Crucial Aspects of Urban Projects

The course explores the origins, concepts and dominant paradigms of contemporary urban projects, in light of the unique tradition of urban design explored in Barcelona since the 1980s. The module introduces critical discussions on the multiple design and management strategies that are shaping the new fragments of the city: from urban composition to the role of data-based decisions, from spatial ideas to social collaborative thinking, from abstract conceptualizations to materiality, from metropolitan scope to the bottom-up approach, from urban form to activities and flows.

The course is organized in a series of theoretical lessons, seminars, on-site visits to relevant projects in Barcelona and several design-oriented assignments focused on complex urban projects. The aim of the course is to provide a theoretical background on urban design, to build a comprehensive atlas of relevant references and to test key design and analytical tools to approach projects in urban contexts.