Initially, the studio is engaged in the design of a large scale urban area which presents complex challenges, needing practicable, innovative solutions that reflect responsible land use, and the design of appropriate buildings and urban landscape.

The Competition

The studio will undertake the U.L.I. Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition which strives to encourage cooperation and teamwork in finding solutions that are multi-faceted, and incorporate design thinking with a development strategy.

The competition takes place from the second week of the semester and over a two week period. A key to this part of the studio is to work in teams, learning to address the design of a complex urban area within a limited time frame, and which must be presented in a compelling manner.

Urban Landscape Design Project

We do not know the designated location for the competition, but we will aim to have representatives of the studio visit the site in February. This allows opportunity to review initial designs prior to further development and refinement of proposals. It is anticipated that the teams will continue for a short period after the competition to complete the overall design.

Individual Design Projects

If, which is probable from previous competitions, the large scale context and designs appear to have scope for further development, then detailed design work will commence. This will entail design of buildings, places, and landscapes. Four issues will offer the basis to selection of an individual design project:

• an interconnecting place, - where transit, cyclist, pedestrian, and alternatively powered buses come together in a place to meet in the city;
• a compact place, - offering housing density, mixed use, local amenity and identity in a sociable and well connected urban environment;
• architecture and landscape as resource, - here emphasis is placed on rainwater harvesting, food production, energy generation, with buildings and places acting as "host' to these enterprises;
• green architecture, - a place of social and environmental benefit, offering cultural experience and urban ecology.

The above offer an indication of issues that could frame an individual design project on a selected site. Students will develop a program and design strategies, leading to a detailed design study.

Program

Approximate dates

14-20 Jan : Investigation of case studies

21 Jan - 4 Feb : Competition

weekend of 9^th or 16^th of Feb : Site Visit (approx.)

29 Feb : Complete group work - outline individual work

2 Mar - 6 April : Individual Program and Schematic Design

6 April - 2 May : Detailed Design

Background Reading

Whyte, William H. City: Rediscovering the Center. Doubleday 1988.

Halprin, Lawrence. The RSVP Cycles: Creative Processes in the Human Environment. Brazilier 1969.

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Modern Library 1993.

Jacobs, Allan. Looking at Cities. Harvard Univ. 1985.; Great Streets. MIT. 1995.

Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning (with Gary Hack). MIT.1971, and What Time is This Place. MIT.1972.

Hillier, Bill (with Hanson, J.). The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge 1994.

Alexander, Christopher . A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford Univ. 1977.

Cooper Marcus, Clare (with Carolyn Francis). People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space. Wiley 1998.

Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place. MIT. 1995 and Redesigning the American Dream. Norton 2002.

Cullen, Gordon. The Concise Townscape. Architectural Press 1995.

Spirn, Anne Whiston. The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. Basic Books 1984.

Crawford, Margaret (with Clark, John and Kaliski, John). Everyday Urbanism. Monacelli Press 1999.

Cooper Marcus, Clare (with Wendy Savkissian). Housing as if People Mattered. Univ. Cal. Press 1988.

Ggelius, Mats. Ralph Erskine, Architect Coronet Books. 1990.

Pyatok Michael. Good Neighbors: The Design of Affordable Family Housing. McGraw Hill 1995.

Quigley, Rob Wellington. Rob Wellington Quigley: Buildings + Projects. Rizzoli 1996.

Dreiseitl, Herbert. New Waterscapes. Birkhauser 2005.