Urban Studies

This course examines the dualism in urban planning between East and West Berlin chronologically. Since the division of the city into West and East, demonstrating the power of capitalism and socialism respectively was central to urban planning. Shortly after the war, the solution of obstacles to urban development proved vital, but the ideological usability of economic strategies and architectural prototypes soon became an essential concern of urban redevelopment policy of both nations. The course discusses and analyzes strategies and models of financing and commercialization of urban planning, cultural contexts, living and dwelling models, and political strategies and narratives. Students present in seminars and participate in two excursions in order to trace the diverse targets and demands of capitalist and socialist urban planning.

The course introduces students to important substantive areas and concepts in the governance and planning of cities and urban regions. It explores current issues and debates in selected sectoral planning systems, their institutions and planning instruments, their interests and ways of thinking. This includes environmental and nature conservation policies, infrastructure policies (e.g. water, wastewater, energy, waste, transportation, telecommunication), the provision of social services, or economic policies and marketing strategies. Students reflect on how a diversity of sectoral policies and planning systems shape urban development and how they relate to and interact with spatial planning.

The global South is urbanizing at roughly twice the rate of the global North, yet dominant narratives of 'the city' continue to privilege London, Los Angeles, and Paris over Lagos, Johannesburg, and Mumbai. This course explores how cities of the global South are generating new bodies of theory, new forms of social life, and new imaginaries. It does this through novels, films, and other textual and visual representations of everyday urbanism, drawing on contemporary theory from the global South to help make sense of these discourses. Assessment: assignments (50%), final exam (50%).

This course introduces basic concepts of landscape design as it relates to urban forestry. It discusses the states of design, from site analysis, to conceptual drawings, design drawings, and some basic aspects of construction drawings. This course explores the history of landscape design and how it relates to the discipline of urban forestry.