12_gsd3241_syllabus

7/24/2019 12_GSD3241_Syllabus

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Harvard Graduate School of Design

GSD 3241 - Theories of Landscape as Urbanism, Landscape as Infrastructure 1

Landscape as Urbanism, Landscape as InfrastructureInstructor: Pierre Bélanger, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

Teaching Fellows: Marikka Maile Trotter - PhD Candidate, Daniel Daou - DDes Candidate

Teaching Assistant: Jana VanderGoot

Schedule: Fridays, 1-4pm

Room: Gund 111 (War Room)

Responding to current environmental pressures, mobile populations and decaying infrastructures, this course brings

together a series of influential thinkers from the design commons across North America to unravel the complexity of

urbanization through different processes, patterns and practices. Organized by a range of subjects and readings,

guest presentations and lectures focus on the field of landscape that - together with the emergence of ecology and

revival of geography worldwide – is challenging the laissez-faire dogma of neo-liberalist economics, Fordist forms of

civil engineering, Taylorist modes of scientific management, and Euclidean planning policies that marked the past

century, to propose contemporary methods, models and measures of large scale, long range design for the 21st

century.

In response to the overexertion of civil engineering, and the inertia of urban planning vis-a-vis the pace of urban

change, coupled with the exhaustion of the environmental lobby, the first segment of the course opens a horizon on

pressing issues facing urban regions today to recast the infrastructural and geospatial role of landscape as base

operating system for future urbanism. From Geddes to Gottmann, Mackaye to Mumford, Olmsted to Odum, the

second segment of the course re-examines a series of influential projects, paradigms and practices to trace a cross-section through the history of urbanization and track the trajectory of decentralization as one of the greatest forces to

shape the 21st century. Drawing from an array of pressing urban challenges around the world, the course concludes

with student-led mapping projects that focus on the landscape of decentralization through patterns of transboundary

urbanization, in regions where, according to the United Nations, more than 70% of the world population will be living

by the year 2030.

Foreshadowing the preeminence of urban ecologies for future economies and infrastructures, the motive of the

course is to construct a clear and contemporary discourse on urbanization as the field of landscape becomes the

locus of intellectual, ecological and economic change, globally.

This course is an advanced offering from the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology concentration of the

Advanced Studies Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

D i s t r i b u t i on o

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n s p or t a t i on an d w a t er s y s t em s .

S o ur c e: O P S Y S , a d a p t e d f r om N A S A - U ni t e d S t a t e s G e ol o g i c al S ur v e y ,2 0 0 9 .

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Landscape as Urbanism, Landscape as Infrastructure

GSD 3241 - Course Overview - Topics, Assignments, Guest Speakers at a Glance

Wk Date Topic Lectures & Guest PresentationsTerm

Proje

P r e c o n d i t i o n s & P

r o c e s s e s

1 Sep.7 The Field of Landscape Introduction: ‘The Urban Bomb, The Infrastructure Boom’

2 Sep.14 The Strategy of Urbanization'Problématique ou Stratégie?

Limits & Footprints, Patterns & Processes, Densities & Gradients' A-1 Int

3 Sep.21 Regionalization 'Plans & Profiles, Systems & Networks, Sheds & Regions' A-1 Q&

4 Sep.28 Ecological Emergence

'Network Ecologies'

Keller Easterling, Professor, Yale School of Architecture

‘Complexity, Process & Adaptation ‘

Nina-Marie Lister, Associate Professor of Urban & Regional

Planning, Ryerson University

'Redefining Landscape'

Jane Wolff, Director of Landscape Architecture Program & Associate

Professor, University of Toronto A1 Du

I n f r a s t r u c t u r a l E c o l o g i e s

5 Oct.5 Redefining Infrastructure

'Beyond Engineering:

Soft Systems, Landscape Economies & Infrastructural Ecologies' A2 Int

6 Oct.12 Water'From Hydraulic Civilizations to Estuarine Economies:

Flows, Dynamics & Residues of Urban Hydrologies' A2 Q&

7 Oct.19 Waste'From Wastesheds to Foodsheds:

Logistics of Processing, Manufacturing & Accumulation' A2 Du

8 Oct.26 Decentralization

From Sub-Urbanization to Super-Urbanization:

’Sprawl: A Compact History’Robert Bruegman, Professor of Art History & Urban Planning at the

University of Illinois–Chicago

'The Global Decline of Urban Densities’

Solly Angel, New York University Wagner

‘Planetary Urbanization'Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, Harvard GSD A3 Int

9 Nov.2 Energy'From Resource Urbanism to the Geographies of Power:

Fuels & Resources, Systems & Networks' A3 Q&

10 Nov.9 Mobility'From Linear Cities to Fiber Cities:

Speed & Movement, Modes & Logistics, Surfaces & Subsurfaces' A3 Du

P r o j e c t i o

n s

11 Nov.16 The Landscape of Urbanization

Paradigms, Practices, Projections:

'Planning, Ecology and the Emergence of Landscape'

Charles Waldheim, Chair, Landscape Architecture, GSD

‘Public Work Practices’

Chris Reed, STOSS, Adjunct Associate Professor, GSD

'Infrastructural Networks & Continental Urbanization'

Felipe Correa, Director, Urban Design Program, GSD

A4, A

Intro

12 Nov.23 Thanksgiving (no class) -

13 Nov.30 Al ti tudes of Urbanization Conclusion: 'Forces, Flows, Fields, Formations'

A4, A

Interim

Dec.19 Term Project Digital Submission A1-A

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SCHEDULE Lectures, Readings, Assignments

Week Date Topics, Guest Speakers & Readings

1 Sep. 7 The Field of Landscape

Bélanger, Pierre. “Landscape as Infrastructure” in Landscape Journal 28 (Spring2009): 79-95.

Mumford, Lewis. “The Renewal of the Landscape” in The Brown Decades: A Study ofthe Arts of America, 1865-1895 (New York: Dover Publications, 1931): 75-106.

Koolhaas, Rem. “Whatever Happened to Urbanism?” in S, M, L, XL (New York:Monacelli Press, 1995): 958-971.

Dal Co, Francesco. “From Parks to the Region: Progressive Ideology and the Reformof the American City” in The American City: From the Civil War and the New Deal,edited by Giorgio Cucci, Francesco Dal Co, Mario Manieri-Elia and Manfredo Tafuri(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979): 143-292.

Corner, James. “Aerial Representation & The Making of Landscape” in TakingMeasure across the American Landscape by James Corner & Alex S. Mclean (NewHaven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996): 15-20.

2 Sep.14 The Strategy of Urbanization

Mumford, Lewis. "The Natural History of Urbanization" in Man's Role in the Changingthe Face of the Earth, edited by William L. Thomas, Jr. (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1956): 382-398.

Wirth, Louis. "Urbanism as a Way of Life" is Cities and Society, edited by Paul K. Hattand Albert J. Reiss, Jr. (Glencoe Ill.: Free Press, 1957): 62-62.

Nelson, Robert H. “Zoning Myth and Practice - from Euclid into the Future” in Zoningand the American Dream edited by Jerold Kayden and Charles M. Haar (Chicago, IL.:Planners Press, 1989): 299-318.

Geddes, Patrick. “The Evolution of Cities” in Cities in Evolution: an introduction to thetown planning movement and to the study of civics (London, UK: Williams and Norgate,1915): 1-24.

3 Sep.21 Regionalization

Bélanger, Pierre. "Regionalization: Probing the Urban Future of the Great Lakes

Region", JOLA Journal of Landscape Architecture, Fall 2010): 37-48.

Boyer, M. Christine. "The Rise of the Planning Mentality" in Dreaming the Rational City:The Myth of American City Planning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983): 59-82

Odum, Howard W. & Harry Estill Moore. "The Rise & Incidence of AmericanRegionalism" in American Regionalism: A Cultural-Historical Approach to NationalIntegration (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1938): 3-34.

4 Sep.28 Ecological Emergence

Easterling, Keller. "Network Ecology", Landscapes - Felix Journal of Media Arts &

Communication 2 No.1 (1995): 258-265.

Wolff, Jane. “Redefining Landscape” in The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and

Persuasion edited by Tim Culvahouse (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007):

52-63.

Lister, Nina-Marie. "Hybrid Ecologies", Interview by ASLA's Jared Green, (2011)

Von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. “The History and Status of General Systems Theory” inTrends in General Systems Theory edited by George J. Klir (New York: WileyInterscience Press, 1972): 21-41.

*Guests: Keller Easterling, Nina-Marie Lister, Jane Wolff

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5 Oct.5 Redefining Infrastructure

Bélanger, Pierre. "Redefining Infrastructure" in Ecological Urbanism edited by MohsenMostafavi and Gareth Doherty (Baden, Sweden: Lars Müller Publishers, 2010): 332-349.

Picon, Antoine. "Engineers and Engineering History: Problems and Perspectives",History and Technology, Vol. 20, No. 4, (December 2004): 421–436.

Grigg, Neil S. et al. "Civil Engineering: History, Heritage, and Future" in CivilEngineering Practice in the Twenty-First Century: Knowledge and Skills for Design andManagement (Reston VA: ASCE Press, 2001): 13-44.

Koolhaas, Rem. “Bigness or the Problem of Large” in S,M,L,XL (New York: MonacelliPress, 1995): 494-517.

6 Oct.12 Water Flows, Dynamics & Residues of Urban Hydrologies

Barles, Sabine. "The Nitrogen Question", Journal of Urban History 33 (2007): 794.

Picon, Antoine. “Constructing Landscape by Engineering Water” in Landscape Archi-tecture in Mutation: Essays on Urban Landscapes by Institute for Landscape Architec-ture, ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland: gta Verlag, 2005), 99-114.

Melosi, Martin. "Pure and Plentiful: from Protosystems to Modern Water Works",“Subterranean Networks: Wastewater Systems as Works in Progress" in The SanitaryCity: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present (Baltimore:John Hopkins University Press, 2000): 50-68.

Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. “The Battle for Public Development and Remaking the Ten-nessee Valley” in The Coming of the New Deal, 1933-1935 (Boston, MA: HoughtonMifflin, 2003): 319-334.

Wolman, Abel. "The Metabolism of Cities", Scientific American Vol. 213 No.3 (1965):178-193.

7 Oct.19 Waste Logistics of Accumulation, Cycling & Surplus

Berger, Alan. "The Production of Waste Landscape" and "Post-Fordism: Waste

Landscape through Accumulation" in Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America (New

York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 46-52, 53-75.

Waldheim, Charles and Alan Berger. "Logistics Landscape" in Landscape JournalVol.27 No.2 (2008): 219-246.

Bélanger, Pierre. “Landscapes of Disassembly” in Topos 60 (October, 2007): 83-91.

Schumacher, Patrik and Christian Rogner. “After Ford” in Stalking Detroit, edited byGeorgia Daskalakis, Charles Waldheim and Jason Young (Actar, Barcelona, 2001): 48-56.

Harvey, David. "Flexible Accumulation through Urbanization, Reflections on Post-Modernism in the American City" in Post-Fordism: A Reader edited by Ash Amin(Oxford; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994): 361-386.

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8 Oct.26 Decentralization

Brenner, Neil & Christian Schmid. "Planetary Urbanization" in Matthew Gandy (ed.)

Urban Constellations (Berlin: Jovis, 2012): 11-13.

Angel, Shlomo. “Dimensions in Global Urban Expansion,” in The Persistent Decline in

Urban Densities: Global and Historical Evidence of ‘Sprawl’ by Shlomo Angel, Jason

Parent, Daniel L. Civco, and Alejandro M. Blei (Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of

Land Policy, 2011).

Bruegmann, Robert. "Defining Sprawl" and "Early Sprawl" in Sprawl: A Compact History

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005): 17-20, 21-32.

Simone, AbdouMaliq. “At the Frontier of the Urban Periphery” in Sarai Reader 2007:Frontiers edited by Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi and RaviSundaram (Delhi, India: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 2007): 462-470.

Gottman, Jean. “The Main Street of the Nation” and “The Dynamics of Urbanization” inMegalopolis (New York, NY: Twentieth Century Fund, 1961): 3-22.

Sieverts, Thomas. “The Living Space of the Majority of Mankind: an Anonymous Space

with no Visual Quality” in Cities without Cities (London, UK: Spon Press, 2003): 1-47.

*Guests: Shlomo Angel, Neil Brenner, Robert Bruegmann

9 Nov.2 Energy Fuels & Resources, Systems & Networks

Ghosn, Rania. "Energy as Spatial Project" in Landscapes of Energy - New GeographiesJournal 02 (2009): 7-10.

Brennan, Teresa. "Energetics" in Exhausting Modernity: Grounds for a New Economy(New York: Routledge, 2000): 41-54.

Ausubel, Jesse H. "The Liberation of the Environment: Technological Development andGlobal Environmental Change", Daedalus Vol.125 No.3 (Summer 1996): 1-17.

Varnelis, Kazys . “Invisible City: Telecommunications” in The Infrastructural City:Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles (Barcelona; New York: Actar, 2008): 118-129.

10 Nov.9 Mobility Speed & Movement, Modes & Logistics, Surfaces & Subsurfaces

Guldi, Jo. "Road to Rule" in Roads to Power: Britain Invents the Infrastructure State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012): 1-24.

Schnapp, Jeffrey T.. "Three Pieces of Asphalt", Grey Room No.11 ((Spring 2003): 5-21.

Frampton, Kenneth. “The Generic Street as a Continuous Built Form” in On Streetsedited by Stanford Anderson (Cambridge: The Institute for Architecture and UrbanStudies, MIT Press, 1978): 308-336.

Ritter, Paul. “History of Traffic Segregation” in Planning for Man and Motor (Oxford:Pergamon Press, 1964): 314-330.

11 Nov.16 The Landscape of Urbanization

Waldheim, Charles. “Landscape as Urbanism” in The Landscape Urbanism Reader

(New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 35-54.

Reed, Chris. "The Agency of Ecology" in Ecological Urbanism edited by MohsenMostafavi and Gareth Doherty (Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers, 2010): 324-329.

Correa, Felipe. "A New Lens for the Urbanistic Project", in Cities X Lines edited by JoanBusquets and Felipe Correa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Design,2006): xx-xx.

Frampton, Kenneth. “Towards an Urban Landscape”, Columbia Documents of Architecture and Theory, Volume 4 (1995): 83-93.

*Guests: Felipe Correa, Chris Reed, Charles Waldheim

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12 Nov.23 Thanksgiving (No Class)

13 Nov.30 Alti tudes of Urbanization

Wall, Alex. “Programming the Urban Surface” in Recovering Landscape: Essays in

Contemporary Landscape Architecture edited by James Corner (New York: Princeton

Architectural Press, 1999): 233-250.

Bélanger, Pierre. “Underground Landscape: The Urbanism & Infrastructure of Toronto’s

Downtown Pedestrian Network”, Journal of Underground Space and Tunneling Vol. 22

No.3 (October 2006): 272-292.

Rosalind Williams, "Cultural Origins and Environmental of Large Technological

Systems", Science in Context 6 (1993): 377-403.

AUX tbd Food Agronomic Landscapes, Market Economies, Soil Geographies

Rice, Andrew. "Agro-Imperialism?” in NY Times Magazine (Nov. 2, 2009): 46-51.

Bélanger, Pierre and Angela Iarocci. Foodshed: The Global Infrastructure of the OntarioFood Terminal (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007): 116-138.

Bélanger, Pierre & Curtis Roth. "The Agronomic Landscape: A Brief 8,000-YearTimeline of Soil & Plants, Techniques & Technologies, Crops & Cultures, Empires &Urbanization" in GAM 07 edited by Klaus Loenhart (New York, NY: Springer): 166-183.

Branzi, Andrea. “Agronica” in Weak & Diffuse Modernity: The World of Projects at theBeginning of the 21st century (Milan: Skira, 2006): 132-146.

Branzi, Andrea. "The Hybrid Metropolis" in Learning from Milan: Design and the SecondModernity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988): 20-24.

COURSE READINGS All course readings are collected as the part of the Landscape Infrastructure Primer and the ULE Primer , includingadditional references and primary sources. The selection of texts profile the convergence of urbanism, landscapeand ecology that form part of the Landscape Architecture Program and the Urbanism, Landscape & Ecology

concentration of the Masters in Design Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The texts are drawn froma collection of urbanists, designers, ecologists, engineers and planners who have articulated canonical views duringthe past century, giving relevance to the processes and patterns of contemporary urbanization.

Historically segregated by the professionalization of design disciplines, the following source texts provide afoundation for the re-engagement of an urban discourse that synthesizes practices of planning, zoning, andengineering through the polyvalent agency of design:

Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time & Architecture: the Growth of a New Tradition (Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1941)

Christopher Tunnard & Boris Pushkarev, Man-Made America: Chaos or Control (New Haven, CT: YaleUniversity Press, 1963)

Carl O. Sauer, Agricultural Origins & Dispersals (New York: The American Geographical Society, 1952)

William Marsh, Jeff Dozier, Landscape: An Introduction to Physical Geography (New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1981)

Howard Odum, Ecological & General Systems Theory: An Introduction to Systems Ecology (Boulder:University of Colorado Press, 1983)

Rosalind Williams, "Cultural Origins and Environmental of Large Technological Systems",Science in Context 6 (1993): 377-403.

These readings open a range of contemporary urban discourses that acknowledge critical, fin-de-siècle tendenciesoccurring worldwide: the emergence of ecology, the revival of geography, the overexertion of engineering, the spatialapartheid of infrastructure and the inertia of urban planning vis-à-vis the pace of urban change today.

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COURSE OBJECTIVESThis course provides a cross-examination of paradigms, practices and projects resulting from the recent emergenceof ecology and the revival of geography through which landscape has become a prime force and field for urbanizationin the 21

st century. Through lectures, readings and discussions, the content of the course first provides a profile of

contemporary views in landscape practice and second, provides a historical survey of major planning paradigmsduring the past two centuries. The course concludes with a series of student-led presentations focusing on themapping of transboundary watersheds and other urban regions throughout the world in zones of geopolitical conflict,ecological stress and demographic pressure. The course has six underlying objectives:

1. Profile historic and contemporary models of urbanism, landscape and ecology.2. Sponsor synergistic thinking across planning, design and engineering in the process of urbanization.3. Investigate the inseparability between the urban infrastructures of waste, water, food, transport andenergy, geographically.4. Generate original cartographic information as instrument of spatial, analytical and cultural relevance.5. Identify and index a series of emerging urban patterns of geospatial significance.6. Reposition landscape as an operating system and strategy for contemporary urban economies.

EVALUATIONStudents are asked to actively participate in the content and delivery of the course through readings and in-classdiscussions. In addition to the weekly lectures, evaluation for this course will be carried out on the basis of a termproject that will be developed in two parts. The breakdown for evaluation is as follows:

Term Project - Assignment 1: 5%

Term Project - Assignment 2: 20%Term Project - Assignment 3: 20%Term Project - Assignment 4: 20%Term Project - Assignment 5: 15%In–Class Attendance, Section Participation & Reading Representation: 20%

Specific objectives and details for the term project are provided below. Indication of performance and growth in theclass through participation, progress, initiative, and leadership in weekly classes and student-led discussions.Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with Harvard University's Grading Practices & Policy Guidelines.

INFORMATION SOURCESPlagiarism is strictly prohibited. Information on sourcing information and collaborative work is regulated by Harvard's Plagiarism Policy, please refer to the definitions, guidelines and policies established by the University. Methods ofinformation sourcing will be clearly defined during the presentations of assignments, readings and lectures.

LATE WORK All assignments are due at the specified time and date. Late work is not acceptable (except in the case ofdocumented illness or special circumstances) and will be penalized ten grade points (10%) for each late day. In thecase of illness (a doctor’s certificate) or other special circumstance (a letter), notification should be given to theinstructors and the Program Office as soon as possible and before the deadline in question. Late work submitted afterthe final day of classes is not acceptable without prior written permission from the Program Director.