The course covers concepts and methods of sustainable urbanism, livable cities, resiliency, and smart growth principles from a social, environmental and economic perspective.

In this course we examine how the development in and of cities – in the US and around the world – can be sustainable, especially given predictions of a future characterized by increasing environmental and social volatility. We begin by critiquing definitions of sustainability. The fundamental orientation of the course will be understanding cities as complex socio-natural systems, and so we will look at approaches to sustainability grouped around several of the most important component systems: climate, energy, transportation, and water. With the understanding that sustainability has no meaning if it excludes human life, perspectives from both the social sciences and humanities are woven throughout: stewardship and environmental ethics are as important as technological solutions and policy measures.

What’s natural about nature? Humans have “made” the natural world both materially, through millennia of direct action in and on the landscape, and conceptually, through the creation of various ideas about nature, ecosystem, organism, and ecology. In this course we will consider how the conceptual underpinnings of contemporary Western notions of nature, environment, balance, power and race are intertwined. We will trace this trajectory using the lens of the historical development of the field of ecology, then broaden our view to consider worldviews and ontologies about the environment from non-Western cultures. How then do these worldviews influence attitudes and policies towards land, environment, and its stewardship? Taking examples from current environmental topics (e.g., land rights, environmental justice, park access, conservation, extinction) we will evaluate the extent and character of human entanglement with the environment. Throughout the course student voices will be prominent in the many discussion-based class sessions.

This course examines the economic and social forces that have transformed the critical character and performance of the major regions of the United States since the 1920s, and how the interactions between regions has profoundly shifted. The course completes the historical sweep of American geographical development following on from the Autumn course, Historical Geography of the United States, but can be taken as an independent course. Emphasized are the ways in which socio-cultural, technological and economic changes have played out differently across continental space and produced variable environmental consequences. An all-day field trip in the Chicago region visits sites that reflect some of the larger forces at work at the intra-regional scale.

This course can be taken as an ENST Capstone.

This seminar is open to third and fourth years, particularly for but not necessarily limited to those in the fields of geography, environmental science, and urban studies. It is designed for students to undertake original research on a topic of their own choosing within the broad scope of Chicago’s built environment. Following a brief reading course in the theoretical literature of urban morphology, each student will identify and select a topic of interest to research using Chicago sources, with the objective of a formal written research paper. Discussions will center around formulating research questions, theoretical underpinnings, suitable methodology, modes of writing, appropriate presentation of evidence, and effective illustration. Sessions will combine open discussion with a rotating series of periodic individual progress reports to the group, reflecting an interesting diversity of topics and mutual support in gaining experience in the research process.

This course can be taken as an ENST Capstone.

Long considered as condensers of social interaction, cities are here examined as to their response under significant public protest. Such events are understood as “stress-tests” to conventional urban theory as they alter, if only temporarily, previously understood conventional relationships of public and private domains. The project then is to document, assess, and understand those changes. Initial work focuses on documentation of protests using architecturally-based techniques, to provide clearer understanding and materials for comparison and discussion. Attention is on the year of 1968, a time when many cities were taken over by conflagrations. Drawings and digital models are to be prepared from detailed review of photographs, news reports and histories to document the events. A second area of investigation involves representation and how differing techniques of graphic projection impacts our understandings. A range of representational strategies are to be compared and assessed as to how they respond to the changes in urban spatialities engendered by protests. Work then concludes with individual investigations of more contemporary protests, identified and discussed together.

This course can be taken as an ENST Capstone.

This course will examine the life of buildings—how they perform, evolve, and adapt over time. How do particular design decisions influence human experience and behavior? Which parts of the building align with its intended use and what are surprising outcomes or changes? These questions aim to provide students with a deeper understanding of the built environment and the series of decisions that shaped them. Through readings, surveys, site visits, and conversations with architects and building users, we will measure and examine the spaces around us. Students will begin with a series of short analysis and design exercises and create short films, projective collages and diagrams, and architectural concept models. Building on our collective observations, research, and analysis, we will then finish with a final project where we respond to an existing building and propose an alternate life path. The format of the course is part-seminar, part-studio that aims to equip students with practical tools and strategies needed to shape our world and account for the long-term impact of design.

This course can be taken as an ENST Capstone.

This course can be taken as an ENST Capstone.

Time is running out to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The next decade will be critical both for the transformation of society and learning to adapt to changes that cannot be avoided, and climate change will be a key part of everyday life. This class discusses how we face this global challenge. During the course, our focus will be on the impacts of climate change upon society, and the necessity of solutions that deal with the global scope, local scales, and often unequal nature of the impacts. This interdisciplinary course covers the tools and insights from economic analysis, environmental science, and statistics that inform our understanding of climate change impacts, the design of mitigation and adaptation policies, and the implementation of these policies. Students will develop a mastery of key conceptual ideas from multiple disciplines relevant for climate change and acquire tools for conducting analyses of climate impacts and policies. The latter parts of the course will hone students’ ability to apply and communicate these insights through practical analysis of national policies and writing op-eds about climate-related issues. The goal is to help students from any background become informed and critically-minded practitioners of climate-informed policy making, able to communicate the urgency to any audience.

This course examines the theory and practice of city design—how, throughout history, people have sought to mold and shape cities in pre-determined ways. The form of the city is the result of myriad factors, but in this course we will home in on the purposeful act of designing cities according to normative thinking—ideas about how cities ought to be. Using examples from all time periods and places around the globe, we will examine how cities are purposefully designed and what impact those designs have had. Where and when has city design been successful, and where has it resulted in more harm than good?

*This course will be taught at the University of Chicago Center in Paris