URBAN DESIGN: THEORY AND PRACTICE

URBRPL 215

We live in an increasingly urban world and anticipate that 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. For many of us, our shared future experience will be urban and interconnected. How can we make the future of urban areas as bright as possible for everyone? The answer begins with us. Building equitable and sustainable urban futures for everyone will require the efforts of a diverse group of people from many disciplines, backgrounds, and ways of thinking. Guest presenters introduce different disciplines and perspectives through major themes related to the planning and design of urban systems and environments. Imagine and develop your plan to effect positive change in an urban area focused on relevant topics like community food systems, water conservation, multimodal and active transportation, affordable housing, and urban nature.

URBRPL 841

Influence of social, economic, and political systems, technological innovations, and architectural concepts on the spatial organization and environmental form of cities and urban areas; the adaptability of urban physical structure to developmental change; planned, conceptual organization and form versus unplanned and ecological organization and form.

URBRPL 550

Investigation of multi-modal transportation, travel behavior, and urban form. Attention to site, neighborhood, regional, and global scales. Consideration of public health, environmental, economic, and social equity outcomes.

LANDARC 562

With a focus on public open spaces as shared social places, emphasizes the social dimensions and connectedness of urban design and open space systems through perspectives from allied disciplines, such as landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning, real estate development, urban ecology, civil engineering, and the visual arts. Integrates human activity requirements and experiences with physical (or built) and natural site features. Builds upon technical design skills developed in prior studio work, paying close attention to form-giving, place-making, and sustainability at the site and neighborhood scale.

LANDARC 211

Urban, suburban, and rural environments intersect with the natural environment in important yet complex ways. Cultural as well as biophysical systems influence the structure and function of these environments at both local and regional scales. Exploration of these relationships by analyzing built environments and simulating future design and planning scenarios offer a transdisciplinary foundation for subsequent coursework.