Urban Design Seminar

Readings

WEEK #	TOPICS	READINGS
Part 1: Urban Design Now
1	Designing Places and Policies
2	Assessing the Current State of Urban Design	Lang, Jon. “The Nature of Urban Design Today,” and “Basic Attitudes in Urban Design.” In Urban Design: The American Experience. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994, pp. 68-123. ISBN: 0471285420.
3	Urban Design Competitions and How to Judge Them	Goldberger, Paul. “Urban Warriors.” The New Yorker, September 15, 2003. The Municipal Art Society. “Imagine NYII: The People’s Response Summary Report,” January 2003. ———. “Imagine New York: Toward the People’s Memorial Summary Report,” December 2003. Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Web site to view nine initial World Trade Center designs, memorial proposals and finalist information. NY Times and NY Times Magazine selected articles. ULI Gerald Hines Urban Design Competition Documentary.
4	Evaluating Urban Design	View the 2003 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence and previous awards at the Foundation Web site.
5	Discussion of Assignment 1
Part 2: Assessing Urban Design Futures
6	Past Futures	Corn, Joseph, and Brian Horrigan. “The Community of Tomorrow.” In Yesterday’s Tomorrows. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1984, pp. 34-53. ISBN: 0671541331. Jencks, Charles. “Philosophies of the Future,” and “Inexorable Trends.” In Architecture 2000: Predictions and Methods. London, UK: Studio Vista, 1971, pp. 9-48. ISBN: 027549280X. Cook, Peter, ed. “Instant City.” In Archigram. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999, pp. 86-101. ISBN: 1568981945. Ross, Michael. “Megastructuring,” and “Architechnology.” In Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese Architecture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1978, pp. 22-36, and 55-70. ISBN: 007053893X. Lubow, Arthur. “How Architecture Rediscovered The Future.” New York Times Magazine, May 18, 2003.
7	Topic 1: Inventing New Ways of Living: Homes and Neighborhoods	Larson, Kent. “A Machine Crafted Home of the Future.” Architecture and Urbanism 361 (October 2000). ———. “Changing Places and House_n Research Topics (PDF),” and “MIT Open Source Building Alliance” ———. “PlaceLab: A House_n + TIAX Initiative.” Blank, Thomas. “Future of Housing for Older Persons.” In Older Persons and Their Housing: Today and Tomorrow. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Pub. Ltd., 1988, pp. 175-224. ISBN: 0398053774. Jenkins, Susan. “Housing That Works.” Builder Magazine, September 1998. “Live/Work 2001.” Builder Magazine, February 4, 2001.
8	Topic 2: Distributing Work: The New Workplace	Russell, James S. “Introduction,” and “Form Follows Fad.” In On the Job: Design and the American Office. Edited by Donald Albrecht and Broikos Chrysanthe. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000, pp. 17-29 and 49-73. ISBN: 1568982410. Duffy, Francis. “Two Traditions,” and “New Ways of Working.” The New Office. London, UK: Conrad Octopus, 1997, pp. 12-67. ISBN: 1850298912. Architekten, Henn. Die Glaeserne Manufactur. Hamburg, Germany: Junius Verlag, 2003. ISBN: 3885065436. ———. Stahl und Form. Dusseldorf: Stahl-Informations-Zentrum, 2001, pp. 1-18 and 30-31. (PDF - 2.7 MB) Gladwell, Malcolm. “Designs for Working.” The New Yorker, December 11, 2000, 60-70.
9	Topic 3: The Advent of “Mediated” Space: Public Places and Technology	Castells, Manuel. “The Culture of Cities in the Information Age.” In The Castells Reader on Cities and Social Theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2002, pp. 367-389. ISBN: 0631219331. Horan, Thomas. “The Recombinant Landscape,” and “Building Our City of Bits.” In Digital Places. Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 2000, pp. 3-27 and 115-135. ISBN: 0874208459. Frenchman, Dennis. “Media Street Elements, Guidelines, and Illustrations.” Working Paper (MIT), January 27, 2003. Joroff, Michael, and Dennis Frenchman, et. al. DMC: Digital Media Street. Seoul, South Korea: Seoul Metropolitan Government, 2003.  Mitchell, William J. “Software: New Genius of the Place.” In E-topia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 0262133555. City Design and Development Group, CRE, Media Lab. New Century Cities: Real Estate Value in a Digital World. (PDF) Cambridge, MA: MIT, January, 2005.
10	Topic 4: Creating a City of Learning: Schools and Stories in the City	Strickland, Roy. “Neighborhoods for Learning.” Places 13, no. 1 (Winter 2000): 58-65. Frenchman, Dennis. “Narrative Places and the New Practice of Urban Design.” In Imaging the City. Edited by Larry Vale and Sam Bass Warner. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Researh, 2001, pp 257-282. ISBN: 0882851705. Wansborough, Matthew, and Andrea Mageean. “The Role of Urban Design in Cultural Regeneration.” Journal of Urban Design 5, no. 2 (2000): 181-197. Recommended Community Partners Consultants. Arts District Master Plan. Worcester, MA, June 2002. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture. New American School Design Project. “Pre-programming PreK and Related Facilities for the Union City Board of Education.” September 1998. Icon Architecture and Roy Strickland with Urban Partner Isles, Inc. “Trenton Community-Based Schools Master Plan.” May 2002.
11	Topic 5: Reclaiming the industrial landscape: Land and Water Infrastructure	Campbell, Robert. “A Paris Match?” Boston Globe, March 12, 2002. Pieprz, Dennis. “Regenerating the Recovered Waterfront.” Aquapolis (2002): 34-41. Breen, Ann, and Dick Rigsby. The New Waterfront: A Worldwide Urban Success Story. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1996, pp. 11-23. ISBN: 0070074542. Song, Kimberly. “In Seoul, a Splash of the Past,” Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2004. For additional project information: skim case studies.
12	Topic 6: Rediscovering Nature: Natural Systems in the City	Spirn, Anne Whiston. “Reclaiming Common Ground, Water, Neighborhoods and Public Spaces.” In The American Planning Tradition. Edited by Robert Fishman. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1999, pp. 297-313. ISBN: 094387596X. ———. “Epilog, Visions of the Future.” In The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1984, pp. 263-275. ISBN: 0465026990. Callenbach, Ernest. “William Weston on His Journey to Ecotopis.” In Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston. New York, NY: Bantam, 1990, pp. 3-37. ISBN: 0553348477. Van der Ryn, Sim, and Peter Calthorp. “The New Suburban Fabric.” In Sustainable Communities. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1991. ISBN: 087156629X.
13	What Have We Missed?
14	Redesigning Urban Design	Lang, Jon. “Redesigning Urban Design.” In Urban Design: The American Experience. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994, pp. 124-134. ISBN: 0442013604. Lynch, Kevin. “City Design: What It is and How It Might Be Taught.” In City Sense and City Design: Writings and Projects of Kevin Lynch. Edited by Tridib Banerjee and Michael Southworth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990, pp. 652-59. ISBN: 0262121433.