This integrated course in Urbanism joins together an introduction to urban design with a survey of some main questions and issues that stress contemporary urban planning practices and tools.  

The module Urbanism: issues and tools will provide a short discussion about the contemporary city’s phenomenon and its features reaffirming the usefulness and necessity of a "compositional" approach in planning – i.e., an attitude to look for renewed and meaningful compositions of scattered urban materials in a stratified urban scenario in order to gain better habitability conditions. Then, also through examples and case studies of planning practice, some key words and key concepts of today’s urbanism will be investigated to represent and focus on both planning issues and challenges as well as the possible tools and forms of project to address them.

Considering all the aspects involved in urban transformation – the process of development, financial issues, urban policies, etc. – the Urban design portion of this class will concentrate on the physical quality of the built environment. So, this module will be oriented to foster the capacity of understanding the physical organization of the contemporary urban landscape making students aware of central design concepts in the urban projects of today. Lectures will tackle three main topics: 1. the nature and dimension of urban design; 2. urban morphology and urban design tools; 3. the emergence of urban design and its multiple roots.

The final mark will combine together the evaluation of an assigned task (50%) and the assessment of a final oral examination (50%).

Attending students, in groups of three people, will develop throughout the course a critical review – consisting of a poster and a presentation – about a case study of a contemporary urban plan or project to be deepened, updated and revised throughout the semester, and presented in a final seminar.

Non-attending students – who will work individually – are required to write a paper about a case study of a contemporary urban plan or project and to submit it by the end of January 2017 to take the final exam in February 2017, or by the end of June 2017 to take the final exam in July or September.

The final oral exam about the contents of the course and the official bibliography is mandatory both for attending and not attending students.

The list of bibliographic references for the final oral exam will be provided during the course.