Emergent Urbanisms

3 units

This course surveys emergent models of urbanization in globalizing cities that thus far defy categorization or exist peripherally in studies of urban form. The goal of the course is to equip students with the theoretical and historical background, the analytical tactics, and the critical awareness necessary to repostition themselves as designers in these increasingly challenging contexts. Through case study examples and supporting readings, the course will decipher the formal, social, and environmental effects of particular processes defining new urban spatial configurations in city-regions around the globe. Most of these processes are driven by discourses of 'efficiency,' such that urban forms are increasingly inflected by economic operating systems, as they are subsequently detached from traditional concerns of livability and public interest. Emerging urban assemblages include: massive manufacturing warehouse landscapes or logistical distribution centers and 'aerotropolis' transit hubs as well as those spaces left behind by regional restructuring: de-urbanizing (or deliberately erased) environments which contradictorily 'enable growth' in other areas (or over the same areas); and the informal settlements that emerge more spontaneously onb the margins of mainsteam urban policy. Students will use their understanding of these spatial and logistical configurations to project creative modesl for re-direction or engagement. Sources and analytical tactics will be drawn from across fields including design, sociology, geography and history. Fulfills Urban Issues elective requirement., MUD-Track elective requirement.