Brief description of the course:

During the course each student will read texts from a wide proposition offered to them. Each student will make a written critical analysis of the text and will evaluate the author’s contribution to the urban thought and their influence on the current urban debate. Throughout the course each student will deliver a public presentation of the text and its critical evaluation which will be followed by a debate in the group. This will promote a multi-faceted approach to urban issues and help develop a critical and open view on urban reality.

Goals:

This founding course will enable students to learn through reading, writing and discussing the key issues of urban studies in order to develop a good critical view on the urban development and to implement this vision into the students’ urban and technological projects. The suggested readings will address multiple areas, such as city economy, sociology, history, technology, philosophy, art, urban planning, design, activism, politics, etc.. The texts will generally be contemporary, incorporating authors from the mid 20th century to the present.

Brief description of the course:

The first part of the course will be dedicated to the analysis of key points in the urban history and comparison of urban visions from different epocs based on similar parameters. Students will study different models of the urban future which later will be put together in presentations and discussed in debates. Every student will deliver a critical analysis of a certain vision of the urban future taking into account technological, socio-economical and cultural features of the historical period in which they were created. Finally every student will write an essay with a proposal of an urban future, based on their vision and critical analysis of the available information.

Goals:

Since the times when people started building cities they have also been dreaming about and envisioning cities of the future and/or better ages, telling stories and drawing pictures of utopias and dystopias. Those visions of the urban future created throughout the history reflect people’s and city builders’ theoretical, practical and ideological views. Through comprehensive exploration of 20-30 cases of the most ambitious urban visioning students will gather and analyze various facts and knowledge related to urban development theory and practice on many levels: technological progress, socioeconomic and cultural conditions, beliefs and aspirations of the planners of the past. Students will be encouraged to read texts and use audiovisual material to develop their understanding of these cases, and represent it to the group in ways that evoke discussions and lead to a new deeper understanding of the very nature of urbanism as creative and critical practices. By carrying out such analysis students will be able to produce their own critical texts on the urban future by the end of the course.

Brief description of the course:

The course will start with the selection of the research topic which then will be investigated in collaboration with a particular urban research centre or platform. Each student will get one city to study, so that the whole research encompasses a variety of cities. The results will be published with the idea to recieve feedback and review the findings if needed in collaboration with research groups from other institutions.

Goals:

The goal of this course is to promote a comparative study of cities and investigate a variety pf urban phenomena happenning in different parts of the world and different cultural contexts. The focus of the research will be on various urban aspects relevant to the urban studies, such as the urban fabric, the relation between urban projects and economic development, the categorization of urban regeneration projects. These studies will be conducted in cooperation with urban research centres and platforms which will help students to understand the importance of wide collaboration in the procces of knowledge creation.