European Master of Urbanism: Theory

Discourses in sustainable; theories for practicians
Sustainable development is a wicked concept that includes different worldviews. This can be explained with the history of sustainable development in which different fields of science added different elements over time. So these different discourses have developed a range of problem statements that are all included in sustainable development goals. This is a logical development because of the fact that the combination of discourses prevent us for negative side effects of every specific intervention that should bring us closer to a sustainable future. From this perspective we perceive sustainable urbanism as a combinations of discourses, a necessary package deal to prevent us from trade off effects.
Within this theory course we will discuss the influences of different discourses of sustainable development on urbanism and the development of discourses of sustainable urbanism. The following discourses will be on the agenda:
- Climate neutral city - a system approach
- The liveable city - self-organisation
- A city as an ecosystem - a landscape approach
- Sustainable governance - complexity
- Permanence in Urban Design – Spatial quality of a sustainable city
There are more approached to be found that are linked to these views, like the compact city or a temporary urbanism.

Getting theory into practice
After the introduction we will be looking for design tools that can do three things:
-    Organize the given complexity of this field of discourses in sustainable urbanism;
-    Directly context theoretical SoundBits into design guidelines;
-    Connect the given patterns to one another.
In the course the meaning a possibilities of a pattern language is explained and a number of related tools; like the guiding models and tools for Community Architecture.

Course Results
The students will research the different approaches and present those elements that may be useful for the given design task. In a next step students will investigate design tools and the format for a set of patterns will be given. Every student will present his or her new patterns that will optimize particular aspects in line with a specific discourse in sustainable urbanism. The whole group has to organize these patterns into a pattern field and find useful combinations but also conflicts among patterns. There will be suggestions for adding and modifying patterns. The end result is a location specific design tool.