CITIES BY DESIGN

GSD 5210, Fall 2011, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Course i-Site: http://isites.harvard.edu/k81146

Class Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11:30 AM, GSD Rm 111.
First class: 06 Sep 2011
Last class: 01 Dec 2011
Discussion section meetings to be assigned during Week 01

Course Coordinator: Rahul Mehrotra, Chair - GSD Department of Urban Design
To make an appointment, please write to: nsanders@gsd.harvard.edu

Teaching Fellows: Delia Wendel (Head TF), dwendel@fas.harvard.edu, office hours TBD on i-site
Sai Balakrishnan, sbalakr@fas.harvard.edu

Research Associate: Victor M. Sanz

Teaching Assistant: Anthony Sullivan



CI TI ES BY DESI GN Course Overview

Cities by Design studies urban form. It provides a synthetic overview of the factors that
affect the design of contemporary cities. The year-long course will cover a total of ten cities as
case studies to expose students to a range of city-making parameters in various geographical
contexts. The course will focus on both the urban condition as a whole by exploring the cities
processes of evolution, and on the study of urban fragments and projects. Two main pedagogical
goals guide the course. The course will allow students to establish a broader definition of the
urban, forging commonalities amongst a diversity of cities. It also provides the historical and
comparative material to identify the urban characteristics and design strategies that render
particular cities distinct.

Eight key themes run across the different case studies. Some urban case studies will
emphasize certain themes more than others. The following themes will help to structure students
comparative analyses:

1. The citys genealogy and key historical events, phases of development, & patterns of growth

2. The ways in which the terrain, geography, and infrastructural development constrain and
present opportunities for the citys development and ambitions

3. The citys planning and design culture and decision-making institutions

4. The challenges that social equity present to planning and design in the city

5. The orchestration of the citys relationship to the broader region

6. How the particular city contributes to a definition of the urban condition

7. The framing and design of key urban projects/ case studies

8. The citys planning institutions, historical conditions, urban forms, or ambitions, etc. that have
contributed to its iconicity in a global context

Course Requirements:

Each semester, Cities by Design will cover five urban case studies. Each case study will be taught
during a two-week module, comprised of four lectures and one discussion section. The course will also
be structured by assigned readings that have been collected in a course reader. Cities by Design
Course Readers will be available online at the course i-site, can be purchased printed at Gnomon Copy in
Harvard Square, or borrowed from Loeb Library. Students MUST BRING THE COURSE READER TO
SECTION to facilitate close readings of the texts please plan to do so in either digital or printed format.
All readings included in the Course Reader are required.


Expectations and Grading:

Term grades will be based on: attendance and participation, biweekly response papers, and a final term
paper.

Attendance and participation in all lectures and discussion sections are mandatory for enrolled
students. Students are expected to complete the assigned readings before the lectures, and to
participate actively in section discussions.

One-two page response papers will be based on assigned readings and lectures for each urban case
study, and guided by a specific question. The questions are available in the CBD syllabus (see each
module description). Response papers are due biweekly in the students assigned section.

Term papers will be due at the end of the semester. Term papers should be 5000-word essays that
respond to one of three questions. Term paper questions will be made available to students in Week 02.

The term paper topics are designed to help students develop comparative analyses of the urban
conditions studied during the semester. As this is a graduate-level course, the expectation is that the
term paper will be literate, grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors. Various guides to style and
grammar are available online and at Loeb Library, and writing assistance is available through the GSD
Language Resource Center. Papers should use a consistent style of citation (footnotes or endnotes) and
include a list of references (at the end in alphabetical order by last name). The term paper is due in your
Teaching Fellows mailbox by Thursday 15 December. Late papers will be marked down one grade per
day.


Students are expected to be familiar with and abide by the school's standards for academic honesty and
conduct. Cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration or paid assistance, deliberate interference with
the integrity of the work of others, fabrication or falsification of data, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are considered serious offenses for which disciplinary penalties will be imposed. When using
the ideas or words of anybody else, you must identify the source.








NOTE to students: The year-long Cities by Design course is mandatory for all incoming 2011-12
Masters of Urban Design Students. All other students are welcome to enroll in the course by
semester, and need not do so in sequence. Please review the course requirements before
selecting this course.
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 2

CITIES BY DESIGN
FALL 2011 SYLLABUS


Week 01. FRAMING THE URBAN with Hashim Sarkis
(Sept 06, Sept 08) Class on Sept 06 to begin with an Introduction to Cities by Design with Rahul Mehrotra

Response Paper Question: A distinction between an aesthetic (formal) and practical dimension of city
making prevails in many of the readings. Is this distinction useful for thinking about the design of cities?
Respond using specific examples from the readings and from the case studies discussed in class. [1-2 page
response paper, due in your assigned Discussion Section]

Sep 06. The Genealogy of Urban Form
Kostof, Spiro (1991), 'What is a City?', The city shaped : urban patterns and meanings through history
(Boston: Little, Brown), 37-41.

Mumford, Eric Paul (2009), 'Chapter 4: The uses of history in urban design', in Jacqueline Tatom and
Jennifer Stauber (eds.), Making the metropolitan landscape: standing firm on middle ground (New
York: Routledge), 47-55.

Sarkis, Hashim (2011), 'The World According to Architecture: Beyond Cosmopolis', New Geographies,
4, 104-108.

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Benevolo, Leonardo (1980), The history of the city (London: Scolar Press).
Richard Burdett, et al. (eds.), The endless city: the Urban Age project by the London School of
Economics and Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Sociey (London: Phaidon).
Crawford, M, et. al. (Fall 2006), 'Urban Design Now: A Discussion', Harvard Design Magazine,25,1-13.
Henaff, Marcel (1997), 'Of Stones, Angels and Humans: Michel Serres and the Global City',
SubStance, 26 (83), 59-80.
Koolhaas, Rem (2008), Lagos: How It Works, ed. Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi (Harvard Project on the
City; Cambridge: Lars Muller Publishers).
Shane, David Grahame (2005), Recombinant urbanism: conceptual modeling in architecture, urban
design, and city theory (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley).

Sep 08. How to Design a City (or a part thereof)
Bacon, Edmund N. (1976), 'Putting the Ideas to Work - Philadelphia', Design of cities (Rev. edn.; New
York: Penguin Books), 264-308.

Passanti, Francesco (2008), 'Chapter 2: The Aesthetic Dimension in Le Corbusier's Urban Planning',
in Eric Paul Mumford, Hashim Sarkis, and Neyran Turan (eds.), Josep Llus Sert: the architect of urban
design, 1953-1969 (New Haven: Yale University Press), 24-37.

Tafuri, Manfredo (1989), 'A Theater, "a Fountain of Sil," and "a Shapeless Little Island with a Hill": A
Project by Alvise Cornaro for the Restructuring of the Bacino of San Marco', Venice and the
Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), 139-160.

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Ballon, Hilary and Jackson, Kenneth T. (2007), Robert Moses and the modern city: the transformation
of New York (1st edn.; New York: W. W. Norton & Co.).
Frieden, Bernard J. and Sagalyn, Lynne B. (1989), Downtown, Inc.: how America rebuilds cities
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).
Miller, Ross (1996), Here's the deal : the buying and selling of a great American city (New York: A.A.
Knopf). [on CHICAGO]
Sorkin, Michael (Fall 2006), 'The End(s) of Urban Design', Harvard Design Magazine, 25, 8-18.
Tafuri, Manfredo (1989), Venice and the Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 3
Waldheim, Charles (2004), CASE--Hilberseimer/Mies van der Rohe, Lafayette Park Detroit (CASE
series; Cambridge, Mass.: Prestel, Harvard Graduate School of Design).
Week 02-03. BOSTON with Alex Krieger
(Sept 13, Sept 15, and Sept 20, Sept 22)

Response Paper Question: Review the Boston Redevelopment Authority website on Planning Initiatives
(see Reading Assignment for Sept 22). Write a short analysis of one of the urban design projects listed in the
BRA Planning Initiatives. What are the projects main objectives? What are the areas historical challenges?
Have any significant urban design initiatives been planned for this area in the past? Use material from the
website, module readings and lectures to support your analysis. [1-2 page response paper, due in your
assigned Discussion Section]

Sep 13. Boston: A Historic and Topographical Overview
Krieger, Alex and D. Cobb, et al. (eds.) (1999), Mapping Boston (Cambridge: MIT Press). [SKIM, on
reserve at Loeb].

Warner, Sam Bass A Brief History of Boston in Mapping Boston, 3-14 and

Krieger, Alex Experiencing Boston: Encounters with Places on the Maps in Mapping Boston,146-172.

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Bunting, William Henry (1971), Portrait of a port: Boston, 1852-1914 (Cambridge: Belknap Press)
Haglund, Karl (2003), Inventing the Charles River (Cambridge: MIT Press).
Kennedy, Lawrence W. (1992), Planning the city upon a hill: Boston since 1630 (Amherst: U. of
Massachusetts Press).
Puleo, Stephen (2010), A city so grand: the rise of an American metropolis, Boston 1850-1900
(Boston: Beacon Press).
Rawson, Michael (2010), Eden on the Charles: the making of Boston (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press).
Seasholes, Nancy S. (2003), Gaining ground: a history of landmaking in Boston (Cambridge: MIT
Press).
Warner, Sam Bass (1962), Streetcar suburbs: the process of growth in Boston, 1870-1900
(Publications of the Joint Center for Urban Studies; Cambridge: Harvard U. Press).
Whitehill, Walter Muir (1959, 1968), Boston; a topographical history (Cambridge: Belknap Press).

Sep 15. Boston in the Broader Context of the Evolution of American Urbanism
Krieger, Alex (July 1987), 'The American City: Ideal and Mythic Aspects of a Reinvented Urbanism',
Assemblage, 3, 38-59.

Koolhaas, Rem, et al. (1995, 1998), Atlanta in S, M, L, XL: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, (2d
edn.; New York, N.Y.: Monacelli Press).

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Foglesong, Richard E. (1986), Planning the capitalist city: the colonial era to the 1920s (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton U. Press).
Garvin, Alexander (1996, 2002), The American city: what works, what doesn't (New York: McGraw-
Hill).
Hamer, D. A. (1990), New towns in the New World: images and perceptions of the nineteenth-century
urban frontier (The Columbia history of urban life; New York: Columbia U. Press).
Jackson, Kenneth T. (1985), Crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the United States (New York:
Oxford U. Press).
Dunham-Jones, Ellen and June Williamson (2009, 2011), Retrofitting suburbia: urban design solutions
for redesigning suburbs (Updated edn.; Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley).
Monti, Daniel J. (1999), The American city: a social and cultural history (Malden: Blackwell Pub).
Sorkin, Michael (1992), Variations on a theme park: the new American city and the end of public
space (1st edn.; New York: Hill and Wang).
Teaford, Jon C. (1986), The twentieth-century American city: problem, promise, and reality (The
American moment; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press).

Sep 20. Boston in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: Urban Renewal and Revival
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 4
O'Connor, Thomas H. (1993), Building a new Boston: politics and urban renewal, 1950-1970 (Boston:
Northeastern U. Press), pp. 3-36, 66-88 & 284-300.
Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Altshuler, Alan A. and David Luberoff. (2003), Mega-projects: the changing politics of urban public
investment (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press).
Beauregard, Robert A. (1993, 2003), Voices of decline: the postwar fate of U.S. cities (2nd edn.; New
York: Routledge).
Fishman, Robert (Winter 1999), 'The American Metropolis at Century's End: Past and Future
Influences', Housing Facts and Findings, Fannie Mae Foundation, 1 (4).
Gans, Herbert J. (1962, 1982), The urban villagers: group and class in the life of Italian-Americans
(Updated and expanded edn.; New York, London: Free Press; Collier Macmillan Publishers).
Lupo, Alan, Colcord, Frank, and Fowler, Edmund P. (1971), Rites of way; the politics of transportation
in Boston and the U.S. city (Boston,: Little).
Medoff, Peter and Sklar, Holly (1994), Streets of hope: the fall and rise of an urban neighborhood
(Boston, MA: South End Press).
Teaford, Jon C. (1990), The rough road to renaissance: urban revitalization in America, 1940-1985
(Creating the North American landscape; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press).

Sep 22. Boston Today: Traditions and Prospects
Please spend several hours reviewing the Boston Redevelopment Authoritys web page
[www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org] The BRA is the citys planning and redevelopment
agency, and is one of the more powerful such agencies in the country. Review the web site overall,
and especially the section called Planning Initiatives (under the Land Use tab) which will give you a
good sense of current and planned projects in the city.


Week 04-05. BARCELONA with Joan Busquets
(Sept 27, Sept 29, and Oct 04, Oct 06)

Response Paper Question: Identify 3 urban episodes that have had a significant impact on Barcelonas
development. Analyze these in relation to the eight themes for the course to identify the nature, scale and
consequences of these episodes. [1-2 page response paper, due in your assigned Discussion Section]

Sep 27. Historical development
Busquets, Joan (2005), Barcelona: The Urban Evolution of a Compact City (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Graduate School of Design), 345-407.

Sol-Morales i Rubi, Manuel de (2008), Ten lessons on Barcelona : urbanistic episodes that have
made the modern city (Barcelona: Collegi dArquitectes de Catalunya) , 18-34 (preface).

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Sol-Morales i Rubi, Manuel de (2010), Cerd/ Ensanche (1. edn., Collecci d'Arquitectura;
Barcelona: Escola Tcnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona : Edicions UPC).

Sep 29. Barcelona and the definition of the urban
Busquets, Joan and Corominas, Miquel (2009), Cerd and the Barcelona of the future: reality versus
project (Barcelona: Centre de Cultura Contempornia de Barcelona), 14-29.

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Busquets, Joan and et.al. (eds.) (1992), Readings on Cerd and the extension plan of Barcelona
(Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, MOPT).
Galera, Montserrat (1982), Atlas de Barcelona (Barcelona: Editorial La Gaya Ciencia).

Oct 04. Barcelonas relationships to its region
Font, Antonio (ed.), (2007), The explosion of the city: territorial transformations in the South Europe
urban regions (Madrid: Ministerio de Vivienda), 243-261.

CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 5
Rowe, Peter G. (2006), Earlier Moments, and Bold Transformations in Building Barcelona: a second
Renaixena (Barcelona: Actar), 8-37, 120-147.

Oct 06. Contemporary development
Bohigas, Oriol, Buchanan, Peter, and Lampugnani., Vittorio Magnago (1991), Barcelona, city and
architecture, 1980-1992 (New York Rizzoli), 15-25.

Meyer, Han (1999), City and Port: urban planning as a cultural venture in London, Barcelona, New
York, and Rotterdam: changing relations between public urban space and large-scale infrastructure
(Utrecht: International Books), 131-146.

Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Busquets, Joan (2003), The Old Town of Barcelona: A Past with a Future (Barcelona: Ajuntament de
Barcelona, UPC).
www.bcn.es/urbanisme
http://w110.bcn.cat/portal/site/Urbanisme



Weeks 06-07. MEXICO CITY with Jose Castillo
(Oct 11, Oct 13, and Oct 18, Oct 20)

Response Paper Question: How do the below authors define formal and informal architectural and urban
development? What impact have these modes of development had on Mexico Citys form and urban
challenges? Cite examples of the ways in which the formal control/ planning of the design disciplines have
either collided or integrated with the informal or de-facto production of Mexico City. [1-2 page response paper,
due in your assigned Discussion Section]

Mexico City Module Description: Mexico City is one of the most dynamic and complex cities in the world today.
With over 20 million inhabitants, remarkable urban and population growth, an active, yet dual economy, a
sophisticated cultural life, and a material history centuries-old, it is quite a case study for architecture and urban
design today. The module on Mexico City provides an introduction to the issues and conditions faced by a
large city such as Mexico, and relate them to contemporary practices and theories of architecture and urban
design. The 4-session module will dwell on a broad range of interests organized around four topics that will
serve as windows to explain the city. Session 1: Histories will focus on the natural history of the city, its
vulnerabilities to natural disasters, and the material, social and economic developments of the 20C as the
defining period in the construction of the megalopolis. Session 2: Geographies will address the citys
peripheral expansion from its historic center, and topics of redensification, historical preservation, equity, and
formal (e.g. Santa Fe) and informal (e.g. Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl) development. Session 3: Politics will look
at the role that politics, policies, and planning instruments have had in shaping the city. We will pay attention to
the production of public space, housing and infrastructure, and how the gaps between the legal/ illegal, the
planned/ unplanned have produced pathologies, abnormalities and unexpected solutions. Session 4:
Architecture will focus on key practitioners and projects during the last 100 years, critically assessing the
relevance and impact of the modern architecture agenda (e.g. National University Campus, Juan OGorman,
Luis Barragan, Mario Pani) and the ways that recent architectural culture has envisioned change for the city
(e.g. Alberto Kalach, Javier Sanchez, Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon).

Oct 11: Session 01 Histories
Castillo, Jose (2010), 'After the Explosion', in Richard Burdett, et al. (eds.), The endless city : the
Urban Age project (London: Phaidon), 174-185.

Davis, Diane E. (2009), 'The Modern City: From the Reforma-Peralvillo to Torre Bicentenario: The
clash of history and progress in the urban development of modern Mexico City', in Linda A. Newson
and John King (eds.), Mexico City through history and culture (Oxford: Oxford U. Press for the British
Academy), 55-82.

Recommended Additional Reading:
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 6
Monsivis, Carlos and Kraniauskas, John (1997), 'Mexico 1890-1976: High Contrast, Still Life',
Mexican postcards (New York: Verso), 1-30.
Ward, Peter M. (1998), 'Chapter 1: The paradox of dominance yet dependence: Mexico Citys Mask of
Janus', Mexico City, (Rev. 2nd; New York: John Wiley & Sons), 1-28.
Oct 13: Session 02 Geographies
Castillo, Jose (2010), 'The Promise of Neza: Building a City for 1.2 Million Inhabitants One House at a
Time', in Ilka & Andreas Ruby (ed.), Re-inventing Construction (Berlin: Ruby Press),388-403.

Corona, Livia (2010), 'The Mexican Dream: Bottom-Up Customization of Generic Tract Housing in
Mexico', in Ilka & Andreas Ruby (ed.), Re-inventing Construction (Berlin: Ruby Press),404-418.

Davis, Diane E. (May 2004), 'Whither the Public Sphere: Local, National, and International Influences
on the Planning of Downtown Mexico City, 1910-1950', Space and Culture, 7 (2),193-222.

Oct 18: Session 03 Politics
Davis, Diane E. (1994), 'Laying the Foundations', Urban leviathan: Mexico City in the twentieth
century, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 1-19.

Garca Canclini, Nstor (2010), 'Makeshift Globalization', in Richard Burdett, et al. (eds.), The endless
city : the Urban Age project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank's Alfred
Herrhausen Sociey (London: Phaidon), 186-191.

Villoro, Juan (2004), 'The Metro', in Rubn Gallo and Lorna Scott Fox (eds.), The Mexico City reader
(Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press), 123-132.

Oct 20: Session 04 Architecture
Castillo, Jose (2010), 'Curatorial Text for the Exhibition Mexican Modernisms.', Mexican Modernisms:
Fragments for a possible history of modern architecture in Mexico. (Brussels: Bozar), 1-5.

Carranza, Luis E. (2010), 'Foreword, Chapter 1', Architecture as revolution : episodes in the history of
modern Mexico (1st edn., Roger Fullington series in architecture; Austin: University of Texas Press), i-
xi, 2-13.

Recommended Additional Reading:
Various Authors (2001), Mexico City: Projects from the Megacity, Praxis: Journal of Writing + Building, 1 (2).
Lida, David (2008), First stop in the New World : Mexico City, the capital of the 21st century (New York:
Riverhead Books).
Urban Age Mexico City Conference Newspaper: http://urban-age.net/0_downloads/MC-Newspaper.pdf



Weeks 08-09. MUMBAI with Rahul Mehrotra
(Oct 25, Oct 27, and Nov 01, Nov 03)

Response Paper Question: Mumbai demonstrates perhaps one of the most contested spatial conditions of
any city in the world where disparate forms of urbanism coexist in bizarrely close proximities. Describe some
of the ways in which urban design intervenes to either reinforce or circumvent the regulatory systems of
government in this city. Draw from the below readings and the examples presented in lecture to identify
entrepreneurial urban design projects and how government regulates urban space. [1-2 page response paper,
due in your assigned Discussion Section]

Oct 25: Bombay The Making of a Town
Tindall, Gillian (1982), City of gold : the biography of Bombay (London: Temple Smith), 180-206.

Mehrotra, Rahul (1997), 'Evolution, Involution and the Citys Future; A Perspective on Bombays Urban
Form', in Pauline Rohatgi (ed.), Bombay to Mumbai: changing perspectives (Mumbai: Marg
Publications), 258-277.

CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 7

Oct 27: Bombay The Growth of a City
Dwivedi, Sharada and Mehrotra, Rahul (2001), Bombay: the cities within (New edn.; Bombay:
Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd.), 204-293 (mostly images).
Dossal, Mariam (2010), Theatre of conflict, city of hope : Mumbai, 1660 to present times (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press), 184-214.

CHANGED to: Recommended Additional Background Reading:
Shetty, Prasad, et al. (May 2007), 'Housing Typologies in Mumbai', in Collective Research
Initiatives Trust (CRIT) (ed.), (Mumbai: Urban Age London School of Economics),
http://www.urban-age.net/0_downloads/House_Types_in_Mumbai.pdf

Nov 01: Mumbai Kinetic City
Correa, Charles (1985), The new landscape (Bombay: Book Society of India), 9-30.

Mehrotra, Rahul (March-April 1997), 'From New Bombay to Navi Mumbai the Twenty Five Years',
Architecture + Design, 14 (2): 21-24.

Mehrotra, Rahul (2008), 'Negotiating the Static and Kinetic Cities', in Andreas Huyssen (ed.), Other
cities, other worlds: urban imaginaries in a globalizing age (Durham: Duke University Press), 205-221.

D'Monte, Darryl (2006), Mills for sale : the way ahead (Mumbai: Published by J.J. Babha for Marg
Publications on behalf of the National Centre for the Performing Arts), 8-27.

Nov 03: Post-Planning in Mumbai
Mehrotra, Rahul (2006), 'Post-Planning in Mumbai', in Darryl D'Monte (ed.), Mills for sale: the way
ahead (Mumbai: Published by J.J. Babha for Marg Publications on behalf of the National Centre for the
Performing Arts), 60-73.

Patel, Sheela, d'Cruz, Celine, and Burra, Sundar (April 2002), 'Beyond evictions in a global city:
people-managed resettlement in Mumbai', Environment and Urbanization, 14 (1), 159-172.

Appadurai, Arjun (2002), 'Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics', Public
Culture, 14 (1), 21-47.

Mehrotra, Rahul (Fall 2004), 'Planning for Conservation - Looking at Bombay's Historic Fort Area',
Future Anterior, 1 (2), 25-32.

Recommended Additional Reading/ Non-Fiction:
Correa, Charles (1985), The new landscape (Bombay: Book Society of India).
D'Monte, Darryl (2006), Mills for sale : the way ahead (Mumbai: Published by J.J. Babha for Marg Publications
on behalf of the National Centre for the Performing Arts).
Dossal, Mariam (2010), Theatre of conflict, city of hope : Mumbai, 1660 to present times (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press).
Dwivedi, Sharada and Mehrotra, Rahul (2001), Bombay : the cities within (New edn.; Bombay: Eminence
Designs Pvt. Ltd.).
Kosambi, Meera (1986), Bombay in transition : the growth and social ecology of a colonial city, 1880-1980
(Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksell International).
Mathur, Anuradha and Cunha, Dilip da (2009), Soak : Mumbai in an estuary (New Delhi: Rupa & Co.).
Neuwirth, Robert (2005), Shadow cities : a billion squatters, a new urban world (New York: Routledge).
Rohatgi, Pauline (ed.), Bombay to Mumbai: changing perspectives (Mumbai: Marg Publications).
Shannon, Kelly and Gosseye, Janina (2009), Reclaiming (the urbanism of) Mumbai (Explorations in/of
urbanism; Amsterdam: SUN Academia).
Urban Design Research Institute. 'Mumbai reader', (Mumbai: Urban Design Research Institute), Volumes 06,
07, 08, 09.

Recommended Additional Reading/ Fiction:
Mehta, Suketu (2004), Maximum city : Bombay lost and found (1st edn.; New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
Prakash, Gyan (2010), Mumbai fables (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 8
Roberts, Gregory David (2004), Shantaram : a novel (1st U.S. edn.; New York: St. Martin's Press).
Rushdie, Salman (1981), Midnight's children : [a novel] (1st American edn.; New York: Knopf).
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 9

Weeks 10-11. RIO DE JANEIRO with Fars el-Dahdah
(Nov 08, Nov 10, and Nov 15, Nov 17)

Response Paper Question: Select ONE item from Rio de Janeiros visual record. Analyze this item, noting
provenance, formal qualities, and its relation to historical changes and social conditions in Rio de Janeiro. You
may select an item either presented in lecture or included in one of the below readings. Use the content from
both the lectures and readings to support your analysis. [1-2 page response paper, due in your assigned
Discussion Section]

Rio de Janeiro Module Description: This module focuses on reconstructing the social and spatial evolution of
Rio de Janeiro from its sixteenth-century origins through its Olympic future by examining the citys vi sual
record, i.e., maps, paintings, prints, photographs, film, and architectural/ urban projects. Through Rio de
Janeiro's iconography in different media, we will investigate its ever-changing social, political, and physical
morphology as the city has constantly had to 'overcome' its own geography and thereby nestle itself between
steep granite hills and the Atlantic Ocean. Despite or perhaps due to the difficulty of its own geography, this
one city has, over the centuries, survived as a colonial settlement on a distant periphery, acted as a port of
entry for thousands forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade, extended Lisbon into Portuguese America, hosted
the seat of an empire, formed a republic, showcased a dictatorship, and ultimately became a globally
recognized cultural capital that has in modern memory undergone both economic decadence and urban
renewal. Of particular interest to this module, are the visual documents that have recorded the history of how
social relations shaped Rio's natural landscape and conversely, how the city's urbanism has impacted the lives
and distribution of its inhabitants. This remains a visible process as Rio currently undertakes the major
development projects related to winning its bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Nov 08: Rio de Janeiro 1502-1807
Sadlier, Darlene J. (2008), 'Edenic and Cannibal Encounters', in Brazil imagined: 1500 to the present
(1st edn., The William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere;
Austin: University of Texas Press), 9-61.

Rama, Angel and Chasteen, John Charles (1996), The lettered city (Post-contemporary interventions;
Durham, NC: Duke University Press), 1-15

Delson, Roberta M. (Autumn 1976), 'Planners and Reformers: Urban Architects of Late Eighteenth-
Century Brazil', Eighteenth-Century Studies, 10 (1), 40-51.

Nov 10: Rio de Janeiro 1808-1901
Schultz, Kirsten (2001), 'The New City of Rio de Janeiro: Reconstructing the Portuguese Royal Court',
in Tropical Versailles : empire, monarchy, and the Portuguese royal court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1821
(New York: Routledge), 101-149.

Meade, Teresa A. (1997), 'The Features of Urban Life', "Civilizing" Rio: reform and resistance in a
Brazilian city, 1889-1930 (University Park, PA.: Pennsylvania State University Press), 45-74.

Sisson, Rachel and Elizabeth Jackson (1995) "Rio de Janeiro, 1875-1945: The Shaping of a New
Urban Order," The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, 21: 138-155.


Nov 15: Rio de Janeiro 1902-1948
Williams, Daryle (2001) 'Cultural Management, 1930-1945', Culture wars in Brazil: the first Vargas
Regime, 1930-1945 (Durham: Duke University Press), 52-89.

Underwood, David K. (June 1991), 'Alfred Agache, French Sociology, and Modern Urbanism in France
and Brazil', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 50 (2), 130-166.

Quezado Deckker, Zilah (2001), 'Vargas, Le Corbusier, and Reinforced Concrete', Brazil built: the
architecture of the modern movement in Brazil (London ; New York: Spon Press), 7-22.

CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 10

Nov 17: Rio de Janeiro 1949-2016
Conde, Luiz Paulo and Magalhes, Srgio (2004), Favela-Bairro: Rewriting the History of Rio (Rio de
Janeiro: Viver Cidades), 8-15.

Freire-Medeiros, Bianca (2002) "Hollywood Musicals and the Invention of Rio de Janeiro, 1933-1953,"
Cinema Journal, 41(4): 52-67.

Gaffney, Christopher (2010) "Mega-events and socio-spatial dynamics in Rio de Janeiro, 1919-2016,"
Journal of Latin American Geography, 9 (1): 7-29.

www.cidadeolimpica.com



Week 12. PANEL DISCUSSION

Nov 22. Required class discussion scheduled for Tuesday, Nov 22; no required readings

Thanksgiving Break starts 23 Nov



Week 13. TAKING STOCK with Hashim Sarkis
(Nov 29, Dec 01)

Response Paper Question: Write a five-sentence summary for each text, focusing on how the authors define,
evaluate, and/ or explore dynamism in cities. In other words: what makes a dynamic city? [due in your
Discussion Section]


Dec 01: Cities as Dynamic Sites
Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift (2002) Introduction and The Legibility of the Everyday City, in Cities:
Reimagining the Urban (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd), 1-30.

de Certeau, Michel (1984) Chapter 7: Walking in the City, in The practice of everyday life
(Berkeley: University of California Press), 91-110.

Caldeira, Theresa and James Holston (Spring/ Summer 2008) Urban Peripheries and the
Invention of Citizenship, Harvard Design Magazine, 28: 18-23.











SPRING 2012 Cities by Design Case Studies to include:
Berlin
Detroit
Istanbul
Nairobi
Quito
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 11
Shanghai
CITIES BY DESIGN
GSD 5210, Fall 2011, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course i-Site: http://isites.harvard.edu/k81146

Teaching Fellows: Delia Wendel (email: dwendel@fas.harvard.edu)
Sai Balakrishnan (email: sbalakr@fas.harvard.edu)


FALL 2011 TERM PAPER QUESTI ONS

Answer ONE of the following questions in the form of a 4000-word essay that draws from the Fall 2011
Course Content and a limited number of extracurricular sources.

1. Identify an urban challenge (e.g. affordable housing, transportation, urban image, etc.) that faces
two cities that we covered this semester. Choose two urban design projects (one per city) that
addressed these challenges and consider the following in your analysis. Who were the actors
that initiated and steered these projects consider the roles of public interest groups,
policymakers and designers. How might you define the transformative impact of these projects
(how might you measure the successes/ failures of these projects), and what was the role of
scale (e.g. micro, neighborhood, district, urban, regional, etc.)? How did these projects either
reinforce or diverge from the official image of the city?

2. ** In 2002, Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift posited the following: placesare best thought of not so
much as enduring sites but as moments of encounter, not so much as presents, fixed in space
and time, but as variable events; twists and fluxes of interrelationGrand porticos and columns
framing imperial triumphs become theme parks. Areas of wealth and influence become slums
(Cities: Reimagining the Urban, 30). Compare/ contrast various notions of cities as dynamic
sites, considering the contributions of these notions to theories of the urban condition. Draw
from the writings of Amin & Thrift and a limited number of others for example (but not limited to):
Calderon & Holston, de Certeau, Rem Koolhaas, Abdou Maliq-Simone, Lewis Mumford, Erik
Swyngedouw, Bernard Tschumi, William H. Whyte, etc.

3. How do we design for the public realm in a democracy? Can urban designers formally imagine
social equity, free speech, and other aspirations associated with the public realm? Are concepts
of the public sphere in the work of Jurgen Habermas and Henri Lefebvre relevant to this
problematic (see for your initial reference Diane E. Daviss summary in 'Whither the Public
Sphere in the Mexico City module)? Can the city of democracy have visual coherence where
varied aspirations play themselves out in terms of urban expression?

4. How have urban typologies developed in response to urban constraints and opportunities?
Compare/ contrast at least two urban typologies of similar scale, and identify what city-specific
constraints and opportunities have prompted their development. Urban typologies for
consideration could include building types, block types, street patterns, land-making strategies, or
other morphological configurations that have developed as typical responses within a particular
city. City-specific constraints and opportunities might include those related to physical
geography, socioeconomic concerns, political decision-making structures, regional traffic
networks and infrastructure, and/ or historical conditions, etc.


TERM PAPER DEADLINE: The term paper is due by 5PM on Thursday, 15 December 2011. Papers
should be submitted in hard copy to the box labeled with your Teaching Fellows name, located in the
lobby of 20 Sumner. Late papers will be marked down one grade per day.

Papers should be formatted with 1-inch margins, in Times New Roman 11pt font, 1.5 line spacing.
Please include your name and the page number on each page.
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 12
CBD, Fall 2011/ Page 13

As this is a graduate-level course, the expectation is that the term paper will be literate, grammatically
correct, and free of spelling errors. Various guides to style and grammar are available online and at Loeb
Library, and writing assistance is available through the GSD Language Resource Center. Papers should
use a consistent style of citation (footnotes or endnotes) and include a list of references at the end.

Students are expected to be familiar with and abide by the school's standards for academic honesty and
conduct. Cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration or paid assistance, deliberate interference with
the integrity of the work of others, fabrication or falsification of data, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are considered serious offenses for which disciplinary penalties will be imposed. When using
the ideas or words of anybody else, you must identify the source.




** RE: Question 2. We will be covering some readings that address the notion of cities as dynamic sites
in the Week 13 discussion sections. Please see updated syllabus and course i-site for the list of Week 13
Required Readings.