Course Description
The relationship between concepts of community and the physical environments (home, village, town, city, region) that may be designed in ways that foster personal and societal commitment to community and place.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
All students will complete required readings, discussions, exercises, and community projects, both individually and in groups, based on the assignment. In addition, graduate students will be expected to take on leading/mentoring roles in group assignments and to write a final research paper on one of the topics covered in the course.
Athena Title
Ideas of Community and Place
Corequisite
LAND 6040
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Knowledge: To examine the social, cultural, and behavioral aspects of physical space and form; To understand the dynamics of various community components (e.g., culture, politics, economics, culture, health) and how these relate to each other; To understand how environmental design research can inform and assist in design development; To learn more about diverse community issues; Stakeholder identification and analysis, “Third Place” conceptualization, community policing, immigration and community, community health, community and monuments, oral history and community. Skills: To utilize various research tools useful in the study of human behavior and the environment. To demonstrate the ability to develop and carry out a research plan. To learn effective ways of communicating research and design with the community. To become more aware of how the elements of community are manifested in our landscapes. To learn community facilitation processes. Values: To recognize the value of social research in the development of community design. To gain a deeper understanding of the complexity involved in community development and participation. To be aware and respectful of different worldviews, even among our classmates. Understand the many dimensions of community and how they can be applied to dwelling and community forms. Learn theories, principles, and research techniques that may be used as a basis for conceptualizing and planning civic spaces and related components, and larger communities. Learn techniques and practice skills that will inform your professional planning and design with and for communities. Participate in professional dialog about the contributions of environmental planning and design to the creation and development of lively, healthy, and sustainable human communities. Develop critical thinking skills concerning ideas of community and better understand and develop your own ideas of community.
Topical Outline
Methods: The course emphasizes class discussion of the required reading material. Thorough reading of assigned material and active participation in class meetings is therefore essential. To enrich discussion, each week class members will submit two questions on the weekly reading that she or he feels can be usefully pursued by the class. Questions are due on Monday at 5:00 PM and should be emailed to instructor. In addition to readings and class discussions, the course will also include guest lectures, fieldwork and student projects. Project 1: Design Elements Literature Review Paper. A research writing project. Project 2: Landscape Interpretation Research Project. Project 3: Echo Athens. Class Topics and Assigned Readings Introductions Creating Places—Ideas of Neighborhood, Community and Site Design - Clarence Perry, The Neighborhood Planning Unit. - Stein, Clarence. “Radburn, NJ,” in Toward New Towns for America. - Brolin, B.C., “Two Case Studies in the Application of Modern Ideology,” The Failure of Modern Architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976: 88-103. - Carol Burns, “On Site,” Drawing, Building, Text. Andrea Kahn, Ed. - Deasey, C.M. and Lasswell, T.E. “Living Together,” Designing Places for People. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1985: 40-63. - Marcus, C.C. and Sarkissian, W., "Design Guidelines: What they are and how to use them," and "Basic Considerations of the Design Program," Housing as if People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1986: 10-20, 33-44. - Co-Housing Design reading. Creating Places—Ideas of Neighborhood, Community and Site Design, cont’d. - “Great Places in America,” in Planning (December 2008). - New Urbanism reading. - Audirac, I. & Shermyen, A. H., "An Evaluation of Neotraditional Design's Social Prescription: Postmodern Placebo or Remedy for Suburban Malaise?" Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1994: 161-173. - Transit-Oriented Design reading. - Check out www.summerlin.com. Evolving Places—Forces of Change and Stability - Neighborhood Organizations—GUEST SPEAKER. - Jane Jacobs. "The concept of neighborhoods," in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1961. - NY Times - Washington Square Renovation article. - Pierce, Neal R. and Robert Guskind. "Boston's Southwest Corridor: People Power Makes History." In Breakthroughs: Recreating the American City. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1993, pp. 83-114. - Martz, Wendelyn A. Neighborhood-Based Planning: 5 Case Studies (PAS Report 455). Washington, D.C.: American Planning Association, 1995. Evolving Places—Forces of Change and Stability, cont’d. - Readings from Freeman, Lance. There Goes the ‘Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. - Readings from William Morrish and Catherine Brown. Planning to Stay: Learning to See the Physical Features of Your Neighborhood. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1994, 2000. - Ada Louise Huxtable, “Lively Original vs. Dead Copy,” New York Times, 9 May 1965. - Lucia Mouat, “You Can’t Pickle a City,” Historic Preservation, 15 (1963): 11, 19. Memory and Place—Collective memory and place attachment - IN CLASS VIDEO Walter Hood Interview re: Foster Memorial Site, University of Virginia http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/southlawn/media/walterhood.h tml. - J.B. Jackson, “The Necessity for Ruins,” in The Necessity for Ruins, p.89-102. - Christine Boyer, “The Instruments of Memory,” in The City of Collective Memory, p. 367-420. - Adolph Cibrowski, Warsaw, A City Destroyed and Rebuilt, Warsaw (1964): 281-294. - Kirk Savage, “The Past in the Present,” Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 1999: 14-15. - Daniel Abramson, “Make History, Not Memory,” Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 1999: 78-83. Oline Communities and Placemaking—Interactive Media in the Urban Landscape - GUEST LECTURE: Lila King and Karyn Lu of www.echoatlanta.com . - Visit www.echoatlanta.com and read Echo grant proposal. - Visit http://www.arch2.rice.edu/bayou/. - Visit http://www.placematters.net/. - Visit http://whitecitystories.org/. - Linda Baker, “Urban renewal, the wireless way,” Salon.com, htp://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/11/29/digital_metro polis/index.html. - Local Cities, Global Problems: Jane Jacobs in an Age of Global Change, http://www.andrewblum.net/typepad/2007/10/local- cities-gl.html. - PODCAST from Smart City Radio: Using the Internet to Explore Your City. http://smartcityradio.fluidhosting.com/2008/10- October/102308_SMARTCITY.mp3. - William Mitchell, "March of the Meganets," and "Homes and Neighborhoods," in E-topia: "Urban Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It". Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Culture and Place—Place Narratives in the Landscape - M. Christine Boyer, "Cities for Sale: Merchandising History at South Street Seaport," Variations on a Themepark. Michael Sorkin, ed. New York: Hill and Wang, p. 181-204. - Dennis Frenchman, "Narrative Places and the New Practice of Urban Design," in Imagining the City: Continuing Struggles and New Directions. Edited by Lawrence J. Vale and Sam Bass Warner, Jr. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, 2001. - Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995. (first 3 chapters) FIELDWORK Athens, Ga--constructed place messages? Spring Break Culture and Place—Place Narratives in the Landscape, cont’d, - Tracy Walker Moir-McClean, "Observations of Faith: Landscape Context in Design Education," Everyday America: Cultural Landscapes Studies After J.B. Jackson. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2003: p. 142-158. - Lawn Culture Comes to the Corporation??? - Keith H. Basso, “Quoting the Ancestors,” in Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996: 3-35. - Carleton Knight, III, “Philip Johnson Sounds Off,” Historic Preservation, 38 (September/October, 1986): 34-39. Economics of Culture and Place - Jane Jacobs. "Gradual money and cataclysmic money," in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1961. - David Throsby, “Culture, Economics and Sustainability,” Journal of Cultural Economics 19 (1995): 199-206. - Arjo Klamer, “The Value of Cultural Heritage,” in Michael Hutter and Ilde Rizzo, Economic Perspectives on Cultural Heritage. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997: 74-85. - Joel Garreau, “The Last Thing He Expected Was A Fight,” Washington Post Magazine, July 28, 1991: 15-18, 24-27. PRESENTATION OF LANDSCAPE INTERPRETATION PROJECTS Public Space and Civic Life—Streets, Sidewalks & Beyond - Cherulnik, P.D. "Livable Streets," in Applications of Environment-Behavior Research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993: 175-196. - Safe Routes to School readings. - Tom Vanderbilt, “When Dangerous Roads are Safer,” in Traffic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. - Teun de Wit and Hillie Talens, “Traffic Calming in The Netherlands” from CROW, the Dutch national Information and Technology Centre for Transport and Infrastructure. Public Space and Civic Life—Design, Behavior, & Control - IN CLASS VIDEO William Whyte, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.” - Variations on a Theme Park chapter, “Life inside a Mega Mall.” - Witold Rybczynski, "The New Downtowns," The Atlantic Monthly 271, no. 5. (1993): 98-106. - PODCAST from Smart City Radio: Tall Buildings and Public Spaces http://smartcityradio.com/smartcityradio/past_shows.cfm? showsmartcityID=428&PageNum_getsmartshows=1. - Blum, Andrew, “The Peace Maker,” Metropolis Magazine, Aug. 2005: #-#. www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1523. - National Capital Planning Commission, Security Plan, Oct. 2002. - Mike Davis, "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space," Variations on a Themepark. Michael Sorkin, ed. New York: Hill and Wang, p. 154-180. Regulating/Incentivizing the Development of Community and Place - FIELDWORK: ID Regulated Design—the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly. - Talbot, Janet Frey, "Zoning Reconsidered: The Impacts of Environmental Aesthetics in Urban Neighborhoods," EDRA 13. Polly Bart, Alexander Chen and Guido Francescato (eds.), Washington, D.C.: EDRA, 1982: 154-159. - Selected excerpts from ACC Code and other community codes. Learn qualitative methods on how to analyze “informal spaces” and their role in fostering and sustaining community. Learn qualitative methods to analyze insider/outsider relationships in community formation management. Learn about community and civic society formation and governance through theoretical and case study analysis. Synthesize these broad social, economic, and environmental understandings of community into projective planning/design practice and policy.
Syllabus