Cities are mysterious and multifold, seemingly outside the purview of definition and control. However, the class is guided by a contravening precept: to construct an understanding of the city is to already begin its remaking. In applying new (and old) perspectives to the city and its effects, the city becomes design by way of research and speculation. Taking an open-ended approach to the questions of the urban (what it is, how it operates, and who its constituencies are) through a broad survey of approaches and parallel consideration of specific projects (subject to recent events and speaker availability), this course outlines a variety of ways by which to posit the city as both subject and object, as phenomena and proposition.
Course participants will study examples of city “theses” in various forms and formats, as well as engage in their own parallel research efforts, culminating in a prospectus for further studies.