Semester at Sea Course Syllabus
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SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS Voyage: Fall 2013 Discipline: Architecture ARCH 2500-102: World Cities Division: Lower Faculty Name: Phoebe Crisman Pre-requisites: none COURSE DESCRIPTION Cities are enduring and remarkable human artifacts that have been shaped in response to climate, geography, culture, commerce, aesthetics and technology. In the present era, changing modes of communication, energy utilization and transportation require new design responses based on historical precedents and humanistic considerations. This course will examine the rich physical complexity of the cities that we will encounter on our voyage, including numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites. A comparative approach will allow us to understand the similarities and differences between cities as diverse as Antwerp, Casablanca, Accra, Cape and Buenos Aires. Each city will be analyzed as a specific material and spatial manifestation of intertwined past and present forces, including the social, economic, political, religious and environmental conditions of each distinct location. The future of these cities in the age of globalization will be considered. COURSE OBJECTIVES - Gain knowledge of several of the world’s major cities using a comparative approach. - Encourage a greater awareness and comprehension of past, present and future modes of human settlement, and especially those that students will encounter on their voyage. - Encourage a sound understanding of urbanism as an expression of human culture and intention. - Develop skills to understand or “read” physical form and space. - Learn how to represent those perceptions through written and verbal expression. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: Kostof, Spiro TITLE: The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meaning Throughout History PUBLISHER: Bulfinch Press ISBN #: 0821220160 DATE/EDITION: 1993, reprint AUTHOR: Norwich, John Julius TITLE: The Great Cities in History [GCH] PUBLISHER: Thames & Hudson ISBN #: 978-0-500-25154-6 DATE/EDITION: 2009 1 TOPICAL OUTLINE OF COURSE (B day, 8:00 – 9:15) B1- August 27: What is a City? • Mumford, Lewis. “What is a City?” (from The Culture of Cities, 1937), The Lewis Mumford Reader, Donald Miller, ed. (1986): 104-107. • Kostof, Spiro. “The City as Artifact,” The City Shaped (CS): 9-41. • “St Petersburg Russia's Window on the West,” GCH: 209-212. • “Stockholm and Sweden's Baltic Empire,” GCH: 200-202. • “Moscow Capital Without a Court,” GCH: 222-225. August 29-September 1: St. Petersburg B2- September 2: Understanding Urban Form • Lynch, Kevin. “The City Image and Its Elements,” (1960), The City Reader: 98-102. • Lynch, Kevin. “Form Values in Urban History,” Good City Form: 5-36. B3- September 4: International Port Cities: Hamburg, Amsterdam, Antwerp + Venice • “Lübeck and the Cities of the Hanseatic League,” GCH: 124-126. • “Amsterdam and the Dutch Republic,” GCH: 187-191. • “Venice Mistress of the Mediterranean,” GCH: 130-133. September 5-8: Hamburg B4- September 10: Examining Contemporary Global Forces • Clark, David. “Global Patterns and Perspectives,” Urban World/Global City: 1-11. • Soja, Edward. “Metropolis in Crisis,” Postmetropolis: 95-116. September 12-14: Antwerp / September 15-16: Le Havre B5- September 17: Georgian Streets, Squares + Terraced Houses: Dublin + London • “London Renaissance to Restoration,” GCH: 195-199. • “Dublin and Georgian Elegance,” GCH: 203-205. • “London from Queen Victoria to Big Bang,” GCH: 230-233. B6- September 19: Grand Boulevards and Regular Grids: Paris + Lisbon • “Paris Pinnacle of Gothic Architecture,” GCH: 120-123. • “Lisbon in the Age of Discovery,” GCH: 156-158. • “Paris in the Time of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann,” GCH: 226-229. September 20-23: Dublin B7- September 25: Medieval Medinas and Mat Urbanism: Casablanca, Fez, Cairo + Mecca • Morris, A.E.J. “Islamic Cities of the Middle East,” History of Urban Form: 365-401. • “Mecca Sacred City of Islam,” GCH: 82-85. • “Cordoba Brilliant Capital of Moorish Spain,” GCH: 96-99. • “Cairo Centre of Islamic Civilization,” GCH: 112-115. 2 September 27-28: Lisbon / transit / Sept 30-October 1: Cadiz October 2: No Class/Study Day/Conference October 3-6: Casablanca B8- October 7: City as Palimpsest: Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul • Gates, Charles. “Late Antique Transformations: Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople in the Age of Constantine,” Ancient Cities: 398-411. • “Constantinople Christian Capital in the East,” GCH: 78-81. • “Istanbul City of the Sultans,” GCH: 164-167. B9- October 9: Organic Urban Patterns • Kostof. The City Shaped: 43-69. October 10: Study day B10- October 12: Grid as Global Phenomenon • Kostof. The City Shaped: 95-157. DUE: last day to submit Field Report #1 B11- October 14: Capetown, Accra and the Contemporary African City • Freund, Bill. “The Post-Colonial African City,” The African City: A History (2007): 142-169. • “Benin West African City of the Ancestors,” GCH: 138-139. October 15-18: Takoradi and Tema October 19: Study day B12- October 21: MIDTERM EXAM October 23: Study day B13- October 24: Postcolonial Urban Hybridity • King. “Exporting Planning: the Colonial and Neo-Colonial Experience,” G. Cherry, ed., Shaping an Urban World: Planning in the Twentieth Century: 203-226. October 26-30: Cape Town October 31: Study day B14- November 1: Past and Future Urbanization in Asia: Beijing + Tokyo • Selugga, Malte. “Development in China: High Speed, High Rise, High Price,” Topos: 84-91. • “Beijing and the Forbidden City,” GCH: 176-179. • “Shanghai China's Super-City,” GCH: 286-289. • “Kyoto Pleasure Gardens and Vermilion Palaces,” GCH: 180-183. • “Tokyo City of Constant Change,” GCH: 281-285. 3 B15- November 3: Capitals of a (sub)Continent: Delhi + Canberra • Kostof. “The Political Diagram,” The City Shaped: 174-207. • Joardar, Souro. “New Delhi: Imperial Capital to Capital of the World’s Largest Democracy,” Planning Twentieth Century Capital Cities: 182-195. • “New Delhi Symbol in Stone,” GCH: 246-249. November 4: Study day B16- November 6: Ancient Cities: Greek + Roman Foundations • “Athens Birthplace of Democracy,” GCH: 44-47. • “Rome in the Age of Augustus,” GCH: 60-65. DUE: last day to submit Field Report #2 November 8: Study day B17- November 9: Old World Cities to New World Cities • Low, Setha. “Cultural Meaning of the Plaza: The History of the Spanish-American Gridplan- Plaza Urban Design,” R. Rotenberg ed. The Cultural Meaning of Urban Space: 75-93. • “Tenochtitlan Aztec City in the Lake,” GCH: 146-149. • “Mexico City Utopia in the New World,” GCH: 192-194. B18- November 11: A Mélange of European Influences: Buenos Aires • Gutierrez, R. “Buenos Aires, A Great European City,” A. Almandoz, ed., Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities: 45-74. • “Buenos Aires City of Permanent Promise,” GCH: 264-265. BUENOS AIRES FIELD LAB - November 12 November 12-16: Buenos Aires B19- November 18: Extreme Topography and Informal Settlements: Rio de Janeiro • Davis, Mike, Planet of Slums: tba • Hays-Mitchell, M and B. Godfrey. Cities of the World: 135-165. November 20-22: Rio de Janeiro November 23-24: In transit November 25-27: Salvador B20- November 29: How Cities Meet the Sky • Kostof. “The Urban Skyline,” The City Shaped: 279-335. B21- December 1: Utopian Visions in the New World: Brasilia + Washington, DC • Kostof. “The Grand Manner,” The City Shaped: 209-218. • “Washington DC Ideology Made Visible,” GCH: 238-241. 4 December 2: Study day B22- December 4: Preserving the Past: Salvador + Havana • del Rio, V., de Alcantara, D.. “Revisiting the Pelourinho: Preservation, cultural Heritage and Place Marketing in Salvador,” Contemporary Urbanism in Brazil: Beyond Brasília: 144-163. B23- December 6: Concluding Discussion | The Future of Sustainable Cities • Rabinovitch, Jonas and Leitman, Josef. “Urban Planning in Curitiba,” S. Wheeler and T. Beatley, eds., The Sustainable Urban Development Reader: 319-329. • Marshall, Richard. “Urban Projects in a Global World,” Emerging Urbanity: Global Urban Projects in the Asia Pacific Rim (2003): 9-28. December 7: Study day December 8: A Finals / last day to submit Field Report #3 Buenos Aires December 9 -11: Havana December 12: Study day December 13: B Finals FIELD WORK FIELD LAB: Attendance and participation in the all day Field Lab is MANDATORY. Please do not book individual travel plans or a SAS sponsored trip that day. This is the only field lab for the course and it counts for 20% of your grade. There will be no excused absences. Missing all or a portion of the field lab will result in the forfeiture of 20% of the total course grade. An Interpretive Walk Through Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, a vibrant city of elegant civic spaces and beautiful buildings is an excellent place to experience and analyze course concepts. Beginning at the MV Explorer in Puerto Nuevo, we will walk through the Retiro district to examine the infrastructural nexus of rail, river and roadway and public space at lovely Plaza San Martin. We will study diverse types of streets and public spaces throughout the downtown. We will walk with hundreds of Porteños on pedestrianized Florida Street. We will enter the Metropolitan Cathedral and Cabildo at Plaza de Mayo, where several major avenues radiate outward from this urban node. We will study the distinct street typologies and types of architecture. For instance, the Art Nouveau and Neoclassical buildings along Avenida de Mayo are reminiscent of Paris or Barcelona. We will encounter the Obelisk at the crossing of Avenida Corrientes and Avenida 9 de Julio, which is one of the widest avenues in the world. Later we will explore the upscale Recoleta district with its grand hotels, mansions and embassies along Avenida Alvear. Avenida del Libertador connects downtown to districts in the northwest, passing by museums, gardens and the historic Recoleta Cemetery. We will return to the Port via the Underground (subte) to experience that important public transit system. Along the route 5 students will compare and contrast the features of these different districts, noting the relevant and enduring qualities that define the city. The final Field Report (#3) must be written using materials gathered during the Buenos Aires Field Lab.