SO448     
City Design: Research Studio

This information is for the 2016/17 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Suzanne Hall TW2 8.01B

Availability

This course is compulsory on the MSc in City Design and Social Science. This course is not available as an outside option.

Course content

The City Design Research Studio is the central unit of the MSc programme, linking the critical issues raised in the core and optional lecture courses, including questions of power and social justice, with the practical analysis of issues of city design and proposals for urban intervention. This course promotes a practical understanding of the city as a social and built environment. Through a mixed-methods engagement with site-based issues, the research studio explores the different ways city design relates to policy formation, planning processes, legal frameworks, financing mechanisms, local forms of organisation and the emerging needs of complex urban societies. It will provide students with an appreciation of the complexities of urban design and development processes, and with interdisciplinary tools for addressing specific urban challenges. The course addresses design as both informed and imaginative modes of research and practice that shapes urban environments, responds to urban problems, and connects visual, social and material dimensions of the city. It aims to integrate the physical, economic, social and political aspects of urban contexts, and develop ways to analyse these visually, textually and verbally. The studio-based approach to learning is an immersion in site-based research and experimental, strategic and pragmatic forms of design intervention.

Teaching

The Studio course runs for one full day each teaching week in MT and LT through lectures, workshops and regular small-group tutorials; additional specialist seminars and workshops are scheduled throughout the Studio course. Studio groups are expected to work together during the scheduled Studio hours, and prepare collectively for regular workshops and tutorials. In MT, the Studio course focuses on methods and approaches of social and spatial research and analysis. In LT, Studio groups work intensively on a detailed analysis of a specific urban context, and develop a practical proposal for intervention in that site. 

Formative coursework

Group presentations for faculty and guest critics. 1 x research presentation and site analysis. (MT)

Assessment

Other (50%) and other (50%).

The assessment consists of one Studio portfolio (50%) and an individual tutor assessment (50%).

Student performance results

(2012/13 - 2014/15 combined)

Classification % of students
Distinction 34.7
Merit 62.5
Pass 2.8
Fail 0

Key facts

Department: Sociology

Total students 2015/16: 19

Average class size 2015/16: Unavailable

Controlled access 2015/16: No

Value: One Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Leadership
  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Application of numeracy skills
  • Commercial awareness
  • Specialist skills