Urban Studies

This is an advanced course considering the economic forces that govern the geographic distribution of economic activity and its implications for economic outcomes and public policy issues. The course is divided into two parts. The first part develops a simple theory of cities as the result of the interaction between agglomeration and congestion forces. It studies in detail the agglomeration forces that attract firms, consumers, and workers to cities, as well as the congestion forces that limit the size of cities and how to overcome them through transportation networks and housing markets. The second part of the course extends the basic model to study a system of many locations, the dynamics of city growth and decline, and to conclude, the role of cities and geography for climate change.

The urban ecohydrology contains a theoretical part which comprises all aspects related to the urban water cycle including urban rainfall pattern, water availability, groundwater recharge, urban rivers and drainage (traditional and sustainable approaches), urban waterscapes and alternative perspectives for water in cities, and the specific requirements for urban green including urban rainwater gardens, green roofs and facades and aspects of water shortage and heat stress on urban green conditions. Specific requirements of mega-cities and urban areas in developing countries will be assessed. In a practical part of the module, students will learn how to use simple modelling software for the calculation of greywater use and for the configuration of sustainable drainage systems including sustainable rainwater management. In the excursion part, students will get the chance to visit and study different elements of urban water, including e.g. excursions to a sewage treatment plant, the implementations of the water framework directive for urban rivers, integrated rain and grey water management of office blocks, and green wall installations (excursions will vary according to the availability of invited guides).

Practical work with standard software for geographical information systems (e.g. ArcGIS Pro): architecture, components, and functionality, principles of thematic modelling (thematic layers, object classes, etc.), geographical data models and data structures, spatial and topological relations, data acquisition and digitization, methods for geospatial analysis, cartographic theory, elements and principles of cartographic visualization, spatial reference systems and map projections, map design, symbolization, topographic and thematic maps, cartographic information systems, cartographic abstraction and generalization, multimedia cartography, spatial decision support systems, multi-criteria decision analysis.

The city's relationship to water will be considered in a number of different contexts from hydrogeology, engineering, and urban planning to cultural production. Water has been the subject of many films, paintings, and literary texts. We will explore this angle extensively, looking for concrete as well as symbolic and mythological meaning. Through student presentations, we will explore individual bodies of water, discover water infrastructure and research the city's current water management. Swimmers are encouraged to "sample" various bathing sites and report on their experience. The instructor will offer one or two city excursions outside the regular course times. Can I take this course? Yes, if you are interested in history, literature, and culture, and willing to explore the city in ways that go beyond the usual tourist experience.

The course focuses on mapping and listening to acoustic territories in Berlin. It allows academic research for exploring and understanding the city by sensing aural environments. Structured in theory and practice, the central questions of the course are: Which sonic elements can we encounter in navigating historical and contemporary maps? Which methods of research and practices exist in the act of mapping with sound? How can we generate sound maps? From a transdisciplinary approach, the course reflects the city‘s cultural, social, and political dimensions through analyzing and creating maps by listening. It aims to allow students to explore auditory territories, gain strength, and develop knowledge and individual perspective on cultural studies and urban studies. The mapping methods are practice-based on field recordings, soundwalk, and sound diagramming exercises. The academic readings and discussions introduce the student to the field of sound studies.

The cities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries surged with light, money, ideas, and people. New aspects of city life included the arrival of electric modes of mass transit, new technologies of communication, luminous arcades filled with consumer goods, and opulent palaces for commercial entertainment. Successive waves of newcomers sought a better life amidst the bright lights, swelling the cities with restless endeavor. Photographers, artists, poets, journalists and others looked to capture this era of rapid urban change, and make sense of the metropolitan spaces unfolding outwards and upwards before them. Where there was illumination there was also shadow. Amidst the dazzling opportunities offered by the metropolis could also be found its benighted citizens, those whom fortune did not favor. Outcasts and malcontents shared the city’s public spaces, from time to time terrorizing middle-class imaginations. It is this tension of extremes – between the city filled with prospects and the city as the terminus of hope – that this course explores. Focusing on four cities where the possibilities and pitfalls of modernity were felt especially keenly, weekly readings and discussions seek to comprehend what it was like to experience profound transformations in urban living. Rather than try to understand the four case study cities in totality across more than half a century, the course offers specific excursions into the social and cultural histories of London, Melbourne, New York, and Paris. 

Faraway and everyday landscape typologies shape human inhabitations, as well as cosmogonies, cosmologies, myths, and folklore of different cultures. These spaces are sometimes the place of conquests, other times the place of retreat; sometimes regarded with fear, other times with fascination. The same landscape typologies can be the archetypical images of inhabitation, and the archetypical images of abandonment. This course unfolds some of the meanings of landscape through the lenses of abandonment and inhabitation, shedding light over the pertinence of some concepts in particular historical periods and the cause of their oblivion in others, for example, concepts of nature and environment; wilderness and sublime; or landscape urbanism, social urbanism, or informal urbanism.

 

This course explores ideas and practices of creating more convivial places through participatory, democratic practices that have a positive impact on streets, neighborhoods, communities, and cities. It examines the historical, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and other influences on places that determine what a place has become and how. Furthermore, it explores the role of design and the process of implementing a design idea into a realized project. At the end of course, students undertake original research and analysis on a topic of public interest and demonstrate how to use history, inputs and influences of places to understand what makes places successful or not.