Section 3

Unit Title Urban Environment Theory and Practice

Unit Code IDEA201
Programme BA (Hons) Interior Design Environment Architectures
Credits 20 Level 2 Unit Status Mandatory

Contact Time 70 Access to Resources 40 Independent Study 90

This unit introduces students to current urban built development and

redevelopment as a wider context for student design work.

The unit looks at the development of cities, their structure and

organisation and their likely future development. Students gain
understanding of the nature of urban decay and the need for
regeneration and renewal. They learn a sense of the importance of
social and historical continuity in the redesign of existing sites in an
urban environment and the need to balance this with radical renewal
and regeneration.

Students reflect upon the practical, historical, theoretical and ethical

Introduction
factors which impact on the design of the urban environment. They
consider the current critical issues surrounding the aesthetics of city
life (order, scale, design, architecture, literature, theatre and the
‘derive’). The unit also explores the nature of virtual cities (maps,
models, utopias and computer simulations) and their relationship to
the real thing.

The unit revolves around a study of a particular area of city, and a

specific site within that area, and looks at the relationship between
interventions on this site and regeneration and renewal of the area.
Students work in groups to survey the site and analyse the area and
to propose design interventions for renewal.

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Topics covered in this unit may include:

• Urban planning infrastructure and design;

• Sustainability in communities;
• The history and context of urban development;
• Conservation;
• User groups and the regulatory requirements of urban
planning;
• The rehabilitation and renewal of communities;
Indicative
• Technological change and its impact on human interaction
Curriculum
and the environment;
Outline
• Urban utopias and their socio-political impact on future
projected development;
• The city as metaphor and a vehicle for polemic, as viewed
through related disciplines (film, art philosophy, psychology
literature and computer generated form);
• The city as state and as a provider of services;
• The city as monument and a receptacle of memory;
• Urban morphology;
• Contemporary Nomadic lifestyles.

In order to pass this Level 2 unit, students must demonstrate that the
following learning outcomes have been achieved:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. Understand the history and development of the urban built

environment; (LO1)
2. Understanding of the inter-relationship between design
Unit Learning proposals and their broader urban context. (LO2)
Outcomes
Skills

3. Propose design interventions for a specific site in the context

of wider urban renewal; (LO3)
4. Organise a presentation which links multiple design
interventions at different scales; (LO4)
5. Work collaboratively in the production of a design proposal for
a specific site in an urban context. (LO5)

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This unit will make use of the following:

• Initial briefing;
• Introductory workshop and precedent study;
Teaching and • Site visits;
Learning • Lectures and group seminars;
Strategies
• Individual tutorials;
• Interim presentations;
• Final presentation and crit;
• Exhibition.

Formative Assessment
Initial presentation of site research incorporating an element of
social infrastructure and a specific polemic.

Summative Assessment
The assessment will consist of three components which will all be
assessed as group work with an element of peer assessment:

• Presentation of conceptual design strategy with supporting

evidence;
Assessable
• Final presentation;
Elements
• Report and demonstration.

Assessable Elements Percentage of Final Grade

Exercise 1 Initial group 20%
presentation
Exercise 2 Final group 40%
presentation
Exercise 3 Individual report 30%
Journal and supporting 10%
sketchbook/research

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Students are assessed on:

Initial group presentation

• Appropriateness of presentation and use of media for
proposal and audience; (LO4)
• Knowledge of the broader urban context and arguments
germane to the site proposal; (LO2)
• Appropriateness of development model (at an appropriate
scale) in relation to the information to be conveyed. (LO3)

Final group presentation

• Comprehensiveness of proposal for the rehabilitation and
redevelopment of site; (LO3, LO5)
• Effectiveness of response to site specific contexts; (LO2)
Assessment • Level of understanding of the socio-economic imperatives
Criteria attached to the development; (LO1)
• Arguments fully and logically developed and supported by
evidence; (LO4)
• Express an understanding of construction and materiality in
the final model(s) of the proposal; (LO1, LO2, LO3)
• Coherence of presentation for a public audience of non
specialists. (LO4)

Individual report
• Level of articulation of historical, contextual and theoretical
dimensions of the problems.

Journal and supporting sketchbook/research

• Evidence of appropriate research underpinning the
development of design proposals.

Indicative
Reading List Core Texts

Powell, K. (2004) The city reborn, Merrell Holberton.

Rogers, R. (1997) Cities for a small planet, Faber & Faber, ch’s 1- 4.

Coates, Nigel. (2003) Extacity, London: Blackdog Publishing.

IDEA reader 2005, various texts.

Additional Texts

Zellner, P. (1999) Hybrid space, New York: Rizzoli.

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Ascher, F. Architecture on the move.

Burry, M. (2001) Cyberspace.

Jacobs, J. (1992) The death and life of Great American cities,

Vintage.

Le Gates, R. and Stout, F. (1996) The city reader (various texts),

Routledge.

Le Corbusier. (1970) The radiant city, Viking Press.

Gausa, M. (2002) BCN Barcelona a guide to its modern

architecture: 1860-2002, Actar.

Herman, P. Ecological aesthetics.

Koolhaas, Rem. (1997) Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto

for Manhattan, Monacelli.

Migayrou, F. and Brayer, M. (2003) Radical experiments in Global

architecture, Thames and Hudson.

In-Ex. Extraordinary: In Ex 01, Birkhauser.

Chevrier, Jean-Francois. (1997) Documenta X, Cantz.

Morris, A. E. J. and A.E, Morris. (1996) History of Urban Form:

Before the Industrial Revolution, Prentice Hall.

Edmund, Bacon. (1974) The Design of Cities (revised edition),

Thames and Hudson.

Frampton, Kenneth. (2006) Modern Architecture: A critical history,

Penguin.

Venturi, Robert. (1990) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture,

MOMA.

Core Precedents

Koolhaas, Rem. OMA Master planning for Lille.

Koolhaas, Rem. Content by AMO/OMA, Taschen.

Tschumi, Bernard. Parc La Villette.

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Witte, R. Toyo Ito, Sendai Mediatheque.

Additional Precedents

Diller & Scofidio, Blur.

Prada stores by OMA & IDEO.

Zaha Hadid & Smart Slab Mind Zone.

Pressence: New media for older people by Netherlands Design

Institute.

Fiona Raby & Tony Dunne, Design Noir.

Foreign Office Architects Yokohama ferry terminal, Verb monographs

series, published by Actar.

Theory

Le Gates, R. and Stout, F. (1996) The city reader, Routledge, the

following chapters:
• Burton and Pike, “the city as image”
• Ebenezer Howard, “authors introduction’ the town country
magnet”
• Le Corbusier, “a contemporary city”
• Robert fishman, “beyond suburbia”, the rise of the
technoburb”

For critique

Ravetz, Alison. (1996) Council housing and culture, Routledge.

(Ch.4.)

Esher, L. (1981) A broken wave, Penguin. (Ch.3 - ch.7)

Rogers, R. (1990) Architecture a modern view, Thames and

Hudson.

Coleman, A. (1990) Utopia on a trail: vision and reality in planned

housing, Hilary Shipman. (Ch. 1 and 2, “The problem of modern
housing and utopia accused”).

Cherry. G. (1990) Town planning in Britain since 1900, Blackwell.

(Ch.1: the birth of town planning, ch.10: town planning and the
planning ideal.)

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Additional

Weatherill, L. (1998) Consumer behaviour and material culture in

Britain 1660-1760: Part 1: the influence of towns.

Newman, O. (1972) Defensible space, Architectural press. (Ch.1,

“defensible space”.)

Englander, D. (1997) Britain & America, The open university.

(Part 3 the city 3.1 the English and American industrial city of the
19th century, Part 3 the city 3.3 suburbanization and social change in
England and North America 1880-1970.)

Glendenning, M. and Muthesius, M. (1994) Tower Mlock, Yale

university press. (Section1 part A-4 the case for flats & maisonettes,
Section1 part B-19 infinite possibilities of design in the 1960’s.)

Magazines and periodicals

The architectural Review

Abitare

Domus

Metropolis

Journal of space syntax UCL

Websites

UCL.ac uk bartlett school of architecture space syntax.

Harvard school of design and architecture lagos project.

Documenta.org

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