Protesters in Argentina. Photo by illuminaut on Flickr (BY-NC).
Instructor(s)
Prof. Lawrence Vale
MIT Course Number
11.302J / 4.253J
As Taught In
Spring 2010
Level
Graduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This is a seminar about the ways that urban design contributes to the distribution of political power and resources in cities. "Design," in this view, is not some value-neutral aesthetic applied to efforts at urban development but is, instead, an integral part of the motives driving that development. The class investigates the nature of the relations between built form and political purposes through close examination of a wide variety of situations where public and private sector design commissions and planning processes have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as situations where the political assumptions have remained more tacit. We will explore cases from both developed and developing countries.
