CHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE
AND URBAN DESIGN —
PROF. KEES CHRISTIAANSE

TEACHING

ELECTIVE COURSE FS16 SEMINAR

Positions on Form in the Urban Design Discourse

In this seminar we will take a journey through different positions concerning form in the post-1968 urban design discourse with special regard to the reciprocal relationships between material space and human operations. We will read and discuss early post-modern concepts of form, inspired by spatial hierarchies and patterns, as well as theories that qualify form through its performance, its social-material relations or operations of its emergence.

Few positions as teaser:

• Kevin Lynch (1981) defines the form of a city as the spatial arrangement of people doing different „things“. This definition comprises both the social activities and the physical features that encompass and modify them. This relational interpretation allows the author to discuss the performance of the city‘s form, such as its vitality, accessibility or sensibility. 

• Fumihiko Maki (1961) also argues for strong relations between all the layers of activity and the physical form of the city, claiming that their linkage is the act by which one unites the two in what he calls a group form. 

• According to Aldo Rossi (1984) an urban artifact is not a mere physical element of the city but rather an object with individuality that depends more on its form than material. They are complex entities that develop over space and time, gain historical richness through the sum of all related experiences and memories, and can house various functions while maintaining their specific original values.

• This duality of physical objects and relations impregnates most theories on the city‘s form, including more recent positions, such as Manuel de Sola Morales‘ (2008) understanding of urban form as materialization of the density and diversity of relationships between people, other living creatures and physical „things“.

What we will do:

Following an introductory lecture, we will discuss one text each week and confront the different positions they represent with each other. Accordingly, participants will be expected to read one short text each week, to once prepare and hold a 15-minute presentation of a text and to actively participate in the discussions. Optionally, position papers can be written after the semester as elective theses. A reader with selected texts and short thematic introductions will be provided.

Classes: Thursdays, 5–7 PM 

Room: HIL D 60.1

Introduction: Thursday, 25.2.2016, 5 PM

Language: German / English

Participants: Max. 30

MyStudies: 051-0668-16L

ECTS: 3 credit points

Contact: Daniel Kiss