graduate
housing & urbanism
and will develop a theoretical perspective through an engagement with the work of Arendt, Foucault, Sennett and others. Through this perspective students will investigate the relationship of key political concepts to the generation of new urban spatialities.
and living patterns. It will also review the development of ideas about housing form and production.
Critical Urbanism Terms 1 and 2 This course will explore urbanism’s role as an instrument of diagnosis and critique. Beginning with lectures and readings in the first term and building toward a seminar format in the second term, the course explores the ways architecture has generated a range of critical and reflexive responses to the city over the last four decades. Emphasis will be placed on developing students’ ability to critically analyse contemporary urban projects: background readings will include Koolhaas, Rowe, Rossi, Eisenman and Tschumi, extending into present-day writings on postcriticality by Somol and others.
Housing and the Informal City Term 2 This course uses housing as a strategic vehicle for investigating the evolution of ideas and approaches to the informal and irregular processes of city making. In particular, it reviews critically the growing despatialisation of strategies to deal with urban informality and the social conditions associated with it, and explores the role of urbanism and spatial design in addressing those conditions. It draws from the extreme circumstances of irregularity and socio-spatial segregation of the cities of the developing world. With reference to relevant projects and programmes, it attempts to identify appropriate tools and instruments of spatial intervention and design and to examine their articulation through the redesigning of urban institutions and rules.
Shaping the Modern City Terms 1 and 2 This course explores the various national and local strategies evolved by the state to meet the challenge of urban expansion during the twentieth century. Rather than presenting a continuous narrative history, the lectures and seminars will look at key events, projects and texts that illustrate contemporary responses to the opportunities and problems created by growth. The course will focus on post-1945 housing and planning in a number of European and US cities, offering a vantage point from which to consider critical issues such as density, regeneration, mixed-use and new working
Domesticity Term 2 This seminar series explores trends in contemporary multi-residential housing against the background of a discursive formation linking together domesticity and urbanism. Taking Mies van der Rohe’s patio houses of the 1930s and Karel Teige’s 1932 critique of the minimum dwelling as opening counterpoints, this course investigates the broad spatial and political domain upon which the challenge of securing personal autonomy is drawn into engagement with the forces of urban living. The lectures draw on the theoretical and historical writings of Michel Foucault, Jacques Donzelot and Nikolas Rose.
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housing & urbanism Dissertation Seminar Term 3 This seminar is organised around students’ work towards the final dissertation and provides a forum for them to discuss work in progress with members of staff and invited critics.
H&U Directors Jorge Fiori is a sociologist and urban planner. He studied in Chile and has worked in academic institutions there and in Brazil and England. He is a visiting lecturer at several Latin American and European universities, and consultant to international and national urban development agencies. He researches and publishes on housing and urban development, with particular focus on the interplay of spatial strategies and urban social policy. fiori@aaschool.ac.uk Hugo Hinsley is an architect with expertise in housing design, community buildings and urban development projects. He has a wide range of practice experience, mainly in London, and has been a consultant to many projects in Europe, Australia and the US. He is a member of the research committee of Europan, and has taught, lectured and published internationally. Recent research includes London’s design and planning, particularly in Docklands and Spitalfields; urban policy and structure in European cities; and rethinking density for housing and urban development.
H&U Staff Lawrence Barth lectures on urbanism and political theory, and has written on the themes of politics and critical theory in relation to the urban. He practises as a consultant urbanist, most recently collaborating with Zaha Hadid Architects and s333 Studio on large-scale projects. He is engaged in research on urban intensification and innovation environments. Nicholas Bullock studied architecture at Cambridge University and completed a PhD under Leslie Martin. Research on questions of housing and housing reform with a special interest in Germany; on postwar housing design and policy; and on the architecture and planning of reconstruction after World War II. Kathryn Firth is a Senior Associate Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates in London, where she has led many international projects in masterplanning, urban design and urban regeneration. She has been involved in research projects that inform urban design policy and practice, and lectures internationally on issues of urbanism and urban design. She has taught in the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics, and at Harvard GSD, Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Toronto.
graduate
Other Events We will make a study trip to Hamburg in the spring term. Students are encouraged to attend complementary courses offered by other Graduate School programmes and by History & Theory Studies. The programme also invites a number of academics and practitioners from all over the world to contribute to its activities during the year.
Dominic Papa is an architect and urban designer with experience in urban and architectural projects and also on teaching and research. He is a founding partner of s333 Studio for Architecture and Urbanism which has won awards for projects across Europe. He is also a Design Review Panel member for CABE and the West Midlands and has been a jury member for several international competitions. Elena Pascolo trained and practised in the fields of housing, urban planning and policy development, both in South Africa and London. She is a practising architect in London, and is developing research on transactive urbanism and on irregular and informal urban conditions. Alex Warnock-Smith is an architect and urban designer. Alex trained at the University of Cambridge and the Architectural Association, and has a range of experience in practice, teaching and research. His work is broadly concerned with the relationship between social experience and urban space. He has taught at the AA, London Metropolitan University, and London Southbank University. aaschool.ac.uk/hu
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