95705 - Elements of Urban Space: Memory, Myth, Identity

Learning outcomes

.A city emerges at the confluence of nature and artifice, where collective memory, identity, and myth accumulate. Urban space serves as the platform upon which individual instances and collective agencies, practical reasons and cultural principles negotiate a general order. By the end of the course, students will be able to interpret the urban space system as a function of generative socio-cultural regimes and, thereby, prefigure scenarios for the protection or transformation of material and intangible heritage from the past, in the service of present and future needs.

Course contents

Course contents:
The course focuses on the concurrent evolution of the notion of urban space in a global perspective. It reviews the genesis and evolution of cities since their primordial emergence in different areas of the planet until the advent of the metropolises of Modernity.

Basic methodologies of interpretation of the urban systems are presented through figurative sources. The cultural values of urban ensembles are discussed with respect to conservation or transformation actions in the present and for the future. The general review is accompanied by the illustration of specific cases. Toward the end of the course, the students are invited to analyze, in groups or individually, simple cases of their choice by applying the methodologies previously learnt.

The historical analysis of the morphological text of a settlement can reconstruct the forces and processes that generated it and, by that, decipher its inherent reasons and legible meanings, as collective aspirations embedded in it.

Approach:
Through lectures, class discussion/debates, and seminar-format sessions, the course offers tools for analyzing over time the forms of the city, its urban-space systems in relation to its social regimes, and evaluating the testimonial and cultural values in the present to orient future actions.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography for attending students:

• S. Kostof (2004) [Thames and Hudson 1991] 'The Evolution of Organic Patterns' + 'The Grid, Preamble', in: The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History, Bulfinch Press, pp. 52-69, 94-103 (borrow online at: https://archive.org/details/cityshapedurbanp0000kost)

• D. Harvey (2012) 'The Right to the City', in: Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, Verso, pp. 3-25

• P.G. Rowe (2022) 'China within a Geography of Thought', in: Chinese Modern. Episodes Backward and Foreward in Time, Birkhäuser, pp.10-23

Additional bibliography FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:

• S. Kostof (1991) The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History, Bulfinch Press [full book]
  

Bibliographic suggestions if interested (NOT REQUIRED):

• P. Eisenman (1982) 'Editor's Introduction', in: Aldo Rossi [1966] The Architecture of the City, MIT Press, pp. 3-11

• R. Koolhaas (1978) 'Prehistory' + 'Coney Island: The Technology of the Fantastic' + 'Definitive Instability: The Downtown Athletic Club', in: Delirious New York. A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, Monacelli Press, pp. 13-29, 29-80, 152-159

 

 

Teaching methods

The class sessions will take different formats. Regular sessions will be subdivided in two lectures supported by projections, each followed by class discussion/debate. Seminar sessions will be organized according to active and collaborative learning dynamics. Students will work in group or individually on specific activities to then present and discuss the results with the rest of the class. Special sessions will be devoted to site visits of significant urban ensembles (in the absence of circumstantial impediments), others will host invited experts contributing on specific themes.

Short preparatory readings will be assigned to favor critical interaction in seminar sessions. The calendar released at the beginning of the course will report format of sessions and preparatory readings.

Assessment methods

The final exam is a personal interview on three to four topics. The performance of the student in in-class activities will contribute to the evaluation, while non-attending students will be prompted one extra question. The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades (A = 27-30 con lode). A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will result in grades ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23). A low level of knowledge of the course’s contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will be considered as ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20) or result in a fail grading (E).

AI use: For assessment purposes, limited, declared, and non-substantial use of AI is permitted for support activities (summary, reformulations). Substantial use for completing parts of the test is not permitted.

Teaching tools

Projections illustrating written, cartographic, photographic sources, general, additional, and specific bibliographies, digital and printed didactic material.

Students with different abilities or SLD who require educational adaptations or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff to coordinate the appropriate interventions with the competent bodies.

Institutional announcement: "Students with SLD or different abilities (temporary or permanent) are kindly required to timely contact the administrative staff in charge (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students). The staff will define possible adaptations that students can submit (at least 15 days before the exam) to the instructor’s evaluation in relation to the course’s teaching objectives."

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Pasini