Description:

This course will teach the fundamental principles of designing a city and the public spaces within it. The aim is to help the students to understand the layouts of different cities and to teach them how to recognize the good design solutions as well as the possibly problematic ones. The courses will consist of both lectures and open discussions where the students will learn how to form and express their professional opinions about various aspects of urban design and it will hone their analyzing and critical skills. Overall the course will place significant emphasis on showing and studying real life examples of cities and public spaces from all over the world and researching the contemporary design principles and ideas. Students will also learn about how the urban design can influence the people, their behavior within the city and their life.

The course will be assembled of lectures / seminars in 2 + 0 module and accompanied with field trips / excursions within Prague (showing development in areas of Karlín, Pragovka brownfield and Hanspaulka).

Contents:

1. Introduction, Nature and the City, Urban Values
2. Division of the City
3. Cities and Villages ? Typology and Size Categories
4. Residential Urban Design I ? Family Houses
5. Residential Urban Design II ? Multistorey Buildings
6. Evolution of Public Space
7. Typology of Public Space
8. Manual of Public Spaces
9. New Cities
10. Field Excursion - Friendship Park + Panel Housing
11. Field Excursion - Brownfields in Karlín
12. Field Excursion - Roof, Hanspaulka, Campus, Dejvice
13. Student presentations

Seminar contents:

Working on seminar work - qualified analysis of one big-scale urban project and one public space upon student´s choice.

Recommended literature:

New City Spaces, Jan Gehl, Lars Gemzoe
Cities for People, Jan Gehl
Life Between Buildings, Jan Gehl
The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
Urban Catalyst, Philipp Oswalt, KlauseOvermeyer a Philipp Misselwitz

Keywords:

urban design, city planning, urbanism, city

Abbreviations used:

Semester:

• W ... winter semester (usually October - February)
• S ... spring semester (usually March - June)
• W,S ... both semesters

Mode of completion of the course:

• A ... Assessment (no grade is given to this course but credits are awarded. You will receive only P (Passed) of F (Failed) and number of credits)
• GA ... Graded Assessment (a grade is awarded for this course)
• EX ... Examination (a grade is awarded for this course)
• A, EX ... Examination (the award of Assessment is a precondition for taking the Examination in the given subject, a grade is awarded for this course)

Weekly load (hours per week):

• P ... lecture
• C ... seminar
• L ... laboratory
• R ... proseminar
• S ... seminar