URBAN TRANFORMATIONS

The course provides students with a coherent understanding of urbanism and the built environment. Case studies are discussed in details in order to provide students insights in different topics. Basic Understanding of urban transformation through the centuries and their connection with social-economic Issues; in three dimensions - theories, realities, and practices. Organic and geometrical urban grid. Middle ages, rennaisance, outopian cities. 19th centuries interventions. Prewar and postwar urban units. Functional urbanism. Superblocks, suburbs, new towns, grandes ensembles, urban sprawl, post industrial cities, urban regeneration, seafront recovery, urban void, new urban landscapes. Master plans and urban legislation in Greece. Zoning, land use, heights. Concept of green cities, smart cities. Future cities.

Objectives

The general learning outcome is to gain an advanced understanding of the inner logics of urban form and design and thus to gain practical experience. These will enable students to tackle complex urban challenges, and to synthesize their knowledge into a design project. The students will gain knowledge on contemporary urban transformation processes and context-based design methods. The learning objective is to analyze, comprehend and interpret urban topics, contexts and tasks. In the lab the students are assigned to develop complex urban projects, by critically reflecting and integrating relevant design criteria such as mobility, public space, landscape, urban structure, morphology, density, scale, spatial composition, building typology, uses and phased development. The students will apply design and working tools such as sketching, analysis and site mapping and visualizations. They will improve their presentation and documentation techniques and learn to communicate with urban authorities, actors and experts.

Prerequisites

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Syllabus

Lesson 1 Introductory concepts. Urban space and outer ring. Urban fabric (urban fabric, urban tissue). Towns and cities. Street, square, building islet. Brief description of the course modules. Lesson 2 Organic tissues in both cases. Organic growth of settlements and the gradual (without predefined rules and spatial planning) transformation in cities. Designed new cities without linear tissue. Organic tissues in different historical periods: the prehistoric times (Mesopotamia, Greece), Archaic period (Greece), Middle Ages (Europe), Ottoman period (Balkans), Arabic period (southwest Europe), suburban garden cities (20th c.). The organic tissues, although complex, exhibiting stable nuclei: squares (bazaars), citadel, palaces. LESSON 3 Linear Tissues: compose a geometric regular grid of horizontal and vertical axes (roads). Linear tissues as a phenomenon of all historical periods (from prehistoric times to present). Linear tissues as products villager schediamou. Hippodameia cities (Miletus, Priene, Piraeus, Pergamum, Olynthos, Demetrias, Antioch etc.). Roman town and mnimeiopoiisi streets, medieval walled cities, Ideal New Towns (Renaissance), urbanism Baroque 17th-18th century (radial axes gigantic scale, symmetry). New cities in America. Utopian urbanism (Claude Ledoux), Napoleonic cities. Urbanism of neoclassicism. Interventions of Haussmann in Paris, the movement Beautiful City. H idea of ​​housing unit (Radburn NY-1929). Suburban garden cities / Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902). Camillo Sitte. LESSON 4 Urban modernism (or functional urbanism). The idea of ​​the linear city / Cite Industrielle (Tony Garnier). The first texts / Ville Contemporaine (Le Corbusier). The dominance of the car. The superblocks. The Charter of Athens. Separation land use. Zoning. LESSON 5 The newest Greek urbanism. H urbanism during the period of Kapodistrias (1828-1831). Urban projects during the period of Otto (1833-1862) onwards. The design of Athens (Kleanthis, Shaubert). The redesign of Thessaloniki after the fire of 1917. The Agency for Reconstruction Eastern Macedonia. Refugee Settlements. The interwar suburbs of Athens. The possession. The reconstruction and K. Doxiadis. The program of the OEK. Development of tourism. The maintenance of Plaka and the traditional settlements. Organized Programs Building. Summary-compared to Europe, prospects. LESSON 6 The planning of modernism after the Second World War. The example of Brazilia. O New Cities (New Towns) in England. Drawn suburban extensions (Sweden), grandes ensemples (France), Urban Sprawl. Reconstruction in the developing world. Challenging conventional housing units: TEAM 10, Chr. Alexander .. The urban focus in major regeneration programs. Rejuvenation (regeneration) of urban centers. Urban galaxy .. LESSON 7 Postmodern urbanism. The collapse of global visions. New critical urban planning issues. Perceptual theories about the organization of space. The coexistence of old and new interaction. Mixing uses and multiple motion models. Back to locality. New Urbanism: the idea of ​​a new type of organic design. Participatory planning, Compact City (environmentally sustainable city), Smart / Intelligent City, escape from the urban space, a-spatial society. LESSON 8 Planning Law in Modern Greece. The first pieces of legislation (1835-1867). The first systematic instrument (N. 08.10.1923). Laws 374/1929, 947/1979, 1337/1983, 2508/1997. Regulatory and Interventional Legislation, Town Planning tools: SPA, ZAA, ZOE, FTA, Zeck. Urban planning parameters: residential density, building factor, crowding index. Lesson 9 Air spaces in the city. Parks, gardens, squares. Typologies. Landscape Architecture. The movement of the parks. Famous parks. Central Park (NY), Parc Citroen, Parc la Vilette, de Bercy (Paris). National Garden (Athens). Typologies Greek squares. M.C. urban green in various European and Greek cities. Application analysis as the Athens Green. Modern trends. Lesson 10 Spatial models and typologies academic campus. Examples from the Greek experience: master plans, diffuse urban location, entrenched model. The role of design. Technological, scientific or research campus. Themed amusement parks. Lesson 11 Transformations urban gaps (urban void): recovery of abandoned areas (inactive industrial sites, camps, old ports, airports, railway stations). Examples: Greek, Tsalapatas (Volos). Regeneration of historical centers and integration of new uses, particularly cultural and subordinate. Examples: Potsdamen Platz, Museum Island (Berlin), Museum Quarter (Vienna). Taking great events of the cities: Olympics, ECHPO. Recover coastal fronts. Examples: Faliron Delta, Thessaloniki Beach, Limassol, Bilbao, Valenthia. Lesson 12 New Urban Landscapes. The creation of a new public space in the interior multifunctional spaces such as stations, airports, shopping centers. Examples: EuraLille, JFK, Frankfurt Airports. New centralized urbanization: Athens, Cosmos Mall. Town and globalization. Global City. city ​​and boundaries, city and literature, city and cinema.