ARCT40660 Street Life: Urban Design, an Introduction

Academic Year 2023/2024

This module focuses on Street Life and how to improve it. Understanding the delicate balance of engaging across scales (from a room to a city) this module will provide you with a range of methods/tactics to assess places at different scales. The objective is to support your interest in understanding the broader context of urban sites, both physically and socially and the module will include lectures on key urban thinkers and methods for comparative analysis and fieldwork to support your curiosity.

This year, we will work with a community group known as Green Pearse Street so there will be an opportunity to engage, get feedback and hopefully influence policy and improve a street.

Show/hide contentOpenClose All

Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

1. Select a preferred methodology for the analysis of a place from a range of urban design thinkers.
2. Show evidence of in depth research in the assessment of an urban open space.
3. Develop critical appraisal of a place with evidence of fieldwork.
4. Capture findings in a submission that is academically rigorous and visually attractive (This can include visual diagrams, a design component, photos, videos, models, charts, recordings).


Indicative Module Content:

Open to students of architecture, planning and landscape architecture, this module will focus on streetlife and how to improve it. Lectures will draw upon a range of historical and current insights and methods in Urban Design to enable an informed assessment of one street/urban open space.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12
Seminar (or Webinar)

12
Field Trip/External Visits

8
Specified Learning Activities

40
Autonomous Student Learning

40
Total

112
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Roald Dahl’s story of ‘The Giraffe, and the Pelly and Me’ suggests a useful tripartite structure of scales of analysis; The Giraffe, who is vertically advantaged, offers a vantage point or overview from above: Pelly, (the pelican with a voluminous beak) feeds off the field (field-work), and captures the idea of the city as a container of urban open space: Me, represents subjective experience, your personal academic learning journey and reflective writing skills.

These three building blocks conclude with an assignment based on the overview (Giraffe), the close-up (Pelly) and the reflective (Me) tailored to suit your studio work (if possible). Three Continual Assessments will build upon each other towards the summative assessment that applies to the assessment of a particular place.

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Final illustrated essay (builds on other assessments with a focus on visual analysis of fieldwork findings (further briefing in class) Unspecified n/a Graded No

55
Assignment: Participation and engagement in discussions/seminars plus final reflections on the learning experience. Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

15
Assignment: Assessment to demonstrate engagement with the literature on streets, their design and methods in their assessment (further briefing in class) Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded No

15
Fieldwork: Close observation and comparative analysis of streets for in-class presentation (Further briefing in class but may involve stakeholders on the street/public open space) Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

15

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback is given via Brighspace and in person (as required). I have developed a rubric for on-line grading related to learning outcomes. Timing and format to be agreed with the class.

Readings and links to books are available via Brightspace for this module.
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Autumn
      
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - Autumn: All Weeks Wed 11:00 - 12:50