MIT Joint Group in Design and Development Department of Urban Studies and and Department of

Spring 2012 Ideals and Action 11.337j/4.247j 2-0-7 units

Special Spring 2012 Topic: Ideals and Action for Shrinking

Instructor: Brent D. Ryan [email protected] Seminar meetings: Mondays, 1 to 3 PM, Room 10-401 Public lectures: Mondays, 6 to 8 PM, Room 10-485 or 7-431 (AVT)

The Spring 2012 11.337j/4.247j will focus on urban design ideals and action in shrinking cities. These are troubled cities with diminishing populations, declining economies, and an evaporating built environment. Shrinking cities are difficult conditions for design, but they also present opportunities for innovation and critical design thinking. This semester’s course will investigate different disciplinary perspectives on urban design in shrinking cities. Some of the question that this course will investigate are: - How do different urban design-related disciplines, such as landscape, planning, or photography, shape understandings of shrinking cities? - How does different disciplinary understandings of shrinking cities shape urban design ideals for those places? - How do urban designers translate these different design ideals into action? Are these design ideals in competition, or are they complementary to each other? - Can shrinking-city urban design ideals shape or influence urban design ideals for other contexts, like high-density cities or low-density ?

This course is focused around both ideals and action. Ideals are theories about the form of the city and region. Ideals are proposed both in theory and in practice, and they usually occupy both of these terrains. Their esthetic assertions about the form of the city often compete with one another, and each ideal rarely admits the legitimacy of its competitors. Actions denote the ability for an urban designer to actually influence any given development condition. Actions both shape and are shaped by ideals. Actions require power, but urban designers have widely varying access to power in different settings; not all actions are available to all designers, nor all ideals. Shrinking cities challenge conventional urban design ideals and action, and oblige new directions and creative thinking in both areas.

The Spring 2012 11.337j/4.247j will operate as a seminar and public lecture series, the City Design and Development (CDD) Forum. Seminar sessions will take place on Monday afternoons, while lectures will occur on four Monday evenings at 6 PM (see course schedule for details). Each lecturer will represent different disciplinary mode of seeing, understanding, and acting in the shrinking city. Course members should attend both seminar sessions and public lectures.

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Course Schedule and Calendar The Spring 2012 course will feature four CDD Forum lectures:

February 21 - Daniel D’Oca, Principal, Interboro Partners: informal and bottom-up March 5 - Justin Hollander, Assistant Professor, Tufts: regulation and ‘smart decline’ March 19 - Jill Desimini, Assistant Professor, Harvard GSD: landscape and vacancy April 30 - Camilo Jose Vergara, photographer and MacArthur Fellow: photography and memory

Seminar sessions will meet on Mondays, 1 to 3 PM in 10-401 and lectures will meet on Monday, 6 to 8 PM in 10-485 or 7-431 (AVT).

Week Month Time Session Details Date 1 Feb 7 First Day of Classes (UDI does not meet this week) Tuesday 2 13 1 – 3 PM seminar Introduction: which urbanism? Monday 3 21 6 – 8 PM lecture Interboro Partners: Informality and Blotting, AVT Tuesday (Monday classes meet Tuesday b/c of Presidents’ Day) 4 27 1 – 3 PM seminar Discussion: informality and the shrinking city Monday Hand out urban design ideals paper 5 5 6 – 8 PM lecture Justin Hollander: Regulation and Smart Decline, 10-485 Mon 6 12 1 – 3 PM seminar Discussion: regulating the shrinking city Mon 7 19 6 – 8 PM lecture Jill Desimini: Landscape and Vacancy, 10-485 Mon 8 26-30 No Classes this week- Spring Break

9 Apr 2 1 – 3 PM seminar Discussion: landscape urbanism in shrinking cities Mon Urban design ideals paper due; Hand out UD exercise 10 9 1 – 3 PM seminar Discussion: the power of architecture

11 16 No class today- Patriots’ Day Mon 12 23 1 – 3 PM seminar Meetings to discuss urban design guideline project Mon 13 30 6 – 8 PM lecture Camilo Jose Vergara, Photography and Shrinkage, AVT Mon 14 May 7 1 – 3 PM seminar Discuss photography and the shrinking city Mon 15 14 1 – 3 PM seminar Urban design guideline project presentations Mon Hand in urban design project document

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Course structure

Participants will be responsible for attending both seminar sessions and lectures; reading course materials prior to each session; and participating in class discussions.

There are two primary course requirements: • a midterm paper (4,000 words or approximately 12 1.5 spaced pages) on urban design ideals, due April 2. Paper details will be circulated on February 27. • An urban design guideline project, applying urban design ideals on a shrinking-city site of your choice. Exercise will be circulated on April 2.

Please complete readings prior to each seminar session. Readings will be posted on the course Stellar site at the beginning of the semester. Each week’s readings will comprise between 75 to 100 pages.

Note that seminar and lecture weeks will generally alternate weeks, but that lectures will be paired with individual meetings in April to discuss urban design project ideas.

Course grades will be based on weekly class participation (20%); midterm urban design paper (30%); urban design project presentation (25%); and urban design project writeup (25%).

Course Readings

February 13: Introduction: Which Urbanism?

1. Ryan, Brent. “’The Burden Has Passed’: Urban Design after .” Pp. 1-36 in Design After Decline: How America rebuilds shrinking Ccities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 2. Sorkin, Michael. “The End(s) of Urban Design.” Pp. 155-182 in Urban Design, Alex Krieger and William S. Saunders, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. 3. Cuthbert, Alexander. “Whose Urbanism?” Journal of Urban Design 15(3), 443-448. Review of Urban Design. 4. Duany, Andres. “Duany vs Harvard GSD.” November 3, 2010, Metropolis P/O/V http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20101103/duany-vs-harvard-gsd 5. Duany, Andres and Lambert, Matthew. “The Next Urbanism is not .” Presentation at Congress of New Urbanism 18, May 22, 2010. 1 hour, 22 minutes. Online at http://ecom.mediasite.com/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=470632346283426e8b0dfa1b184afd7b1d

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February 21 (Interboro lecture) and February 27: Informality, Everyday Urbanism, and Bottom-Up Design

1. Ryan, Brent. “Toward Social Urbanism for Shrinking Cities” and “Urban Design Ideals: Everyday Urbanism.” Pp. 174-188 in Design After Decline: How America rebuilds shrinking cities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 2. Bernardó, Jordi. “Detroit: Defunct City?” and Interboro Partners, “Improve Your Lot! The New Suburbanism.” Pp. 60-67 and pp. 240-269 in VERB CRISIS: Actar boogazine, Volume 6, C. 2009. 3. Philipp Misselwitz, Philipp Oswalt, and Klaus Overmeyer (Urban Catalyst). “Discourse” and “Urban Development without ”, pp. 101-111 in Urban Pioneers: Temporary Use and Urban Development in Berlin. Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2007. 4. Crawford, Margaret. “Blurring the Boundaries: Public space and private life.” Pp. 22-25 in Chase et. al., eds., Everyday Urbanism. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999. 5. Speaks, Michael. “Every Day is Not Enough.” Pp. 34-72 in Mehrotra, Rahul, ed. Everyday Urbanism: Margaret Crawford vs. Michael Speaks. Michigan Debates on Urbanism, Volume 1. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2005.

March 5 (Hollander lecture) and March 12: Regulation, Shrinkage, and the End of Rational Planning

1. Ryan, Brent. “Urban Design Ideals: New Urbanism.” Pp. 194-201 in Design After Decline: How America rebuilds shrinking cities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 2. Philipp Oswalt, Alexander Sverdlov, and Matthias Bernt. “Introduction: Can Planning Even Help?/Weak Planning”, pp.12-17; “The Myth of Planning: Five Points about the City of Yuzha”, and “Demolition Program East”, pp. 622-624, 650-665. All in Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2005. 3. Hollander, Justin. “Ways to Think About Decline”, and “A New Model for Neighborhood Change in Shrinking Cities”. Pp. 8-19 and 39-45 in Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, depopulation, and urban planning in the American Sunbelt. Abington, UK: Routledge, 2011. 4. Duany, Andres, and Talen, Emily. “Transect Planning.” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 68, No. 3, 245-266, 2002. 5. Friedmann, John. “Toward a non-Euclidian Mode of Planning.” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 59, No.4, 482-485. 1993.

March 19 (Desimini lecture) and April 2: Landscape and Urbanism

1. Ryan, Brent. “Urban Design Ideals: Landscape Urbanism.” Pp. 188-194 in Design After Decline: How America rebuilds shrinking cities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 2. Bélanger, Pierre. “Landscape as Infrastructure.” Landscape Journal 28(1), pp. 79-95. 3. Brucknerm, Heike. “Landscape Creates Town: Where Buildings Fall, New Open Spaces are Created.” Pp. 500-513 in in Less is Future: 19 Cities- 19 Themes. Berlin: Jovis. 4. Rossmann, Andreas. “Looking Back: IBA Emscher Park.” Pp. 148-161 in Landscape as a System: Contemporary German . Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser, 2009.

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5. Waldheim, Charles, “Urbanism as Landscape”, in Waldheim, C., ed., The Landscape Urbanism Reader. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006, pp. 35-53.

April 9 : The Power of Architecture

1. Bekaert, Geert, “The Hereafter of the City”, and Lieven De Boeck, “After-Sprawl”, in Xaveer De Geyter Architects, After-Sprawl: research for the contemporary city. Amsterdam: NAi Publishers, c. 2005, pp.9-32. 2. Sola-Morales, Manuel de. “The Urban Project”, in Zardini, M., ed. Manuel de Sola-Morales: Designing Cities. Lotus Quaderni Documents 23. Milan: Elemond, 1999, pp.60-79. 3. Aureli, Pier Vittorio. “The Urban Archipelago: Oswalt Mathias Ungers, OMA, and the project of the city as archipelago.”Pp. 177-227 in The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. 4. Schroder, Andre. “An IBA for the Design of Urban Shrinking Processes.” Pp. 64-73 in Less is Future: 19 Cities- 19 Themes. Berlin: Jovis. 5. Bodammer, Alexa. “Form and Perception of the Shrinking City.” Pp. 487-498 in Less is Future.

April 30 (lecture) and May 7: Photography: the Image of the Shrinking City

1. Vergara, Camilo Jose. “Energies of the Outmoded” and “Swimming Against the Tide.” Pp. 7-25 and 200-213 in American Ruins. New York: Monacelli, 1999. 2. Spirn, Anne Whiston. “Photography and the Art of Visual Thinking.” Excerpt from The Eye Is A Door: Photography, Landscape, and the Art of Visual Thinking. Nahant, MA: Wolf Tree Press, 2012. 3. Leaf through any of the Detroit “ruin photography” books on reserve in Rotch library: a. Moore, Andrew. Detroit Dissassembled. Akron, OH: Akron Art Museum, 2010. b. Austin, Dan, and Doerr, Sean. Lost Detroit. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010. c. Marchand, Yves, and Meffre, Roland. The Ruins of Detroit. Gottingen: Steidl, 2010. d. Taubman, Julia Reyes. Detroit: 138 Square Miles. Detroit: MoCAD, 2011. 4. Leary, Patrick John. “Detroitism: What does ‘ruin porn’ tell us about the motor city, ourselves, other American cities?” http://www.guernicamag.com/features/2281/leary_1_15_11/ 5. Temple, Julian. “Detroit: The last days.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/10/detroit- motor-city-urban-decline 6. Schalliol, David. “Photographs of Abandoned America Show Civic Problems, Engagement.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/photographs-of-abandoned- places_n_1197538.html There are many more ruin photograph sites, comments, and critiques online.

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