LA223G-PLANNING AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY: PLANNING AND DESIGN OF CITY LANDSCAPES

SPRING 2015 - Rhode Island SCHOOL OF DESIGN . GRADUATE LEVEL . TAUGHT WITH NADINE GERDTS . FACULTY

This course is a core component of RISD’s Landscape Architecture program, designed to build skills in understanding the forces at work in the public realm of cities. How cities are shaped by and evolve through “bottom up” and “top down” systems of planning, design and modes of living will be studied while distilling the impacts of current trends in urban design and planning and the ramifications of decisions made in decades and centuries past. You will refine your skills in understanding urban places by learning to look in new ways and to make critical observations of patterns of occupation and the cultural, environmental and political systems at work in those places. With a focus on the experiential and material qualities of urban landscapes, we will work to make sense of how people use the built environment and what role landscape architects, architects, planners, political players and the everyday urban dweller have in shaping the places we inhabit. We will examine great urban spaces and commonplace neighborhood fabric with a range of lenses, identifying the influences that changing economic realities, cultural patterns and societal goals play in city building.

Understanding how complex natural systems and built infrastructure are layered together is critical to building a more resilient and livable future. We will frame and raise questions raised about urban futures as we conduct field research in cities close at hand (Boston, Providence, and Central Falls) and use case studies from across the globe to broaden our strategic toolkits for the design of more sustainable and livable places.

Issues in Planning and Cultural Geography provides a forum for discussing the role landscape architecture plays in the broader field of urban design and planning and will also function as workshop in which you will define and sharpen your own ways of getting to the heart of issues affecting urban systems. The success of the class is dependent on each of you asking deep questions of the places you encounter through both first hand observations and your readings and research. The intention of a seminar is to have substantial discussions with plenty of “back and forth” between students and your faculty colleagues. This means that you need to read, research and observe carefully and probe the physical, cultural and historical context of the places you are asked to investigate. Our urban fieldwork will take us to the city of Boston’s edges where exciting work is occurring within ecologically, culturally and historically complex neighborhoods. We will look carefully at the overlay of natural systems, movement infrastructure, open space and architecture to understand design and planning challenges and opportunities in Boston. This local work will provide a valuable framework with which to compare and contrast case studies examples drawn from other cities grappling with parallel questions impacting the landscapes of contemporary urban life: shifting economies bringing rapid growth or population shrinkage, resource disparity and the call for equity, climate adaptability, environmental quality and population health.