowe, Colin, “Collision City and the Politics of Bricolage,” in Collage City (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1978).
- Sassen, Saskia, “Medieval City-States and Economic Networks,” in Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)
- Sennet, Richard, “The Spaces of Democracy,” in Democracy and Urban Form (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2024)
- Sevilla-Buitrago, Álvaro, “Planning as a Historical Project,” in Against The Commons: A Radical History Of Urban Planning (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022), 1–30.
- Wood, Ellen Meiksins, “The Polis and the Peasant Citizen,” in Peasant-Citizen and Slave. The Foundations of Athenian Democracy (London: Verso, 1988), 101–125.
Spring 2013 · Theory of City Form
Topics
- Introduction
- Normative Theory I: The City as Supernatural
- Normative Theory II: The City as Machine
- Normative Theory III: The City as Organism
- Descriptive and Functional Theory
- Dimensions, Patterns, Agreements, Structure, and Syntax
- The Early Cities of Capitalism
- Transformations I: London
- Transformations II: Paris
- Transformations III: Vienna and Barcelona
- Transformations IV: Chicago
- Transformations V: Panopticism, St. Petersburg and Berlin
- Utopianism as Social Reform and Built Form
- 20th Century Realizations: Russian and Great Britain
- City Form and Process
- Spatial & Social Structure I: Theory
- Spatial & Social Structure II: Bipolarity
- Spatial & Social Structure III: Colony and Post-colony
- Form Models I: Modern and Post-modern Urbanism
- Form Models II: Open-endedness and Prophecy
- Form Models III and IV: Rationality and Memory
- Cases I: Public and Private Domains
- Cases II: Suburbs and Periphery
- Cases III: Post-urbanism and Resource Conservation
- Cases IV: Hyper and Mega-urbanism
- Conclusion: Towards a Theory of City Form
Readings
- Beinart, Julian. “Image Construction in Premodern Cities.” In Imaging the City: Continuing Struggles and New Directions . Edited by Lawrence J. Vale and Jr., Sam Bass Warner. Center for Urban Policy Research, 2001, pp. 3–32. ISBN: 9780882851709.
- Wright, A. F. “The Cosmology of the Chinese City.” In The City in Late Imperial China . Edited by G. W. Skinner. Stanford University Press, 1977, pp. 33–74. ISBN: 9780804708920.
- Sennett, Richard. “The Neutral City.” Chapter 2 in The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities . W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, pp. 41–68. ISBN: 9780393308785.
- Collins, George R. “The Linear City.” In Architects Year Book XI: The Pedestrian in the City . Edited by Lewis, D., et al. Elek Books Limited, 1965, pp. 204–17.
- Geddes, Patrick. “Geddes’ Final Dundee Lecture.” Appendix II in Cities in Evolution: An Introduction to the Town Planning Movement and to the Study of Civics . Edited by The Outlook Tower Association and The Association for Planning and Regional Reconstruction. University of Michigan Library, 1915, pp. 214–30.
- Richardson, H. W. “Antecedents.” Chapter 2 in The New Urban Economics: and Alternatives . Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1980, pp. 7_–_30. ISBN: 9780850860580.
- Clark, Gregory. “Introduction: The Sixteen-Page Economic History of the World.” Chapter 1 in A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World . Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 2–17. ISBN: 9780691141282 .
- Engels, Friedrich. “The Great Towns.” Chapter 3 in The Condition of the Working Class in England . Translated and edited by W. H. Henderson and W. O. Chaloner. Stanford University Press, 1958, pp. 30–87. ISBN: 9780804706346.
- Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World . Riverhead Trade, 2007, pp. 1–55. ISBN: 9781594482694.
- Harvey, David. “Materializations: Paris 1848–1870.” Part 2 in Paris, Capital of Modernity . Routledge, 2005, pp. 91–105. ISBN: 9780415952200.
- Benjamin, Walter. “Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century.” In Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings . Edited by Peter Demetz. Schocken, 1986, pp. 146–62. ISBN: 9780805208023.
- Schorske, Carl. “The Ringstrasse, Its Critics, and the Birth of Urban Modernsim.” Chapter II in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture . Vintage, 1980, pp. 24–110. ISBN: 9780394744780.
- Evans, Robins. “Bentham’s Panopticon.” Architectural Association Quarterly , 1971, pp. 21–37.
- Friedman, David. “Palaces and the Street in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Italy.” In Urban Landscapes: International Perspectives . Edited by J. W. R. Whitehand and P. J. Larkham. Routledge, 1992, pp. 69–113. ISBN: 9780415070744.
- Speer, Albert. “The Greatest Assignment.” Chapter 6 in Inside the Third Reich . Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 71–82. ISBN: 9780684829494.
- ———. “The Greatest Assignment.” Chapter 10 in Inside the Third Reich . Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 132–50. ISBN: 9780684829494.
- Ciucci, G. “The City in Agrarian Ideology and Frank Lloyd Wright; Origins and Development of Broad Acres.” In The American City: From the Civil War to the New Deal . MIT Press, 1983, pp. 352–75. ISBN: 9780262530446.
- Tod, I., and M. Wheeler. “The Architect as Visionary.” In Utopia . Orbis Publishing, 1978, pp. 127–47.
- Kopp, A. Town and Revolution: Soviet Architecture and City Planning, 1917–1935 . Translated by Thomas E. Burton. George Braziller, 1970, pp. 163–86. ISBN: 9780807605547.
- Hall, P. “The Planned Communities.” Chapter 10 in The Containment of Urban England . Allen & Unwin, 1977, pp. 329–59. ISBN: 9780043520666.
- March, L. “Why have New Towns?” New Society , June 8, 1972.
- Lyndon, D., and M. Buchanan, and Architects Associated. “At the Edge of Public Housing.” Space and Society 22.
- Saunders, P. “The Urban as Ideology.” Chapter 5 in Social Theory and the Urban Question . Routledge, 1986, pp. 152–239. ISBN: 9780415091169.
- Beinart, J. “Resurrecting Jerusalem.” In The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster . Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 181–210. ISBN: 9780195175837.
- Beinart, J. “Government-built Cities and People-made Places.” In The Growth of Cities . Edited by David Lewis. Wiley-Interscience, 1971, pp. 185–207. ISBN: 9780471531982.
- Lynch, K., and Appleyard. D. Temporary Paradise? A Look at the Special Landscape of the San Diego Region. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1974.
- King, A. “The Language of Colonial Urbanisation.” Chapter 4 in Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment . Routledge, 2010, pp. 68–96. ISBN: 9780415611664.
- Sert, J. L. “Man and the City.” Part 15 and Appendix in Can Our Cities Survive? An ABC of Urban Problems, Their Analysis, Their Solutions . Harvard University Press, 1942, pp. 227–49.
- Koolhaas, R. “What Ever Happened to Urbanism?” In S, M, L, XL . Monacelli Press, 1998, pp. 959–71. ISBN: 9781885254863.
- Beinart, J. “From Olympia to Barcelona: Themes of Permanence and Transience.” Spacio e Società 50 (1990): 34–54.
- Cowan, P. “Studies in the Growth, Change and Ageing of Buildings.” Transactions of the Bartlett Society 1 (1963): 55–84.
- Smithson, A., ed. Team 10 Primer . MIT Press, 1974, pp. 48–95. ISBN: 9780262690478.
- Krier, L., and J. Robertson. Houses, Palaces, Cities . Edited by D. Porphyrios. St. Martin’s Press, 1985, pp. 30–49. ISBN: 9780312479909.
- Filler, M. “Back to Babel.” The New Republic, February 2003, 23–7.
- Wieseltier, L. “After Memory.” The New Republic , May 1993, 16–26.
- Gehl, J., and L. Gemzøe. Public Spaces Public Life . Danish Architectural Press, 1996, pp. 78–83. ISBN: 9788774071877.
- Sennett, R. “The Public Domain.” Chapter 1 in The Fall of Public Man . W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, pp. 3–27. ISBN: 9780393308792.
- Sorkin, M. Introduction in Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space . Hill and Wang, 1992, pp. xi–xv. ISBN: 9780374523145.
- Conzen, M. “The Morphology of Nineteenth Century Cities in the United States.” In Urbanization in the Americas: The Background in Comparative Perspective . Edited by W. Borah, J. E. Hardoy, and G. E. Stelter. National Museum of Man, History Division, 1980, pp. 119–41. ISBN: 9780660103495.
- Duany, A., E. Plater-Zyberk, and J. Speck. Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream . North Point Press, pp. 3–20. ISBN: 9780865477506.
- Fishman, R. “America’s New City: Megalopolis Unbound.” Wilson Quarterly 14 (1990): 24–45.
- Graham, S., and S. Marvin. Splintering Urbanism . Routledge, 2001, pp. 217–303.
- Webber, M. “Order in Diversity: Community without Propinquity.” Cities and Space: the Future Use of Urban Land . Edited by L. Wingo, Jr. RFF Press, 1963, pp. 23–54. ISBN: 9780801806773.
- Newman, P., and J. Kenworthy. “The Concept of Sustainability and Its Relationship to Cities.” Chapter 1 in Sustainability in Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence . Island Press, 1999, pp. 1–26. ISBN: 9781559636605.
- Van der Ryn, S., and P. Calthorpe. “The New Suburban Fabric.” In Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs, and Towns . Sierra Club Books, 1986, pp. 54–83. ISBN: 9780871568007.
- Devas, N., and C. Rakodi. “The Urban Challenge.” Chapter 1 in Managing Fast Growing Cities: New Approaches to Urban Planning and Management in the Developing World . Longman Group, 1993, pp. 1–40. ISBN: 9780582093041.
- ———. “Conclusions: Assessing the New Approaches.” Chapter 10 in Managing Fast Growing Cities: New Approaches to Urban Planning and Management in the Developing World . Longman Group United Kingdom, 1993, pp. 265–96. ISBN: 9780582093041.
- Pierce, N., and C. Johnson. “New Frontiers for a Global Urban Commons.” Chapter 10 in Century of the City: No Time to Lose . The Rockefeller Foundation, 2008. ISBN: 9780891840725.
- Beinart, J. “After the Diagram.” In Le Corbusier: Chandigarh and the Modern City : Insights into the Iconic City Sixty Years Later . Mapin Publishing, 2009, pp. 184–95.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 11.330[J] Prereq: 11.001[J] , 11.301[J] , or permission of instructor G (Spring) Units arranged
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2025
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2013
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.