Course Syllabus

The European Urban Experience:    Why Cities Matter  - Section A

Semester & Location:	Fall 2018 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Core Course - 3 credits
Core Course Study Tours:	Hamburg Vienna & Budapest
Major Disciplines:	Anthropology, Urban Design, Urban Studies
Faculty Members:	Regitze Marianne Hess - regitze.hess@dis.dk
Program Director:	Neringa B. Vendelbo - nb@dis.dk
Program Assistant:	Shannon Schooley - sks@dis.dk
Time & Place:	Monday / Thursday, 08:30 - 09:50 V23-301

Program Orientation: Wednesday, August 22 at 13.00 in V10-A32

CCW Booklet

LST Booklet

Description of Course

Cities are both creative and destructive friction machines, full of contradictory tensions, goals, and visions about what constitutes the good life. This course is an introduction to the driving forces of this friction within a European context, including social, economic, environmental, technical, cultural, historical, and spatial influences. The main goal of the course is to provide a connection between theory and practice, between thinking and making. The texts we will read provide our theoretical framework. The sites we will visit, mainly from Copenhagen, Hamburg, Vienna and Budapest, will be our case studies serving as points of departure for reflections on criteria and indicators of urban quality and what makes for cities good and bad.

Learning Objectives

This course aims to offer an understanding of:

• the fields and paradigms of European urban configuration, design and planning
• main drivers of historical and contemporary European urban development
• the role of culture, infrastructure, urban governance and the built environment in shaping a city
• the complex relationship between the various scales of the urban experience
• the relationship between theory and practice in urban development through the application of critical thinking

 

Faculty: Regitze Marianne Hess

Architect MAA, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen (1993). B.Eng. – Civil, McGill University, Montreal (1985). A career of working with and advocating for better cities and built environments through the world of philanthropy, non-profits, academia & private practice; as conference organizer; curator; publisher, editor & writer; teacher and critic. Currently advising Cumulus on the advancement of Cumulus Green - UN SDG Design Award. Director: International Affairs with International Federation for Housing and Planning [IFHP], working with IFHP in various capacities since 2005. Positions of trust include Gehl Institute Board Member, Arkiteker Uden Græsner [Architects without Borders] Board member. Affiliated with DIS since 2002.

Readings 

Below is a listing of some the most significant readings the class will be referencing.

Primary reference- to be picked up from the library during the Arrivals Workshop:

• Mumford, L. (1989). The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Key references:

• Alexander, C. (2013) A city is Not a Tree, The Urban Design Reader (pp.152-166). Routledge
• Danish Ministry of the Environment (2007). Spatial planning in Denmark http://naturstyrelsen.dk/media/nst/Attachments/Planning_260907_NY6.pdf
• Hamburg: Green City of the Future?
• Blau, Eva, The Architecture of Red Vienna 1919-1934, MIT Press
• City of Vienna (2014) Step 2025-Urban Development Plan Vienna. Vienna: City of Vienna.
• City of Budapest (2014) Transport Development Strategy 2014-2030. Budapest: City of Budapest
• Harvey, D. (2008). The Right to the City. New Left Review. II (53): 23–40.
• Campbell, S. (1996). Green cities, growing cities, just cities?: Urban planning and the contradictions of sustainable development. Journal of the American Planning Association, 62(3), 296-312.
• UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
• Habitat III New Urban Agenda, & Quito Papers
• Global Utmaning, Nordic Urban Ways: Local Leadership, Governance and Management for Sustainable Development, October 2016.

 

Field Studies and Study Tours

Field studies and study tours, together with site visits, form an integral part of the course to support our understanding of the qualities of cities and how they have come about, how they be improved and how the can be sustained. 

While in Copenhagen, we will be going on a half-day field study around the city: 

Field Studies

During the course of the semester, there are 2 half-day field studies to somewhere in Greater Copenhagen: 

• Wednesday morning, 26th September 2018 [8:30 am -12:30 noon] = Amager & Ørestad
• Wednesday afternoon, 5th Dec. 2018 [13:00 – 17:00] = Metropole Zone x Cultural Axis

 

Core Course Week and Study Tours

Core Course week and study tours are an integral part of the core course as we take the classroom on the road and see how theory presented in the classroom is translated into practice in the field. You will travel with your classmates and DIS faculty/staff on two study tours; a short study tour during Core Course Week to Hamburg and a long study tour to Vienna & Budapest.  

CCW: Core Course Week = 10th- 14th September 2018

- 10th - 12th September 2018 = Short Study Tour to Hamburg

- 13th - 14th September 2018 = day tours Copenhagen harbourscape

The short study tour is to the city state of Hamburg, the metropolitan hub of Northern Germany. Hamburg has a rich history as a center of trade and commerce. Hamburg is a vibrant city with dynamic urban life radiating throughout Northern Europe, including Denmark. Today, Hamburg is Germany’s second-largest city and one of Europe’s most important ports. Its industrial potential not-withstanding, it was voted the European Green Capital in 2011.

LST: Long Study Tour - Vienna & Budapest = 6th - 11th October 2018 

- 6th - 8th October = Vienna

- 8th - 11th October = Budapest

The long study tour is to Vienna and Budapest. Exploring these cities opens up the exciting and complex past and present of Central European urbanity. Metropolises in their own right, they both became crystallization points for the clash of imperial and ethnic-national identities, and served as the platform for defining the urban modernity of the 20^th century, be it in architecture, art, literature, music, psychology, or politics. Furthermore, these cities also allow us to reflect on the differences between the Western and Eastern urban experience in European history and in present time.

Expectations for study tours:

• Participate in all activities
• Engage in discussions, ask questions, and contribute to achieving the learning objectives
• Respect the destination, the speakers, DIS staff, and your fellow classmates
• Represent yourself, your home university and DIS in a positive light

While on a program study tour DIS will provide hostel/hotel accommodation, transportation to/from the destination(s), approx. 2 meals per day and entrances, guides, and visits relevant to your area of study or the destination. You will receive a more detailed itinerary prior to departure.

Travel policies: You are required to travel with your group to the destination. If you have to deviate from the group travel plans, you need approval from the program director and the study tours office.   

 

Approach to Teaching

The class meets 18 times during the semester. Talks, tours, readings and other references, dialogue and student observations and presentations form the basis of an investigation of European urban experiences and how these can inform us on urban qualities, and their impact. Readings and references underpin the understanding of urban observations and experiences. References are to be reviewed in advance of the class. Students are encouraged to draw on and share own experiences of cities. 

Copenhagen will serve as a living classroom and will be discussed in juxtaposition with various European cities. Cities are a collective effort. And the class will also include group work in the analysis and understanding features of European cities and urban criteria which indicate and account for urban quality.

Expectations of the Students

This is not a traditional lecture course. Classes will be conducted both in the classroom and out on-site in the context of the city. It relies on

- experiencing the European city full on, together as a class, and on your own,

- recording and reporting your urban observations and experiences 

- critical reading and analysis

- in class discussions - sharing your urban experiences and observations 

- reflections and recommendations 

You are expected to engage and participate actively in class discussions. Students are expected to come to class prepared with questions with points of departure in the readings or references. Each student is expected to keep a notebook or journal recording your observations, experiences, and critical analysis of readings and references. You may be required to turn excerps of recorded observations and reflections. Overall grades depend on an engaged, informed, and highly active participation in class discussion.

Evaluation

Recording of Urban Experiences - 20%

Consists of recorded & written documentation of observations from the field, on site visits, field studies and/or study tours, in the the form or notebook excerps, either submitted at direct notebook scanning and/or as one pagers, registering learning points from the site visits, field studies and study tours, specifying urban features and urban challenges and solutions experienced in the field, referencing pertinent course readings. Documentation may include illustrations in the form of photos, images or sketches. Images.

Gauging Urban Qualities - Developing Urban Criteria - 20%

Group work in a workshop format - identifying criteria and developing indicators of urban quality, as an exercise in gauging our urban experiences and pinpointing why cities matter and why. 

Final Project - Making the Case for Why Cities Matter - 40%

The final project is a combination of group dialogue and personal reflection. Students are to make a case for why cities matter, pinpointing some specific attributes of the city as experienced during the course of the semester, how this can be gauged, and any recommendations for improvement. 

Final Report 

Building on the group dialogues throughout the course, each individual student is write a personal report, 2000-3000 words. The report is to elaborate on features of the city found all important to the urban experience, why these features matter, recommendations on how to gauge this, and offer recommendations for improvement. The report is to include images, either photos, maps or sketches.

 

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Participation - individual participation, preparation of questions, in-class presentations	20%
Recording Urban Experiences - Field Notes	20%
Gauging Urban Qualities - Workshop	20%
Final Project - Making the Case for Why Cities Matter - Presentations & Report	40%

 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Attendance
• Coursework, Exams, and Final Grade Reports

 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org