Urbanistics 1

Code:

300305

Acronym:

300305

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Architecture and Urbanism

Instance: 2023/2024 - A

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Arquitectura (A)
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Degree in Architecture

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIARQ	160	MIARQ	3	-	6	40,5	162

Teaching language

Portuguese
Obs.: Portuguese

Objectives

The discipline of Urbanística 1 proposes a reflection on the meanings inherent to the contexts and processes of conformation and evolution of the city and the territories of urbanization, observing the results of the different models, forms and scales of action, within the respective agents' realm and technical and operational assumptions.
The understanding of (intervention in) city and territory naturally presupposes an interdisciplinary approach and the correct interpretation of the relationships between urban practices and physical, social, economic and political structures, their intrinsic characteristics and rules, identifying the permanence factors and the dynamics of change inherent in the very facts and processes to be recognized.
An objective and coherent perception of urban phenomena is sought as resultants and/or determinants of the interaction between programs, plans and projects (public spaces, infrastructure and architecture), their forms of concretion, articulation and management, especially with the generalization of the urban and territorial planning actions that aggregate several areas of scientific knowledge.

Learning outcomes and competences

The recognition and critical interpretation of the facts, structures and systems in urbanized territories, as well as the practices and processes of formation and transformation that are at their origin. The aim is to train the student for the current disciplinary debate marked by changes in the territorial configuration of urbanization, changes in socio-productive relations, and involvement of a growing number of actors, with often unpredictable consequences.
For this, it will be important to know the authors, ideas and fundamental experiences that, since the middle of the XIX century, were modeling the discipline, as well as its specific contexts and the particular conditions that made it possible to materialize. But, above all, it will be necessary to understand the influence that these urban models have had, and have, in the ways of reading and transforming the urban space and in the disciplinary debate.
The search for new operational methodologies appropriate to the ways and expectations of life of the inhabitants and users of the contemporary city requires the substantiation of a clear idea of city, since "The planning of the city should inform itself in the results of its own experimentation as a machine non-banal model capable of mediating the heuristic process of recognition, strategic management and representation of the state of the urban culture in which it operates "(Bernardo Secchi, U92, Sep/1988).

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. A. Tracings urbanism in times of rapid transformation
   In Western Europe, the Industrial Revolution marks the beginning of a time of accelerated transformations in the economic, social and political context, with profound consequences for the modes of occupation of the territories. New problems of an unprecedented scale require the proposal of new forms of intervention in urban space guided by the belief in scientific knowledge, new technological means available and a new social consciousness. The public space that emerged then arises as the planning system of the transformation process. Tracing is the preferred instrument.
   B. The invention of the new world
   The problems resulting from the accelerated transformations were aggravated and, above all, became more evident when they were concentrated in the great industrial metropolis, and when they were published and discussed in the press, which was beginning to form a new public opinion. Critical discourses have multiplied with respect to the modes of organization of territory and society. The modern spirit, based on the belief in reason and technology, has led to the proposal of radically different alternatives. The promise of new perfect worlds that have been established until today as the basis of the new urban discipline, waiting for an opportunity to be applied in the reality. "Our most important task at the present time is to build castles in the air. We should not be afraid [...]. If our eutopias emerge from the realities of our environment, it will not be difficult to lay foundations under them", Mumford said in 1922.
   C. Institutionalization and reactions to modern models
   The Great Depression of 1929 and the Second World War brought the different models of Welfare State, the need for rebuilding Europe, the baby boom, and 30 years of economic growth: it was the expected opportunity. The public authorities, now reinforced, provided new planning and intervention tools to apply, on a large scale, the urban models previously dreamed of. The radical transformation of urban landscapes has led to a new wave of criticism. It was the time of criticism and revision of modernist models; the time of return to the historic city; the time to learn how to read and work with the complexity, uncertainty, multiplicity of actors involved in the urbanization process, and the large scale of extensive urbanization resulting from the rapid expansion that defied all management models and formulas until then developed.
   D. Instruments of intervention
   The modern plan, supported by the different regimes of robust states, was affirmed in the post-war as main instrument of the transformation of the territory. The manifest inability to predict, the growing complexity of social structures and the progressive retreat of the state leads to question the operability of the planning instruments.
   After the crisis of 1979, the private initiative is assumed as the main engine of the transformation of the territory, leading to the reformulation of planning and intervention instruments, now of a regulatory nature and with questionable results at an increasingly complex world. The urban projectemerges as an alternative that brings together planning and design of Architecture. In 2008, a new crisis forces, once again, to rethink the models and instruments of transformation of urban space
   E. A project for urbanistics
   The last century was a time of rapid and violent transformations, and intense production of new ideas, new ways of seeing the world. Today we live in a way that is profoundly different from what we experienced at the beginning of the 20th century, just as the reading we do of the territories we inhabit and the conditions that guide their transformation are different. It is therefore important to rethink our idea of the city and the role of urbanism in transforming the environment we inhabit.

Mandatory literature

ASCHER, François, PORTAS, Nuno (pref.); Novos Princípios do Urbanismo, seguido de Novos Compromissos Urbanos, um léxico, Livros Horizonte, 2010
GRAVAGNUOLO, Benedetto ; La progettazione urbana in Europa, 1750-1960: storia e teorie, Laterza, 1991
HALL, Peter; Cities of Tomorrow. An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century, Blackwell, 1990
KOSTOF, Spiro; The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History, Thames and Hudson, 1991
KOSTOF, Spiro; The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History, Thames and Hudson, 1992
SECCHI, Bernardo; Prima lezione di urbanística, Laterza, 2017

Comments from the literature

Note: The bibliography will be developed with specific references regarding the themes of each class, included in the corresponding summaries.
The complementary bibliography can be found in the "Documents" folder in this window.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Theoretical classes will be taught in order to introduce themes to the discipline program, observing examples related to diverse contexts and practices, using bibliographical references and selected graphic supports.
The compact format of the course aims mainly a first framework of the main disciplinary correlations, in view of the orientation of subsequent studies on the part of the students.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Trabalho de campo	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Estudo autónomo	40,00
Frequência das aulas	42,00
Trabalho de campo	20,00
Trabalho de investigação	20,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

The evaluation will be weighted with information from (1) Report of experimental case studiy (group) in the end of the first semester (2) A written paper, also in team work, in the end of second semester.

Works will be submitted through the Moodle platform of the UP and evaluated in the scale 1/20. Final evaluation will be the average of the two works.

Calculation formula of final grade

Field work and case study repport (50%) Written Paper (50%) 

Evaluation criteria:

• Pertinence of choice and delimitation of case, diversity and accuracy of data and its analysis, objectivity of interpretation, originality of critical arguments, quality of results, economy of media.

 

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

In accordance with applicable regulations.

Classification improvement

Improvement of distributed classification may be required by students with minimum  of 8 in the average of the two works in the results exhibited before the 30th of June. A new and reviewed submission ofone of the works may be demanded to the professor to be presented no further than three working days previous of the publication of final results regulated by academic schedule.

 

Observations

According to the evolution of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and depending on the guidelines that may be issued by the General Directorate of Health, there may be changes to the operating regime of classroom presential times.