urban design theory

The Dérive

The course is organized along a datum or continuum of fundamental concepts -- essentially one long lecture -- but throughout the course there will be a deliberate, often radical disruption of this continuum with contemporary and asynchronous matters that face architects and urban designers in the 21st century. This format will be, I hope like any urban situation and might be best explained as Situationist Guy Dibord described as a "dérive" which is a relatively "unplanned journey through an urban landscape in which participants drop their everyday relations and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there". Your journey is similar to an urban experience: somewhat planned but mixed with the unexpected, it is not overly orchestrated, artificial, sanitized, simplistic experience but a hopefully a rich, compelling and, stimulating life-experience.

The "dérive" will occur in two significant ways:

1) The most common way will be asynchronous relationships of historic concepts and forms in subsequent, even contemporary, architecture and urban form. For example, I may discuss the relationship of 16th century Spanish colonial towns with late 20th-century New Urbanism.

2) The most significant interjections will be guest lecturers who will speak to contemporary architectural and urban design matters. The lecturers are design professionals and educators who will interject contemporary issues that I hope will link the past to the present and future. This "disruption" may not be comfortable but that is the nature of a dynamic architectural and urban experience: You never know what you might find around the corner. The information, concepts, etc. introduced in guest lectures will be part of exams, sketchbooks and final projects.