Urban Development and Design

The course gives an overview of cities as a phenomenon in a historical development perspective and urban geographical concepts to describe and analyse the structures and processes of urban development. In particular, a complex adaptive system perspective is emphasised in which different subsystems can be identified, analysed and managed in relation to each other on different scale levels in urban planning. This includes both physical-structural, socio-economic and technical infrastructure aspects as well as cultural and institutional aspects in a spatial perspective. The course also provides an introduction to urban morphology as a field of knowledge as well as ways to describe and analyze cities, focusing on an architectural design perspective and a functional modeling perspective. Historic and contemporary urban development discourses will be discussed based on current planning situations. Sustainable development is addressed with a focus on the interaction between different ecological, social, economic and spatial factors and subsystems in a resilience perspective, taking into account the importance of urban governance and institutional factors. The course introduces GIS-based urban analysis tools applied in an urban development project that is based on reflexive process work with iterations between analysis and design synthesis. Evaluation and impact assessment tools such as multicriteria analyses and indicators are applied to evaluate the project work.