Ordinance: Territorial Rules & Urban Administration

3 units

What is the link between rules and form? What is the relationship between form and politics? This course will essay an administrative history of the built environment, taking as its starting point the rules, codes, ordinances, laws, and guidelines that shape the landscape. We will turn a critical yet curious eye towards historic and contemporary case studies that shape or are shaped by a robust regulatory framework--from the French Forest Ordinance of 1669 to the work of MVRDV and contemporaries. We will examine both the built results and the theories and philosophies of design by which they are animated. In the arc of our readings, we will seek to link our territorial, urban, and architectural understanding with broader historical and economic moments. In addition to carrying out readings, discussions, and analyses, students will work towards ORDONNANCE, a collective publication that will historicize and diagram this administrative impulse.