Urban Studies

This course explores the relationships between urban form and formation: how insights from urban morphology and morphogenetic processes that created existing urban form can better inform the creation of future urban form through planning, design, and more informal urbanism. This involves study of different urban form components and patterns at different scales – buildings, spaces, streets, and districts – and how these are created in relation to each other to generate overall urban form. 

This course explores the spatial manifestation of urban dynamics. Over half of the entire world population now live in cities and this proportion is estimated to rise further. This means urban space, as an intensified, technologically augmented, and rapidly changing space, is the basic setting of living for most human beings. Also, this “built-environment” not only has become our direct, first-hand environment in our everyday experiences but also has significant natural-environmental implications.

This course examines the nature of “urbanity” as it is spatially played out, and its economic, political, environmental, and human rights implications, specifically keeping in mind the possibility of more democratic control of urban space.

The subject of this class is the modern period of urban space, especially in relation to the changes in the human-material relationship since the 19th century. It is mainly related to technological changes in the 20th century, but it also deals with the spatial implications of recent innovations such as artificial intelligence and smart devices.

This course examines contemporary city development trends, policies, and practices across the globe as explored against the backdrop of culture and technology. Includes hands-on learning.

This class introduces the core concept of contemporary resilience theory to provide students with a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating social-ecological resilience. Key ecological planning concepts and strategies, including green infrastructure planning, ecosystem services, and nature-based solutions, are designed as part of module for fostering students with capacity to bridge concepts and practice for nature-based resilience planning. This course emphasizes learning from doing, and will combine lectures, case study, field work, and team work for presenting planning proposals. 

The focus of the seminar is the concept of reconstruction in the field of architecture and urban development, an essential term when dealing with loss and destruction in historical urban structures. In addition to the decision or debate between monument preservation and new planning, the course also discusses the crucial role of political, social and identity authorities in these design processes. By reading theoretical and official texts, analyzing international case studies and visiting Berlin case studies, students gain insights into the diversity of theories and methodological approaches to reconstruction in modern and contemporary architectural practice and monument preservation.

This course examines the challenges of increasing travel demand, impacts on people, process of policy formulation, structure of governmental control, engagement of stakeholders and evaluation of performance. With reference to the case of Hong Kong, the evolution of the planning process and the development of policy instruments are illustrated. To provide a future outlook, an overview of recent trends and near-term prospects within the wider context of sustainability for delivery of transport services is introduced.

This course introduces the concept of public space not only from a theoretical point of view but also through uses and behaviors taking place in urban public spaces, including gender inequalities. Methods of urban ethnography are considered for this purpose. All along the course, specific attention is paid to questioning links between theories and practices. Public space is a topical issue which plays a major role in our society and in our everyday lives. The course focuses on different disciplinary approaches (such as political philosophy, sociology, and urban studies) in order to identify the many meanings the concept can carry. It develops arguments to engage in the current debate around the supposed end of public space.

The future is increasingly framed as unpredictable, turbulent, complex, and unknown. This course considers the implications of the future framed as uncertain for sustainable development. It explores risk governance as a means of navigating uncertain futures and its deployment for sustainable development. The first part of the course asks: what is risk governance? Content is theoretical in focus and introduces risk governance as governance that involves interventions based on anticipated futures. Lectures cover theorizations of risk and core components of risk governance. The second part is empirically focused and considers examples of risk governance in practice. Lectures focus on the deployment of risk governance for sustainable development in different industry contexts, such as insurance and urban planning. Concluding lectures reflect on risk governance, including how it is lived, experienced, and resisted.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course offers, through theoretical references and case studies, the basic knowledge on the implementation of a complex urban project. The adopted design approach consists in working on urban space starting from the recognition of the structuring value of open spaces. The perspective assumed is that of the "reverse city" (Viganò) or the "soil project" (Secchi), and the design tools adopted in the urban dimension can be traced back to consolidated international experiences such as "landscape urbanism" (Waldheim) or "ecological urbanism" (Mostafavi and Doherty). Within this theoretical and methodological framework, the laboratory engages with the "Bologna green footprint" proposal, focusing on the dimension of open spaces and the structures of ecological networks across scales. Tools and materials are provided to the students for studying in-depth themes and sites assigned to each group, and developing the urban project. In the end, students learn the adequate knowledge of the principles, tools, and rules of urban planning and they are able to develop protection and transformation plans and projects in urban contexts, identifying the actions to be implemented by the subjects involved. Teaching methods include series of lectures, design exercises, and seminars.

This course explores key contemporary complexities and future urban issues faced by evolving cities. By drawing on the expertise of leading urban professionals, academics, and researchers, students learn to critically analyze and discuss specific topics relating to current urban issues, debates, and technologies. Each run of the course focuses on a topical study or thematic analysis of specific urban issues to provide greater insights and highlight current cutting-edge research and technologies in the field. Students learn, interact, and collaborate with these leading professionals to stay abreast of the latest trends, practices, and challenges to remain informed and adaptable in the ever-changing environment of cities.