Urban Design Studio: Fort Washington, Cambridgeport
MIT's graduate Urban Design Studio examines how city form, land use mix, and institutional arrangements can reconcile competing stakeholder interests in real neighborhoods. The fall 2003 offering focuses on an area near Cambridgeport and the western edge of MIT's campus, centered on Fort Washington, building on earlier studios that studied Cambridge, UK and the MIT biotech corridor. Students work through site analysis, design proposals, and institutional strategy exercises, framed by case studies of past successes and failures in negotiating between universities, developers, and residents. Materials include the studio syllabus, assignment briefs, and project materials from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, published through MIT OpenCourseWare at no cost. The course suits students interested in how physical design and governance mechanisms interact to shape contested urban space.