4.241J | Spring 2013 | Graduate

Theory of City Form

Calendar

LEC # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Introduction  
Section One: The Nature of City Form Theory
2 Normative Theory I: The City as Supernatural  
3 Normative Theory II: The City as Machine  
4 Normative Theory III: The City as Organism  
5 Descriptive and Functional Theory  
6 Dimensions, Patterns, Agreements, Structure, and Syntax  
Section Two: The Form of the Modern City
7 The Early Cities of Capitalism  
8 Transformations I: London  
9 Transformations II: Paris  
10 Transformations III: Vienna and Barcelona  
11 Transformations IV: Chicago  
12 Transformations V: Panopticism, St. Petersburg and Berlin  
13 Utopianism as Social Reform and Built Form  
14 20th Century Realizations: Russian and Great Britain Term paper proposal due
Section Three: Current Theory and Practice
15 City Form and Process  
16 Spatial & Social Structure I: Theory  
17 Spatial & Social Structure II: Bipolarity  
18 Spatial & Social Structure III: Colony and Post-colony  
19 Form Models I: Modern and Post-modern Urbanism  
20 Form Models II: Open-endedness and Prophecy  
21 Form Models III and IV: Rationality and Memory  
22 Cases I: Public and Private Domains  
23 Cases II: Suburbs and Periphery  
24 Cases III: Post-urbanism and Resource Conservation  
25 Cases IV: Hyper and Mega-urbanism  
26 Conclusion: Towards a Theory of City Form Completed term paper due

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2013
Level
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Videos
Lecture Notes
Written Assignments with Examples
Instructor Insights