Program Overview

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Program Overview

The MSc Programme in Landscape Architecture offers a course titled "Theories of Urban Design" (LNAK10084U). This course focuses on selected theories and discourses about urban design, encompassing visions and plans for the morphology of cities and the interplay with liveability and ecology.

Course Description

The course explores three main themes:

• From pre-modern to post-modern urban design
• Place making and the role of public space
• Sustainable urban development and urban landscapes Central design paradigms, different approaches, and viewpoints about how cities should be designed and transformed are discussed. The contemporary city is used as a case study to illustrate how urban design concepts and models have been operationalized and have influenced practice.

Learning Outcome

After completing the course, students will know central paradigms, discourses, standpoints, and approaches to urban design and development. They will be able to use this knowledge in a critical-reflective way in analyzing contemporary cities and in their own design work.

Knowledge

Students will obtain an understanding of central paradigms, approaches, theories, and discourses about urban design in the 20th century and up to the present day. They will understand central points of discussion between standpoints, their background and context, and their effect on contemporary cities.

Skills

At the end of the course, the students will be trained in basic academic reading and writing skills. They will be able to use urban design theories in a critical-reflective way and develop positions of their own. They will be able to demonstrate this ability in oral, written, and graphic form.

Competencies

At the end of the course, the students shall be able to use theoretical points of reference when relating to issues of contemporary urban design.

Literature

A compendium with the texts used in the course is provided.

Recommended Academic Qualifications

A Bachelor's degree in landscape architecture, architecture, planning, geography, or similar is recommended. Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree are also recommended.

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course structure is based on colloquiums, including students' presentations of the day's reading. Focus will be on central concepts of the texts, historical context for each, and agreements and disagreements between them, to enhance the understanding of different views and approaches to urban development. This will be supplemented with lectures giving overviews or illustrating how different approaches have been implemented in urban development, and how different approaches affect contemporary cities. Visits to sites in Copenhagen combined with an exercise (graphically presented on boards) and a written assignment will illustrate consequences of design approaches in the contemporary city.

Workload

The workload is distributed as follows:

• Colloquia: 46 hours
• Exam: 15 hours
• Excursions: 10 hours
• Lectures: 35 hours
• Project work: 100 hours
• Total: 206 hours

Exam

The exam consists of:

• Oral examination, 15 minutes
• Written assignment, prepared during the course and handed in prior to the exam week The written assignment is used as the point of departure for the oral exam, which is supplemented by a list of exam questions related to the texts.

Exam Registration Requirements

Hand-in of exercise (boards - group work) during the course is required.

Aid

All aids are allowed during the exam.

Marking Scale

The marking scale is a 7-point grading scale.

Censorship Form

There is no external censorship, and several internal examiners are used.

Re-exam

The re-exam consists of an individual re-submission of the written assignment and a 15-minute oral examination. If the student did not hand in the exercise during the course, it must be done individually for the re-exam and handed in no later than 3 weeks before the re-exam.

Criteria for Exam Assessment

The criteria for exam assessment are based on the learning outcomes.

Course Information

• Language: English
• Course code: LNAK10084U
• Credit: 7.5 ECTS
• Level: Full Degree Master
• Duration: 1 block
• Placement: Block 1
• Schedule: B
• Course capacity: 50
• Continuing and further education: Available

Contracting Department

The contracting department is the Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management.

Contracting Faculty

The contracting faculty is the Faculty of Science.

Course Coordinators

The course coordinators are:

• Anne Tietjen
• Gertrud Jørgensen
• Lise Byskov Herslund