Urban Studies

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor and the department. Students are advised to talk to the Professor directly before applying for departmental approval. The course focuses on the urban transformation which took place in Europe in the nineteenth century and the new rapport between the city and the surrounding territory and their conservation. In particular, students are expected to: master theories and methods for reading and planning the historic city and cultural landscapes; interpret the preservation of the historic city as an asset for cultural and economic development; interpret the historic city and landscape as context and object of interest for cultural institutions. Topics covered: the historic city as an urban planning issue; methods of identification and assessment of cultural values to be protected and enhanced; reading and planning the historic city; key experiences in Italy ‘50s – ‘70s, the foundation of an urban planning practice; preserving the historic city, regulatory frameworks for urban conservation in UK, France, and Italy; the World Heritage Convention (1972) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape approach (2011); planning policies and conservation interventions for the World Heritage cities; the role of cultural activities in historic cities.

The course explores the relationships between urbanization and broader social, economic, political, and environmental transformations.  Exploration in this course is employed both as a tactic to thematically investigate contemporary cities, and as an opportunity to re-imagine what we might understand to be 'the city' and 'the urban' using recent theoretical approaches. While the course addressed a wide-range of cities across the global north and south, London is used throughout as a pivotal case through which to ground the thematic and theoretical explorations.

The International Internship course develops vital business skills employers are actively seeking in job candidates. This course is comprised of two parts: an internship, and a hybrid academic seminar. Students are placed in an internship within a sector related to their professional ambitions. The hybrid academic seminar, conducted both online and in-person, analyzes and evaluates the workplace culture and the daily working environment students experience. The course is divided into eight career readiness competency modules as set out by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which guide the course’s learning objectives. During the academic seminar, students reflect weekly on their internship experience within the context of their host culture by comparing and contrasting their experiences with their global internship placement with that of their home culture. Students reflect on their experiences in their internship, the role they have played in the evolution of their experience in their internship placement, and the experiences of their peers in their internship placements. Students develop a greater awareness of their strengths relative to the career readiness competencies, the subtleties and complexities of integrating into a cross-cultural work environment, and how to build and maintain a career search portfolio.

The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “City as Public Forum” sessions, students are introduced to French history and culture through a series of lectures and site visits. Students discover some of the fascinating ways the core principles of social justice were tested in theory and practice on the streets of Paris in the past and explore how they evolved into the pillars of French society today. The course focuses on just how an ideal society should be forged, where all are free individuals and members of a cohesive community at the same time. Trying to make individuals believe—as religions do—in the primacy of the collective, and in its concomitant goal of protecting human rights, is at the core of social justice in France. From 52 B.C.E to today, France has been an exemplar of how—and how not—to construct a just society. To render these values visible, and therefore legible, to all by adding a physical dimension—whether constructive or destructive—to the usual means of establishing laws or setting policies, is what distinguishes the history of France's capital city of Paris. Those who control Paris—be they monarchs, revolutionaries, or presidents, past and present—believe that erecting all kinds of physical structures will render their values concrete and immutable. The ideal French society did not always necessarily mean a democratic or inclusive one. Since the French Revolution, however, institutionalizing the concept of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” has been France's greatest universal achievement and a source of constant upheaval, eliciting a unique form of secular activism that has led to targeting buildings and monuments that no longer reflect the collective's values. Students discuss how the diverse social actors, who constitute “the French,” continue to thrust their bodies and minds into the physical spaces of the public sphere in the pursuit of social justice. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students learn targeted language skills through situational communication, so they have the opportunity to use everything they learn as they go about their daily activities. Advanced French students will participate in conversation courses on the program’s theme. This is the spring semester version of the course.

This course sets out from the seminar room to explore the city of Edinburgh, on foot, and online. It offers students a unique opportunity to engage with the contemporary city as a site for new ideas, designs and methods. The course responds creatively to Edinburgh's various sites and routes, bringing together students from across the university to work in interdisciplinary teams.

Urban geoscience encompasses the geological aspects of the built environment in the context of construction materials and the underlying bedrock that affects the stability of built structures. In London, the relevance of these aspects are evident. This course introduces students to critical aspects of urban geoscience related to suitability of building materials and construction sites, underground water resource, its contamination and fluctuation and, scope of urban mining using London as an example. The concepts learnt must then be applied to any other expanding city in the world in the same contexts of construction and water resources, maximizing resource recovery, and recycling from urban wastes.

This course offers an introduction to the field of urban morphological analysis, and a range of mapping techniques relevant to urban design. This also entails analysis of the forces that produce urban morphology and the forms of spatial practice that are integral to it. The focus of the course is on examining how various techniques of urban mapping can creatively contribute to different urban design and planning concepts, approaches, and outcomes. The course uses the Elizabeth Street corridor (from Flinders Street Station to the Victoria Market) in central Melbourne as a laboratory for exploring these themes. This is an urban transect that slices through a range of morphological conditions, densities, spatial practices, experiences and transformational prospects. Each student visits this site on a weekly basis throughout the semester, mapping different layers of data. It is understood that not all students will commence this class with the necessary mapping skills; however, it is expected that students will be familiar with Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, or can become so within the first two weeks. Additional tutoring is provided for those who need it so that all students are able to produce basic morphological maps for presentation in digital format. Students are not assessed on graphic or IT skills during this initial phase, but the acquisition and deployment of these skills will be required for the rest of the semester.

This course examines the theories, concepts and applications of urban green equity and urban environmental justice, with particular focus on implications for urban forest policy, planning, management, and design.