Class Urban and Territorial Analysis

The course unit aims to develop in students the following knowledge of: i) Urban Morphology as the study of the physical form of the city, and the agents and transformation processes; ii) the diversity of urban forms in different temporal and geographical contexts; iii) a set of theories, concepts, methods, and techniques for dealing with the physical form of cities; iv) the physical dimension as one of the several dimensions of urban life. The relevance of this course unit within the Study Plan lies in its contribution to the multidisciplinary pedagogical programme, the central role of Design/Project work, and the horizontal coordination of course units within each academic year, as well as the vertical coordination across scientific areas. The course unit also contributes to the progressive acquisition of knowledge of a range of research methodologies that will be applied in the following semester. Enrolment in the course unit is conditional upon the prior completion of 240 ECTS credits.

Not applicable

i) The elements of urban form: urban tissues, natural context, streets, plots, and buildings; ii) The agents and processes of urban transformation; iii) The history of urban form: the Greek city, the Roman city, the Medieval city, the Renaissance city, the Baroque city, the nineteenth-century city, and the cities of the twentieth century; iv) Contemporary urban forms; v) Different approaches to the study of urban form: the historico-geographical approach (Conzenian School), the process typological approach (Muratorian School), space syntax, and spatial analysis (cellular automata, agent-based models, and fractal analysis); vi) From scientific research to professional practice; vii) Relationships with different fields of knowledge.

This course unit, as well as the Study Plan in which it is embedded, is supported by an innovative student-centred teaching and learning process. This focus on the student is reflected in a teaching approach based primarily on individual guidance and on an assessment process jointly developed by the teachers of the academic year, with the aim of evaluating the student's acquisition of competences and learning outcomes.

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