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Arch 362 City Planning and Urban Design: Global Perspectives from Antiquity to the 21
st
Century
NYIT, MA Campus, Spring 2013. Tuesdays 6-8:50pm
Prof. Nader Vossoughian (nvossoug@gmail.com)
Office Hours, 110 Ed Hall, We 12-2pm, Th 12-2pm

This course is devoted to the study of city planning and urban design from classical antiquity to the
present. Special attention is given to 20
th
-century urban utopias, particularly as they pertain to the
discourse of decentralized planning. We will consider the language and rhetoric surrounding new town
planning, urban reform, zoning, transportation planning, and historic preservation in Europe, North
America, and Asia. We will also dedicate a substantial portion of the semester to exploring the ideas of a
number of leading urban thinkers, from Ebenezer Howard to Le Corbusier, Jane Jacobs to Rem
Koolhaas. We want to know what they believed and what impact they their ideas had; we also want to
consider how their analyses of urban form might still inform debates about urbanism today.

In the first class, we will define our subject matter. Using Nevadas Burning Man festival as our focal point,
I intend to show here that delimiting what a city is (or can be) is not as easy as it may appear, i.e., the
ontology of the city stands profoundly in question, particularly today. Next, we will look at three key
moments points from the history of city planning: the advent of the gridded city on the Asian subcontinent,
the evolution of the polis in classical Greece, and castramentation in Imperial Rome. Following that, we
also look at three capital cities during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Rome, Beijing, and Isfahan
as well as the rise of the industrialized metropolis in the West. We will consider the major urban reform
movements of the 19
th
and early 20
th
century, from the Hausmannization of Paris to functionalism in
Germany. We will also consider a series of post-war critiques of modernist city planning, from those
advanced by Team X to those of postmodern architects such as Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown.
Finally, we will conclude by studying the utopian experiments of Superstudio, the Situationists, and
Archigram, as well as the ongoing debates surrounding the informal city, particularly as it pertains to
urbanism in Africa and the Americas.

Requirements for this course include one short PowerPoint presentation, 1 narrated video essay, 3 short
papers (maximum three double-spaced pages each), and an in-class final exam. Attendance is
mandatory. Participation is vital. Students with three or more unexcused absences will be asked to
withdraw from the course.

NYIT offers excellent resources in the way of writing and editing support. You can find out about NYITs
writing center here: http://iris.nyit.edu/english/wc/ For more information on the mechanics of writing in
general, have a look at http://iris.nyit.edu/english/wc/student.html#researchpaper and
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/. Students who take advantage of these resources will receive extra
credit.

All announcements and materials for this course, including paper assignments, handouts, and lectures,
will be posted on a Google Group page: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/arch-362-spring-2013.
Outlines for each lecture are provided in this document, as are paper assignments.

Required books:

A.E.J. Morris, History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolution, 3
rd
edition ([City]: Prentice Hall,
1996)

Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le
Corbusier (Cambridge: MIT P, 1982).

Nader Vossoughian, Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis (Rotterdam: NAi, 2011).

Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism
of Architectural Form, rev. ed. (Cambridge: MIT P, 1977)

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Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (New York: Monacelli, 1997)

Note: Required readings are marked with an asterisk (*)

01.22 Introduction: What is a city?

*Morris, A.E.J. History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolutions. 3rd Ed. London:
Prentice Hall, 1994. The Early Cities, Ch. 1.

*Vossoughian, Nader. The Temporary City: Camps, Cowboys and Burning Man. Hunch
(fall 2009).

Jane Jacobs, The Economy of Cities, New York: Vintage, 1970. Introduction.

Michael E. Smith, V. Gordon Childe and the Urban Revolution: A Historical Perspective
on a Revolution in Urban Studies, Town Planning Review 80:1 (2009): 3-29.

Ryan, Zo. The Good Life: New Public Spaces for Recreation. New York: Van Alen
Institute, 2006. (skim)


01.29 What is a polis? What is a polis not?

*Morris, Greek City-States, Ch. 2

Engin F. Isin, The City as the Site of the Social, in Recasting the Social in Citizenship.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition, 2
nd
ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1998, Chap. 2, The Public and the Private Realm.

Assignment 1 Due

02.05 Why is Lewis Mumford critical of city planning in ancient Rome?

*Morris, Rome and the Empire, Ch. 3.

*Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, its Transformations, and its Prospects.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, inc. 1961. Read Part I of Megalopolis into
Necropolis. 205-213.


02.12 Capital Cities: Rome, Isfahan, Beijing

*Morris, The Renaissance: Italy sets a Pattern, Ch. 5.

Edmund N. Bacon, Design of Cities, New York, Viking Press,1967.

02.15 Site Visit: Museum of Modern Art (Friday, 6-8pm). See 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50
Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design.

02.19 No Class

02.26 The Rise of the Urban Reformer: Haussmann, Sitte, Olmstead

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Franoise Choay, The Modern City; Planning in the 19th Century, New York: George
Braziller, 1969. 7-24; 104-110.

Assignment 2 Due

03.05 Biopolis: Ebenezer Howard and the Rise of the Siedlung

*Fishman, Robert. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: MIT P, 1997.
Read chapter on Ebenezer Howard. 23-86.

Vossoughian, Nader. Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis. Rotterdam: NAi,
2011. Ch. 1.

Ebenezer Howard. Authors Introduction and The Town-City Magnet. In The City
Reader. 309-316.

03.12 What makes a city functional?: Le Corbusier and CIAM

*Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: MIT P, 1997. Read
chapter on Le Corbusier. 161-263.

Eric Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge: MIT P.

Le Corbusier. A Contemporary City. In The City Reader. 317-324.

CIAM, Charter of Athens: Tenets, in Programs and Manifestoes on 20
th
-Century
Architecture, ed., Ulrich Conrads, Cambridge: MIT P, 1994. 137-145.

03.19 No Class

03.26 The Global Polis: Geddes, Otlet, Neurath, Le Corbusier

*Vossoughian, Nader. Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis. Rotterdam: NAi,
2011. Ch. 2.

Assignment 3 Due

04.02 Postwar Critiques of the Functional City: Team X, Oscar Niemeyer, and Jane Jacobs

*Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage, 1961.
[excerpts]


04.09 The American City and the Automobile: Frank Lloyd Wright and Venturi & Scott Brown

*Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas. Rev.
ed. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996.

*Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: MIT P, 1997. Read
chapter on F.W. Wright.

Reyner Banham. Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. University of
California: 2009.

Kenneth T. Jackson. The Drive-in Culture of Contemporary America. In The City
Reader. 67-76.
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04.16 Rem Koolhaas and the Culture of Congestion

*Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. New York: Monacelli, 1994. Read Introduction,
The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper. 9-12, 81-160.

Hubert Damisch, Skyline: The Narcissistic City. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
2001. Ch. 6, The Scene of Life of the Future, 71-99; Chap. 7, Manhattan
Transference, 100-118.

Assignment 4 Due

04.23 Hippies and the City

Martin van Schaik and Otakar Mcel. Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations 1956-76.
Munich, et. al: Prestel, 2005. Selected Readings on Archigram, Archizoom, the
Situationists, Rem Koolhaas, et. al.

Wigley, Mark. Constants New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010: 1999.

Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.

Banham, Reyner. Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. Harper & Row,
1976.

Sadler, Simon. Archigram: Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press,
2005.

Koolhaas, Rem and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Project Japan: Metabolism Talks. Taschen, 2011.

Lin, Zhongjie. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern
Japan. Routledge, 2011.

Mathews, Stanley. From Agit Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Ce dric Price. Black
Dog, 2007.

Aureli, Pier Vittorio. The Project of Autonomy: Politics and Architecture Within and Against
Capitalism. Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.

Tom McDonough. The Situationists and the City: A Reader. Verso, 2010.

Violeau, Jean-Louis. A Critique of Architecture: The Bitter Victory of the Situationist
International. Anxious Modernisms. Eds., Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Rjean
Legault. Montral and Cambridge: CCA/MIT, 2000. 239-260..

Fred Turner. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth
Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
In-class Presentations

04.30 The Informal City

Rem Koolhaas, et. al. Harvard Project on the City. Mutations. Actar, 2001. 10-19, 124-
183, 280-337, and especially 650-719.

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Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpner. Towards an Informal City. Informal City:
Caracas Case. Munich: Prestel, 2005.

Robert Neuwirth. Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World. London:
Routledge, 2005.

Santiago Cirugeda. Urban Disobedience: The Work of Santiago Cirugeda. Curated by
Nader Vossoughian and Cristina Goberna. New York: New York Institute of Technology,
2007.

Burdett, Ricky and Deyan Sedjic (eds.) The Endless City: The Urban Age Project.
Phaidon, 2008. Chapters on Mexico City; Johannesburg; Beijing, Shanghai.

Mike Davis. Planet of Slums. Verso, 2006.

View Lagos Wide & Close (2005) in class

In-class Presentations

05.07 Final Exam

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Assignment 1


Select two projects from The Good Life (ed., Zoe Ryan) that represent, in your mind, either successful or
unsuccessful public spaces. Once you have done that, document your responses in a three or four-slide
PowerPoint presentation. Be sure to include reasons for why you consider these successful or
unsuccessful in the slide show itself. Responses are all due the day before class meets.

Assignment 2

Produce an essay that responds to one of the four following questions:

Option 1: Compare and contrast the planning principles of the Hippodamian city with those commonly
ascribed to the Roman castra. How does each express the distinct political and cultural attitudes of the
civilization out of which they derived? Why is Mumford critical of castramentation? With which model of
the city do you identify most? Why?

Option 2: Compare and contrast 5
th
century BCE Athens with 3
rd
century ACE Rome. What differences
and/or similarities do you see? How specifically does each engage the design of public space?

Option 2: Compare and contrast Imperial Rome to Renaissance Rome. What were the major challenges
that planners faced during these periods? How were these challenges confronted? What were the
principal strategies that were employed for the purpose of managing populations? Why?

Option 3: Scholars differ widely over the question of how to define a city. In many ways, moreover, one
could say that there are currently two dominant schools of thought, one established by V. Gordon Childe
in the 1930s and a second pioneered by Jane Jacobs during the 1960s. What did each argue, and whom
do you agree with most? Why?

Assignment 3

Produce an essay that responds to one of the three following questions:

Option 1: The New Frankfurt (1925-1930) and Viennas cooperative settlement movement (1919-1923)
each interpreted Englands Garden City movement in its own unique way. Where some of their similarities
and differences, conceptually speaking, and how precisely did each rethink the premises behind
Howards ideas?

Option 2: Compare and Contrast Le Corbusiers Contemporary Theory for Three Million with Ebenezer
Howards vision for the Garden City. What are some of the similarities they share? What are their salient
differences? What role does technology play in each of their proposals? How, moreover, do they address
the challenges associated with urbanization in the industrialized metropolis?

Option 3: Le Corbusier and Haussmann each aimed to transform Paris in different ways. What are some
of those differences, and what did their respective strategies seek to accomplish? When you discuss Le
Corbusiers proposals, focus on his Plan Voisin specifically.

Assignment 4

Option 1: What did Robert Venturi believe we could learn from Las Vegas? What did Rem Koolhaas
believe we could learn from New York? From what city do you think we can learn the most today and
why?

Option 2: Jane Jacobs Death and Life of Great American Cities is perhaps the most influential book on
city planning written during the second half of the 20
th
century. What is its central argument, and what
school(s) of thought does it critique, urbanistically speaking?
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In-Class Presentations

For the last two meetings, students will present 3-4 minute video essays that explore one of two themes,
Hippies and the City or The Informal City. The video essay will essentially be a narrated slide show,
one that can be uploaded to YouTube. It will need to focus on a specific topic assigned to you.
Presentations in the past have concentrated on Peter Cooks Plug-in City and Kenzo Tanges Tokyo Bay
proposal, Rem Koolhaas analysis of Lagos and the Urban Think Tanks interventions in Caracas. The
readings on the syllabus that are associated with each of the two last weeks are to be treated as your
bibliography.

Final Exam

Your in-class final exam will consist of a series of visual identifications. You will also be asked to comment
briefly on readings from the semester. It will not be open-book.