Urban Form: History + Theory

The course is historical and theoretical. It is concerned with the economic, social, and political factors that shape urban processes and environments and the efforts of individual actors, interventions, conceptual models, and practices to comprehend, gain control over, regulate, and reshape those processes and environments. The course will span the period from the First Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, through the Second (technological) Revolution in the late 19th century and the Third (information) Revolution in the last quarter of the 20th century. The focus is on Europe and North America. The emphasis of this critical history is on the dialogic relationship between urban planning and urban design and the technological, economic, political, and cultural contexts and institutions in which they operate.