Reports
These short reports review some of the scholarly literature about each city in relation to course themes. The themes are listed with descriptions and class readings in the syllabus (available in the About section of this site).
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The City as Ordered Universe
Topic: The grid, the urban master plan, the forms and uses of planned public space. Street grids seem like the perfect embodiment of modern rationality. Are they?
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The City in War
Topic: War, terror, and aerial bombing. City walls and fortification. How war has affected the history of the city and where its marks are visible.
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Natural Disasters and Disease
Topic: Fire, flood and earthquake. Disease. As soon as people began to gather themselves in cities they put themselves at risk.
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Squatter Cities and Megacities
Topic: Two opposing visions of the megacity: the dystopian, which sees it as chaotic, neglected, and inhumane; and the utopian, which sees it as an exciting, self-organizing, human-technological system. How do we assess these visions in particular places?
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Waste
Topic: Garbage, nightsoil, and other refuse—how modern cities transformed human products into waste and waste into usable products.
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Technologies of Comfort and Control
Topic: Technologies we take for granted today, from streetlights to air conditioners, wrought revolutionary changes on cities. Now we confront the problem of their sustainability. Manchester (Colleen)
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The City as Real Estate
Topic: A proposed definition of the modern city: a settlement shaped by the needs of the real estate industry.
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Cities and Colonialism
The role of cities and urban networks in colonial empires; the role of colonialism in the culture of cities. How is the history of colonial empires reflected in built form?…
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The Urban Crowd and Modernity
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a rich literature developed on the experience of the urban crowd. This literature reflects a new awareness of the psychological impact of city life.…
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The City as Data
Topic: The survey and the map. A proposed definition of the modern city: a city whose people are known to authorities through social statistics.
