Course Syllabus

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The European Urban Experience:

Why Cities Matter A

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Photo: R.M.Hess

Semester & Location:

Spring 2023 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:

Core Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:

Urban Studies, Urban Design, Urban Policy
Prerequisite(s):

Most classes will be spent visiting sites via bicycle, so confidence in cycling is mandatory.  
Faculty:

Regitze Marianne Hess (current students please reach out to faculty via Canvas Inbox)
Time & Place:

Thur 14:50-17:45 in N7-B21

SUBJECT to CHANGES in sequencing of talks'n'walks

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 and Vienna and vestiages of Austro-Hungarian Empire of Central Europe, will be our case studies serving as points of departure for reflections on criteria and indicators of urban quality and what makes for cities, for better or for worse.

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 engaged with Design Declaration Steering Committee, International Federation for Housing and Planning [IFHP], UIA 2023 Copenhagen. Positions of trust include: UIA 2023 Copenhagen Advisory Committee; Scale Denmark Advisory; COurban Advisory; along with DIS Faculty Chair, DIS Board member and DIS Going Greener Planning Committee. Affiliated with DIS since 2002.

Readings & References

There is no physical textbook to be picked up during arrival workshop.

References are by and large on-line, either via Canvas or links.

Key sources include:

Other sources:

  • City of Copenhagen 
    • A Metropolis for People: Visions and Goals for Urban Life in Copenhagen 2015, 2009.
    • City of Copenhagen. Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan: Copenhagen Carbon Neutral by 2025, Oct. 2011
    • City of Copenhagen. Copenhagen Climate Projects, Annual Report, 2015
  • Hess, Regitze Marianne. #1 City to Live In Copenhagen, Metropolis Magazine, Sept. 2016.
  • Exploring Copenhagen. Scale Denmark, 2018. 
  • Atlas of the Copenhagens. Ruby Press 2018.
  • Gehl, Jan & Gehl Architects www.gehlpeople.com 
  • LSE, Shaping Cities in an Urban Age 2018.
  • The Guardian - Cities https://www.theguardian.com/cities 

Field Studies and Study Tours

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

Field Studies

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

  • Wednesday morning, 22nd February 2023 (8:30-12:30)
  • Wednesday afternoon, 3rd May 2023 (13:00 – 17:00)

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 & Mittel Europa.  

CCW: Core Course Week

The focus of the CCW is cities as harbours and havens, touring Copenhagen and Hamburg. 

CCW will commence with explorations of Copenhagen's harbourscape transformations past, present and future. 

The latter part of CCW is a short study tour to Hamburg.

Highlights include: Nordhavn and Copenhagen's harborscape; HafenCity and Hamburg's harborscape

LST: Long Study Tour - Vienna & Mittel Europa

The long study tour is to Vienna, and the aim is to take the train. Not quite Orient Express. The tour will travel to where East meets West in the Mittel Europa of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Highlights include: Vienna 1900 - the art, architecture, culture and angst of the turn of the century; Red Vienna - social welfare and models of affordable housing; Vienna at the millenium - ingredients of contemporary urban livability.  

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 9 back-to-back double sessions (= to 18 sessions) during the semester.

Talks, walks, site visits, sounds & visions, readings and other references, travel logs and dialogues form the basis of an investigation of European urban experiences. References support the understanding of urban observations and experiences, and are worthy of review in stride with class sessions. Students are encouraged to draw on and share own experiences of cities. 

Copenhagen will serve as a living classroom and will be traversed and discussed in juxtaposition with various European cities. Cities are a collective effort. This course will involve collaborative group work and 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 and about 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, coming to class prepared with questions with points of departure in the readings or references.

Each student is to keep a logbook - in the form of a notebook, journal, record of images and/or recordings - capturing your observations, experiences, and critical analysis of readings and references. Excerps of from your logbooks will form a basis for your assignments. 

Overall grades depend on an engaged, informed, and highly active participation in class discussion.

Evaluation

Travel Log: Recording  European Urban Experiences - 30%

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.

Workshops: Sharing European Urban Experiences - 20%

Group exchanges - sharing urban experiences and identifying, defining criteria and gauging urban qualites, specifying and pinpointing why cities matter and why. 

Final - Reporting on Urban European Experiences: Why Cities Matter - 30%

The final is a reportage, a form of travel piece, where you are to make a case for cities and sites seen and observed, why they are worth worth visiting, why they matter, what kind of lessons can be learned. 

The reportage can take the form of an article, essay, personal journal, photo essay, audio or video recording, documenting your urban experience via specific sites you find worth visiting, including details location, address and access; recommendation of when to go and who to share the experience with. To be accompanied with illustrations: maps, charts, photos and/or sketches.

Grading

Assignment

Percent
Participation - individual engagement & attendance

20%

Travel Logs - Recording European Urban Experiences

30%

Workshops - Sharing European Urban Experiences

20%

Final - Reporting on European Urban Experiences

30%

Academic Regulations  

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

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

Course Summary:

Date Details Due