Advanced Seminar: Urban Nature and City Design
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced seminar on how ideas of nature intersect with city planning and design. The course examines natural processes at scales from a single street corner to an entire region, and how planners and designers intervene in those processes to shape outcomes. Case studies compare cities that adapted well to natural forces against those that failed to, drawing on both historical examples and contemporary practice. Students choose their own case, research it, and present findings to the seminar for discussion. Materials include the syllabus, reading lists, and assignment guidelines from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, released under a Creative Commons license. There is no instructor video component; the course is structured as a discussion-based seminar for advanced students already familiar with urban design concepts.