CALENDAR

CLASS TEXTBOOK:
David Grahame Shane, Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design
and City Theory, London, Academy Press, 2005.
FURTHER READINGS: as per specific assignments, readings will be accessible on line.
This course will survey a number of cities from the 15th century to recent times, non-chronologically, in view
of broader weekly themes
“There are also probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places—places that do exist and
that are formed in the very founding of society—which are something like counter-sites, a kind of
effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the
culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are outside of
all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places
are absolutely different from all sites they reflect and speak about, I shall call them heterotopias.”
Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias” 1964 cited in Shane, Recombinant Urbanism,
231.
WEEK 0.
Wednesday September 1. Reflections on the City.
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: “What is City Theory?” 1.1-1.3
WEEK 1:
Monday September 6, CHOOSE: ASSIGNMENT 1. FROM A LIST OF CITIES PROVIDED
BELOW, CHOSE ONE AND WRITE A BRIEF 500 WORD HISTORY OF THE CITY FROM ITS ORIGINS TO
PRESENT. DUE SEPTEMBER. 13.
MAKING the City Identikit. Cities can be studied as artifacts, (urban context, roads, centers, public spaces
and architecture), as the structures supporting the social-economic fabric (trade, class, immigration, daily
life, urban culture), and through creative representation, (manifestations of urban identity: humanities,
poetry, prose, cinema, dance, photography, etc.,) Each student will be expected to track their assigned city
over the course of the semester, diagramming, mapping, developing a bibliography, image library, and
updating historical sources and current events. Assignment 1 will be the basis for the project paper for final
grading. ALL STUDENT CHOICES OR ALTERNATIVE PROPOSALS MUST BE PRE-APPROVED BY THE
INSTRUCTOR.
CITY ROSTER: Rome, Istanbul, Cairo, Teheran, Bagdad, Jerusalem, Beijing, Athens, Mexico City,
New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, Quebec, New Delhi, Mumbai, St. Petersburg, Paris,
Madrid, Berlin, London, Casablanca, Brasilia, Canberra, Capetown, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro…
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Mumford, on the City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5b_59mls4M
Mumford “The City” 1939 (excerpts)
http://vimeo.com/3580199
http://vimeo.com/3579544
on the making of the Mumfordʼs “The City:”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDmRTiPc-Y
Wednesday September 8:
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: “City Theory and City Design” 1.4- 1.4.6
Routes, Communications, Networks
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II / translated from the
French by Siân Reynolds see “Role of the Environment” link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=yAMe0bu3Jt4C&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onpage&q&f=false
The Silk Road
Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: a history of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age …
http://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=silk+road&hl=en&ei=BoAdTIjH
FoKKlwf3ydXwDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q&f=f
alse
Julie Hill, The Silk Road Revisited: Markets, Merchants and Minarets
http://books.google.com/books?id=zsYdMhR0fJsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=silk+road&hl=en&ei=4oEdTL_3
OoWBlAeDpcCRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q&f
=false
WEEK 2.
Monday September 13. FIRST CITY ASSIGNMENT DUE.
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
PORTRAYING THE CITY, CINE 1,: from Ruttmannʼs Berlin Symphony to Reggioʼs
Koyaanisqatsi.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City Walter Ruttmann, director, 1927.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ej84nN1WcE
Metropolis, Fritz Lang, director, 1927.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5keBI_wk4g&feature=channel
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. Godfrey Reggio, 1982.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirH8PADDgQ
(opening)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrQMB_xcDSE&NR=1
Wednesday September 15. Town and Country
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: “What is Urban Design?” 2.1- 2.1.2
FURTHER READINGS:
Lewis Mumford, The City in History 1961.
http://books.google.com/books?id=q0NNgjY03DkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mumford+the+city+in+history&
hl=en&ei=Sw0dTOq7LcPflgfS6tW4Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v
=onepage&q&f=false
Merchant City States, the rise of the Merchant Class: READINGS: Henri Pirenne “City Origins” in Medieval
cities; their origins and the revival of trade, tr. from the French by Frank D. Halsey Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1925, see link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=TKUN4UdfVaQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_book_other_versions
#v=onepage&q&f=false
Max Weber, Chapter 1, the Nature of the City, in The City, New York, Free Press, 1975,
WEEK 3.
Monday September 20 LITERATURE, PULP FICTION AND COMICS:
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS: Dante, Proust, Kafka, JG Ballard, and Art Spiegelman (specific excerpts
TBA)
Wednesday September 22 Renaissance City
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 2.1.3- 2.2.4
FURTHER READINGS:
Philip James Jones, The Italian city-state: from commune to signoria, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997.
See link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=rcR2pk4lknQC&pg=PA1&dq=city+state+history+italy&hl=en&ei=
sE0aTKq1LofKNdbjjeAF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onep
age&q=city%20state%20history%20italy&f=false
WEEK 4.
Monday September 27, MUSIC,
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Classic concert, Pop, Disco, Punk, Rap and Techno, Elevator Music,
Wednesday September 29. Fortified Cities, Bastion cities, Ideal Cities, The Rise
of Utopian Cities
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: “Three Urban Elements” 3.1
FURTHER READINGS:
Vitruvius Ten Books on Architecture
http://books.google.com/books?id=Vyzg2CAoP7UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=architecture%20treatise&sourc
e=gbs_book_other_versions#v=onepage&q=architecture%20treatise&f=false
Di Bernd Evers,Christof Thoenes, Kunstbibliothek Architectural theory: from the Renaissance to the present
(Berlin, Germany Taschen, 2003)
http://books.google.it/books?id=1wT5nGveyo0C&pg=RA1-PA128&lpg=RA1-
PA128&dq=treatise++architecture&source=bl&ots=_nzJ8Vi2U7&sig=01uFl2H6o6KDyphWgM3udS2XGr0&hl
=it&ei=t6dVTJmOJeLsQbn9O3iAQ&
sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=treatie%20%20architecture&f=false
http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/collection/324-the-geometry-of-defense-fortifications-treatises-and-manuals
WEEK 5.
Monday October 4,
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
PLAYS: from Anton Chekov, Berthold Brecht, Genet
Bertold Brecht Three Penny Opera. composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth
Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher.[1] first performed on 31 August 1928 at Berlin’s Theater am
Schiffbauerdamm.
http://books.google.it/books?id=iLl8LCHUi8C&
dq=threepenny+opera&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=it&ei=KD1UTMHnPIKWsQaC5cXiAQ&s
a=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Anton Chekov, Nine Plays
http://books.google.com/books?id=prcC5eVCWlEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=chekov&source=gbs_slider_th
umb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Wednesday Oct 6, The Baroque City:
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Enclave: A preliminary definition: 3.2-
Procession, Festivals, Haussmann, Colonialism..
WEEK 6
Monday October 11, OPERA-SOAP OPERA
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS: Popular operas, opera houses, television, soap operas..
Handel, Mozart, Verdi
TED talks, David Byrne: “How Architecture Helped Music Evolve”
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve.html
Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L’inutile
precauzione) opera buffa i by first performed 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Argentina, Rome
West Side Story based on the book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins. The musical’s plot and story are based on William
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. 1957 production on Broadway New York
West Side Story:
http://www.videodetective.com/titledetails.aspx?PublishedID=474
Wednesday October 13 Guest Lecturer TBA.
WEEK 7.
Monday October 18. MIDTERM PAPERS DUE.
Wednesday October 20. The Rise of the Industrial City.
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Armature: A Preliminary Definition, 3.3
FURTHER READINGS:
Manchester: Marx, Engels, working class history, US: Jacob Riis, How the other Half Lives,
http://books.google.com/books?id=zhcv_oA5dwgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=how+the+other+half+lives&hl=e
n&ei=uO8cTJHYLoGClAfB4tHeDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=o
nepage&q&f=false
WEEK 8:
Monday October 25: urban Spectacles and Performances:
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Street theater, ballet, Surrealist walks, Situationists, Parkours, Skate, Rap Dance
Wednesday October 27: The Enlightenment
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 4.1: A Preliminary Definition of the Heterotopia
FURTHER READINGS: Bentham, Panopticon, Insane Asylum,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
WEEK 9:
Monday November 1. Art as expression
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, neo-Classicism, Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism,
Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract, Minimalism, Pop, etc.
Wednesday November 3. Revolution/Counter Revolution
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 4.2, Recombination in Heterotopias of Crisis and
Deviance.
FURTHER READINGS: TBA
WEEK 10.
Monday November 8. Communications: Printing Press,
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Telegraph, Telephone, Radio, Television, Fax, Internet
Wednesday November 10. Romanticism
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 4.3, Rhizomic Assemblage and Heterotopias of
Illusion
FURTHER READING: Garden cities
WEEK 11.
Monday November 15.
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
CITY CINE 2: tales from the edge, Black Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro) 1959 film
made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. Based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de
Moraes.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=337966
http://www.videodetective.net/flash/players/?customerid=192333&playerid=177&playlistid=0&publishedid=4
585&pversion=4&sub=&videokbrate=1500
The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri) Gillo Pontecorvo. director 1966
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3M2feqJk8
Pepe Le Moko Julien Duvivier, director. 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCD5yJxHb_o
Wednesday November 17. Museums, Zoos and National Monuments
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 4.4 Heterotopias of Illusion and Normative
Models
FURTHER READINGS: Art Forum Summer 2010 http://artforum.com/inprint/issue=201006
Rem Koolhaas, “Many Happy Returns” in Art Forum, Summer 2010
http://artforum.com/inprint/issue=201006&id=25691
WEEK 12.
Monday November 22. DESIGN:
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:
Morris to the Werkbund to the Bauhaus, Ulm School, Radical Design Italy
Wednesday November 24. Bohemianism, the Avant-Garde and 60s Radical
Movements
TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Conclusion, Heterotopias, the Net City, and
Recombinant Urbanism.
FURTHER READINGS: SUPERSTUDIO: LIFE WITHOUT OBJECTS, ARCHIGRAM, ANT FARM
WEEK 13.
Monday November 29. PROJECT DRAFT REVIEWS
Wednesday December 1. TBA