URD1041H F
Instructor: Mark Sterling
Meeting Section: L0101
Wednesday, 9:00am - 12:00pm
Location: TBA

This course is an introduction to contemporary urbanism and urban design. In a seminar format, students will explore: theoretical writings and manifestoes; and urban projects and practices. These will come to be seen as attempts to shape the physical organization of cities in response to the forces which drive change in modern urban society. This course is not a comprehensive historical survey. It is instead, a critical review of approaches to urbanism composed of theories, positions and design projects as well as glimpses into contemporary urban design practice.

The course focuses on selected modern practices across different scales, from the late nineteenth century to the present, and is intended to provide a context for contemporary urban design practice. It will be important to recognize that much of this material represents histories and attitudes that were mostly determined and established in the latter part of the last century. A critical review of these histories and attitudes is intended to raise questions for urban designers about future trajectories and territories for urban design.

The seminar is a required course for maser of Urban Design students and is open to graduate students from all programs at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design as well as to graduate students in the Department of Geography and Planning, Program in Planning. The course is open to students in other faculties and programs at the University of Toronto subject to the availability of space and the instructor’s permission.

Course requirements include in-class presentations, oral responses to seminar readings, and a research paper exploring one canonical urban project, selected from a list provided by the instructor and a comparison of that project, with a relevant local example. 

8 Guest lectures by local urban design practitioners will also be included in class time.