Program Overview

Program Overview

The Machines Urbaines course is a field-based lecture proposed by the ENS-PSL (Department of Geography and Territories). As a global megacity, Paris serves as an excellent laboratory for studying and understanding the urbanization of globalized cities. This urban planning course is taught both in the classroom and on-site to analyze and explore specific urban forms found in cities of this size, known as urban machines.

Course Description

The analysis of these megapolitan objects requires an understanding of national, regional, urban, and local dynamics. The course utilizes tools and concepts from geography, planning, and architecture to achieve this goal. Students are introduced to carto-numerical note-taking as a format for rendering their work. They are expected to annotate a free online cartography (mymaps) with texts, quotes, references, photos, or drawings in real-time.

Pedagogical Objectives

The pedagogical objective of using digital tools is to familiarize students with online cartography sites, explore their functionalities, and produce shareable, exchangeable, and modifiable field notebooks.

Instructor

• Alix Sportich du Rťau de La GaignonniŤre

Practical Information

• Target audience: ENS and PSL students (from L3 to M2)
• Course language: French
• No prerequisites
• 6 ECTS credits awarded
• Validable within the framework of the ENS Diploma
• Intensive week, first week of March (2022 dates to be fixed)
• Course locations:
  • Ex situ: Roncayolo Room (R2-05), Jourdan Campus, Ecole normale supťrieure, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
  • In situ: Tour of 5 Parisian urban machines

Relevant Fields

• Geography
• Social Sciences
• Cartography
• Interactive Cartography