Urban morphology and landscape analysis - Urban morphology and landscape reading

Language

French
> English-friendly

Main themes

This course aims to define understandings of the contemporary urban landscape as a product.
In the last decades, cities and territories have radically changed, and their analysis, description and representation are now raising different questions. Today, the production of maps and representations of territories is increasing - due to the greater availability of data and the improvement of technology - to the point of overwhelming the comprehension of the space itself, and of paradoxically hiding the complexity behind the construction of the contemporary landscape. Mapping complexity is neither a linear nor a generic operation: it requires indeed an effort of comprehension, selection, and ultimately of interpretation.
The course will range between different thematic axes, explored both as traditional and operational:
(a) critical cartographies as devices for defining, applying and exploring the potential of visual interpretations of cities and territories;
(b) the site, its specificity, survey and description;
(c) history as an active agent of space production.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

recognize and understand the models and theories that form our current way of understanding urbanized territories; analyze a complex constructed situation, by identifying its structuring elements, the underlying theoretical and political models. Students will explore assumptions about the technical, social and economic interactions that produced it to contribute to the collective development of urban projects, by understanding the challenges of each of the actors and by knowing the general processes of urbanization in different European contexts.  Contribution to the LO repository: Build up an architectural culture Acquire and criticize multiple references of the disciplinary culture. Produce knowledge and actively participate in their own learning process. Situate design action Recognize, observe, analyze and critically evaluate complex places and contexts. Identify and question, through cross-examination, the paradigms underlying the analyses. State questions that condition the future of the context studied and build scenarios regarding its potential evolution. Mobilize other disciplines Learn other concepts and methods, to exchange and nourish architectural thinking. Strategically manipulate content from other disciplines to question the design and implementation of the architectural project. Express an architectural approach Express clearly orally, graphically and in writing the foundations of idea(s). Adopt a professional attitude Act as an independent and critical actor, aware of the stakes of one’s mission, one’s responsibilities toward third parties and one’s legal obligations. Make committed choices Demonstrate ethics and a capacity for resistance through architectural positions.Be aware of the political significance of one's activity, and of one's responsibility to society, in the public interest. Also, among the achievements of this Teaching Unit will be the ability to work on a European territory in an international team and in English.

Teaching methods

    
 

Other information

english friendly

Faculty or entity

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