ARCT40180 Urban Design Theory (UDT)

Academic Year 2024/2025

In a mix of lectures and seminars, this module will explore key concepts and thinkers in Urban Design. The module is grounded in classic writings on the city, predominantly about the 20th- 21st-century city, as a springboard for discussions so that each student can develop their own interest for an end-of-module paper. The structure for continual assignments relates to the course content/building blocks and varies between book/literature reviews, class discussions/presentations, and an end-of-module illustrated literature review (showing evidence of process).

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the module the student should be able to:1. Summaries a range of theories in Urban Design.2. Show evidence of individual research via a Literature Review.3. Capture findings in a submission that develops a research question .4. Include a critical appraisal of a theorist or theory and uses info-graphics/ visual diagrams.

Indicative Module Content:

The overarching theme for this module is City Life- Urbanism as a way of thinking and the aim will be to cover a range of texts from the late 19th, 20th to 21st century.

In his book ‘Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City’, the sociologist Richard Sennett acknowledges the distinction between the city as a place and the city as ‘a mentality compiled from perceptions, behaviors and beliefs’. Accordingly, this module in Urban Design Theory seeks to help your understanding of the development of and plurality of urban thinking by examining a spectrum of theories, contrasted conceptually and chronologically. This module, therefore, not only aims to provide you with a framework for thinking about urban design, it will also provide you with academic writing and research tactics.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

6
Small Group

20
Specified Learning Activities

46
Autonomous Student Learning

36
Total

108
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Discouraging looking at the city through a singular theoretic framework, architectural critic Kim Dovey proposed that the ‘best of urban designs emerge from new ways of thinking about the city, from new conceptual tools’ necessitating an ongoing search for how ideas ‘overlap and resonate together.’

The final output will capture this quest for intersections and the module will provide you with clear steps on how to undertake a literature review.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade

Not yet recorded.

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback is given with the opportunity to improve grades on components that build up to summative synthesis.

Readings will be uploaded to Bightspace with live links to UCD Library where possible.