This seminar offers a critical introduction to major theories of urbanism to ask how architects help imagine and shape contemporary cities. 
 
We will reflect on ‘the urban imaginary’ by examining how cities are defined through material forces, social acts, political directives and market exchanges, as well as historically informed ideas about what defines ‘the city.’ To do this, we will ask how urbanism’s response to current predicaments such as social inequity, climate change and post-capitalism is entangled with legacy concepts about settlement, industrialization, and modernization. 
 
This course will focus on three themes, spending four weeks on each to unpack their historic contexts and counter-narratives. “Property” will look at the way land has been parceled, zoned and reconfigured—from the Jeffersonian Grid to what Rem Koolhaas called the culture of congestion. “Equity” will review legacies of red-lining and Urban Renewal in post-war American cities with an assessment of housing policy and dynamics of gentrification led by contemporary networks of advocacy and bureaucracy. And “Economy” will examine how cities enable the distribution of wealth and consumption of resources by studying real estate development, Neoliberal planning, counter-cultural Utopias, and counter-tactics. 
 
Urban Imaginaries is ½ seminar and ½ workshop. In seminar sessions, students will write short responses to medium-sized readings and contribute to class discussion. In workshop sessions, students will make one presentation on a contemporary case study related to one of the themes, and then develop their findings to create a  book cataloging related architectural and urban design strategies. Students will develop their ability to link critical and speculative methods of analysis, honing writing and reasoning skills in relationship to graphic and spatial interpretation skills.

Visit Workday to view this information.