Course syllabus for Urban landscapes

Course syllabus adopted 2023-02-13 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameStadslandskap
  • CodeARK516
  • Credits15 Credits
  • OwnerTKARK
  • Education cycleFirst-cycle
  • Main field of studyArchitecture
  • ThemeArchitectural design project 13.5 c
  • DepartmentARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
  • GradingUG - Pass, Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language Swedish
  • Application code 45121
  • Open for exchange studentsNo
  • Only students with the course round in the programme overview.

Credit distribution

0118 Project, part A 12 c
Grading: UG		12 c
0218 Project, part B 1.5 c
Grading: UG		1.5 c
0318 Laboratory, part C 1.5 c
Grading: UG		1.5 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for bachelor's level (first cycle)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Specific entry requirements

The same as for the programme that owns the course.
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Course specific prerequisites

At least 90 university credits in Years 1 and 2 of the Architecture program, or equivalent work from comparable architecture or design education. To be eligible students must have achieved passing grades in the second-year courses Renovation and Urban Revitalization, Urban Housing, and Urban Space and Planning. Swedish

Aim

The course Urban Landscapes addresses design and analysis of urban space and urban landscapes. The aim is to develop knowledge and skills for urban design projects in complex contexts. This entails to develop understanding of today’s multifacetted urban landscape and how it is used as well as how it enables or constrics development on different levels: indivdual, social, and societal.

The course addresses:
  • The relationships between urban form and urban life
  • Circumstances that structure and form urban transformation
  • Factors that influence sustainable urban development
  • Artistic and experimental methods for urban investigations
  • How urban design and planning influence ecological, social, cultural and economic values in urban settings

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

  • Describe and analyse urban landscapes as regards buildings, spaces, form, functions and context at different scale levels
  • Identify relevant keys for different forms of urban life and describe these with text and illustrations
  • Analyse critical conditions on regional and local level for sustainable urban development
  • Describe how the form and configuration of the urban landscape influence people’s different patterns of movement and potentials for meetings
  • Translate relevant analyses to a coherent concept and design proposal
  • Visualise and communicate ideas of spatial design for complex urban development projects
  • Argue for and evaluate qualities in urban design projects
  • Refer to examples of contemporary urban design
  • Reflect on knowledge and experiences gained from the course

The artistic lab:
  • Use artistic and experimental methods for thematical studies of urban settings
  • Formulate artistic propositions and concepts that relate to critical issues of urban space and and urban life
  • Evaluate and explain the value of artistic approaches for an expanded architectural knowledge

Digital methods of analyses
  • Comprehend and use different types of geographical information systems (GIS) to describe and anlyse spatial, social, ekonomic and ecological conditions
  • Ability to present geographical data in legible and graphically attractive ways

Content

The Urban Landscapes course is based on the relationship between the built city and the lived city. That means that knowledge about how people live in a city is woven together with insights into how a city is structured, built, and designed.

The course addresses several topics:
  • Urban transformation at different geografical levels, with the UN’s Global Goals as point of departure: from global issues to regional conditions and local initiatives.
  • The spatial configurations of the city: spatial connections within and between urban areas.
  • The interface between the various social scales of urban spaces and between the architectural design of spaces and buildings.
  • Time and processes in urban development.
The core of this course is an urban design project of high complexity taken from practice. Lectures, excercises, seminars and fieldtrips feed into the project along the way. During the course the understanding and skills develop and deepen at the same time as knowledge and insights increase about today’s societies and settlements, as well as about the driving forces and processes that influence and steer urban design and planning.

Assignments are mostly carried out in smaller groups.

Organisation

The course is planned and led by a team of teachers with supervisors in the studios.

Literature

A reading list will be provided at the start of the course.

Examination including compulsory elements

A passing grade requires:
  • Approved urban design project
  • Approved results of the separate assignments for artistic methods and GIS analyses
  • Active participation at supervisions and crits as well as approved written hand-ins
A student who is not approved in the course after the regular examination must be given the opportunity to be examined through supplementation after the end of the course if the examiner considers it feasible. If, after two attempts at completion, the student still cannot be approved, the student must retake the course. Assessment of completions takes place during Chalmers' re-examination periods. It is the student's responsibility to check reported study results in Ladok after each study period and to contact the course examiner for instructions on supplementation if an approved result is missing.

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.