Coursebooks

Caution, these contents corresponds to the coursebooks of last year

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Mapping urban history

PENS-306

Lecturer(s) :

di Lenardo Isabella
Kaplan Frédéric

Language:

English

Withdrawal

It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Summary

The ambition of this course is to give a panorama of the development of historical cartography in Europe and to demonstrate the manner in which these documents can be used to build historical geographical information systems (HGIS).

Content

The course is organized around three case studies: Venice, Geneva and Paris. For each of these cities, the course presents a comparative analysis of representation modes, urban dynamics and architectural elements. Students will learn to interpret historical documents to conduct urban evolution analyses and reconstruct in 2d and 3d visualizations of each of the cities studied. 

Course Plan:

1 Introduction
2 Urban iconography and historical maps
3 Interpretation of historical sources for modelling
4 Historical Geographical Information System
5 In-situ urban data acquisition, sampling and modelling methods
6 Case study 1 : Venice
7 Case study 2 : Paris
8 Case study 3 : Geneva
9 Field study in Geneva
10 Visit of the State Archive in Geneva
11 Group project session
12 Presentations of the group projects.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Interpret using historical knowledge, the various typologies of urban development strategies.
• Recognize variety of modes of city representations.
• Apply digital cartography methodology and visual representation techniques.
• Interpret historical sources to produce digital representations.
• Develop an autonomous research project using the relevant tools to achieve chosen goals.

Transversal skills

• Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.
• Assess progress against the plan, and adapt the plan as appropriate.
• Collect data.
• Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.
• Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
• Design and present a poster.
• Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.

Teaching methods

Full-class presentation and exercises sessions.

Assessment methods

Final project presentation.

Resources

Moodle Link

• http://moodle.epfl.ch/course/view.php?id=14440