Critical introduction to key contemporary positions in urbanism to the ends of researching, representing, and designing territories that respond to the challenges of the 21st century. Provides an overview of contemporary urban issues, situates them in relation to a genealogy of urban precedents, and constructs a theoretical framework that engages the allied fields of architecture, landscape architecture, political ecology, geography, territorial planning, and environmental humanities. Comprised of three sections, first section articulates a framework on the urban as both process and form, shifting the emphasis from city to territory. Second section engages a series of related urban debates, such as density/sprawl, growth/shrinkage, and codes/exception. Third section calls upon urban agency in the age of environment through the object of infrastructures of trash, water, oil, and food.

Through extensive reading and writing, students will explore the promise and perils of the variegated city, focusing on topics that demand urgent attention: climate change, inequality, racial injustice, and public space. Students will work to create artful narratives by examining how various forms—essay, memoir, longform journalism, poetry, fiction, film, photography, and song—illuminate our understanding of cities. Special emphasis will be on the imagination as a rich reservoir for inhabiting and understanding cities, the writer as the reader's advocate, and on the indispensability of the writer-editor relationship, with the goal of better engaging with and understanding cities, not to mention writing with greater creativity and sophistication for specialized and general-interest audiences. 

To be considered for the class (deadline 9pm, 9/4/24)

In no more than 350 words, and in a Microsoft Word document (Microsoft Word is available for free to all MIT and GSD students; absolutely no Google Docs), please submit the following application essay:

Introduce yourself to me by letting me know why you’re interested in this seminar and what you hope to gain from it, any experiences you have writing, and what cities you’ve lived in and how you hope to better understand cities through writing. If there are particular narrative genres—essay, short story, novel, poetry, film, music—that move you, discuss them and tell me about an especially significant work that you love.

Submit application essays to Garnette Cadogan.

Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Surveys the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems. Stresses the connection between values and design. Demonstrates how physical, social, political and economic forces interact to shape and reshape cities over time.

Through a studio-based course in planning and urban design, builds on the foundation acquired in 11.328 to engage in creative exploration of how design contributes to resilient, just, and vibrant urban places. Through the planning and design of two projects, students creatively explore spatial ideas and utilize various digital techniques to communicate their design concepts, giving form to strategic thinking. Develops approaches and techniques to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment and offer propositions that address policies and regulations as well as the values, behaviors, and wishes of the different users.

“[I]t has seemed to me that two questions we should ask of any strong landscape are these: firstly, what do I know when I’m in this place that I can know nowhere else? And then, vainly, questions frame our exploration of the urban form. By walking the city, studying historical and contemporary approaches to life on the streets, and investigating our relationship to our environs through writing and other artistic responses, participants will explore how feet give form to the city.

To be considered for the class:

In no more than 350 words, and in a Microsoft Word document (Microsoft Word is available for free to all MIT and GSD students; absolutely no Google Docs), please submit the following application essay:

Introduce yourself to me by letting me know why you’re interested in this seminar and what you hope to gain from it, mentioning what cities you’ve lived in and how you hope to better understand cities and landscape through walking. If there is a particular walk you’ve taken that moved you, discuss it and tell me why you found it resonant.

Feel free to give your application essay a title, ensure that your surname is on the top right margin of the essay, and please email applications to Garnette Cadogan with the subject line “Application Essay, 4.242.”

Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329.

Research and project activities, which cover the range represented by the various research interests and projects in the Department.

Research and project activities, which cover the range represented by the various research interests and projects in the department. Students who wish a letter grade option for their work must register for 4.URG.