• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom

The Urban Design and Studio courses’ goals are integrated in the general learning objectives of the Master programme related to the understanding and practice of multi-disciplinary and multi-scale design of complex adaptive systems and the innovative solutions towards the urban sustainability. The Urban Design Course and Studio will provide the knowledge and instruments to support the development of robust and coherent design process among different design scales connecting architectural to urban and territorial scales.

The student is able to conduct autonomous research in scientific literature.

Urban challenges module
Sustainable Cities, Urban Resilience, and Nature-Based Solutions in the sustainable urban design and regeneration process are the themes of the Urban Design topics module. Urban Resilience is a crucial concept orienting international policies and strategies: the resilience approach requires a profound innovation and renovation of the sustainable urban design to manage the complex urban transformation process, integrating social, environmental, economic, and organizational (governance) components toward the enhancement of resilience proprieties of urban systems improving the adaptation capacities to deal/face environmental (Climate change mitigation and Climate change adaptation), social and economic stress and shocks and communities well-being. 
The main topics of lectures and seminars of the Urban Topic Module are:
_Resilient cities and resilience principles for the urban regeneration process and sustainable design;
_Adaptive cities: urban climate-adaptive design, including the landscape design, nature-based solutions and Urban Ecosystem services, water-sensitive design, resilient food production, and sustainable agriculture;
_Urban innovation and strategic urban design: innovative topics for urban regeneration, multi-stakeholders governance (from design to implementation and management of urban transformation)
_Public life: Public spaces design principles focus on the principles of Universal Design (designing cities and urban places that include everyone) in terms of design choices and as inspiring principles in strategic urban vision definition.

Urban Topic module includes the "critical review" task and the "case studies comparison" task.

Critical review task
The critical review task aims to develop students' skills in the critical reframing of theoretical and scientific papers, light up the links between conceptual reframing and their application in the Urban Design process, stimulate individual critical skills/capacities, and enhance the individual contribution to the work-group paths. Students have to select and read a scientific paper by filling provided guided review form that is structured in three parts: the critical review of the assigned paper, the identification of the transferable inputs from the assigned paper inputs to the urban design process steps, and the original retrace of the activities and proposals developed during the work-group (Urban Master Plan and Crosscutting urban challenges tasks) presenting personal critical contributions connecting these activities with theoretical aspects and the paper topic (UD class lectures, seminars).

Crosscutting urban challenges task
Crosscutting urban challenges task aims to guide students (or small groups of students) in approaching and managing the urban complexity. Based on Urban Challenges, the students' teams will develop a conceptual reframing (conceptual map) connecting international and local sustainability goals, design principles and methodological/design toolkits, and a case study comparison. The analysis and comparison of good practices based on robust methodologies and identification of the aspects of transferability to the urban master plan design process. The task is articulated in three steps: the urban challenges identification and reframing; the case study method definition (selection criteria and the analysis/comparison method and collect the cases); the case studies comparison and the identification of the transferability aspects to the urban masterplan design path and the synergies with the conceptual reframing.

Urban design toolbox module
The didactical framework for the Urban design toolbox module is the Ecological Urban Design process (NOOS - Not Only One Solution), as laid out in the Palazzo and Steiner (2012) textbook. The proposed urban design process will be considered a guide for managing urban design project development.
The Urban design toolbox module includes three didactical activities:
_ seminars: to introduce the NOOS process, recap main techniques and methods for urban design, and present some cases and examples of applications in the urban design applied process;
_ workshops: dedicated to the main phases of the NOOS process (synthesis; strategic vision; master plan; details and implementation). Workshop activities are based on the active involvement of students in presenting methods and organizing the debate, co-production activities with the class, and individual quizzes/questions sessions for learning level evaluation;
_ Urban Master Plan project development: during the Urban Design Studio, teams of students develop a proposal for the Urban Master Plan.

The Urban Master Plan
During the Urban Design Studio, students' teams develop an Urban Master Plan proposal: the design process is articulated according to the main "NOOS" urban design process steps (during the semester, students' teams will present evaluated sub-tasks: knowledge/synthesis, urban strategic envisioning, urban master plan).
The Urban Design Course and Studio propose an integrated design path based on instances of local stakeholders and involving the stakeholders ("the UD/UDS clients"), external experts, and students to define a strategic urban vision and urban design proposals for the local context regeneration towards sustainable, livable and adaptive urban scenarios. The UD/UDS "design brief" is provided at the beginning of the semester and includes the instances and requirements for the Urban Master Plan proposal development.

• SDG3 - GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING
• SDG11 - SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
• SDG13 - CLIMATE ACTION

The evaluation (vote) of the Urban Design course and Urban Design Studio is the result of the pondered average among the evaluations of singles tasks developed during the semester.

> Critical review task (individual task, kick-off at the beginning of the semester & submission deadline at the end of the semester; relevance: 25% of the final vote). The task evaluation criteria are general accuracy and completeness of the work according to the task requirements, ability to summarize and originality in responding to the points of critical analysis, ability to link and integrate the ideas provided during the modules of the course, and the ideas of the paper assigned (critical ability and learning of urban complexity issues), overall consistency between aspects of critical reading and the choice of solutions.

> Crosscutting urban challenges task (team task, kick-off at the beginning of the semester & submission deadline in the middle of the semester; relevance: 20% of the final vote). Evaluation criteria: overall accuracy, completeness, and compliance with the indications provided, consistency, originality, and robustness of the investigation path of the topic and the proposed investigation method; clarity and comprehensibility of the materials delivered (effectiveness of the communication and synthesis capacity).

> Urban Master Plan Task (team task, organized on sub-tasks & final submission deadline at the end of the semester; relevance: 50% of the final vote). The main assessment criteria of the Urban Master Plan Task are the quality of analysis and research; the coherence in the design process and robustness of design methods application; the innovation in design proposal development and integration in the urban strategic vision of urban emerging topics proposed during the Urban Topics Module; punctuality, quality, and accuracy in deadlines and documentation submitted (including the capability of communication of the design proposals). Additional evaluation criteria are related to the aspects of coordination with the contents of the Course of Urban Design focussing on coherence and robustness of the project path, correct application of the methods presented in the lessons, and integration of the themes related to the module on urban complexity. Urban Master Plan Task sub-tasks will be evaluated, and each sub-task vote will be pondered to define the final mark of the Urban Master Plan task.

> proactivity, learning, and commitment (individual evaluation, during all the semester, relevance: 5% of the final evaluation). The active and proactive participation and the commitment of students are crucial (as soft skills) during the semester and concerning all the proposed activities. The evaluation of the proactivity/commitment is based on the active participation during the workshops and seminars; the commitment during the studio and teamwork activities (contribution to teamwork activities) and on the learning quizzes activities proposed.  

The final individual vote proposed for Urban Design and Studio Course is based on the pondered average of all UD/UDS tasks. The urban design teaching staff always reserves the possibility to organize supplementary oral exam sessions to finalize the final vote.

In order to improve the final vote proposed, students can sustain an integrative oral exam based on the bibliography and on the contents of lectures (and seminars published on Beep). Based on the individual preparation demonstrated during the oral exam, the UD/UDS proposed vote (the evaluation deriving from the pondered average) could be improved but also decreased. The component deriving from the Urban master plan task (relevance of 45%) and the Proactivity (5%) can not be modified with the oral exam.