Theory and Principles of Urban Design

CPLN6600 is a two-course unit studio. It is intended as the first comprehensive exposure to the principles and processes of urban design for MCP students, and it is a required course for students in Urban Design concentration. This studio uses an incremental approach to explore contemporary practice of urban design. The semester consists of three sections: a site survey, an individual design project, and a group design project. The projects are organized around several themes associated with different scales and different dimensions of urban design: 1) street/block; 2) open space; 3) mobility and walkability; 4) urban form and ecology. This cross-scale method draws on essential theories of urbanism to investigate the interrelation between built environment and community development, and to address the issues of environmental and social sustainability of a postindustrial metropolis.