Science and technology in urban transformation

URB-407 / 3 crédits

Enseignant(s): Baudry Jérôme, Graezer Bideau Florence

Langue: Anglais

Summary

Cities are complex systems shaped by natural, technological, and social factors with historical roots. Through global case studies, this course will explore how science and technology transform cities into objects of knowledge and intervention.

Content

Cities can be seen as complex systems simultaneously shaped by natural, technological, and social factors, often with deep historical roots. Reciprocally, cities largely configure how human and nonhuman activities take place in the past, present, and future. To better understand this double movement, this course investigates how science and technology contribute to transforming cities into objects of knowledge and intervention. Based on both past and present case studies and on a global approach (comparing cities from different regions of the world), we will study how architects, engineers, natural and social scientists, with their corresponding tools and theories, grapple with a living milieu that, by 2050, is expected to house 70% of the world population.

 

Throughout the semester we will address three main topics:

1. Cities as built environments, or how the city is physically constructed through buildings, infrastructures, and urban planning;

2. Cities as sustainable environments, or how the city interfaces with the natural milieu, sustaining (or not) life through health and hygiene, biodiversity and climatic resilience;

3. Cities as social environments, or how the city enables certain forms of social life, but also restrain others, through social stratification, mobility, and public spaces.

Keywords

City, urban systems, sustainability, built environment, society, urban planning, urban history

 

Learning Outcomes

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

  • Analyze an urban complex system from a historical and present perspective.
  • Explain the interrelations between human activity and the environment.
  • Identify the main stakeholders of urban systems.
  • Contextualise the technological and societal challenges facing the city.
  • Compare and understand different methodologies employed to address the city.
  • Construct itical thinking on knowledge and technologies related to the city beyond Europeancentrism.

Transversal skills

  • Write a scientific or technical report.
  • Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.
  • Collect data.
  • Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
  • Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.

Teaching methods

4 lecture sessions on the course's main topics + 8 seminar sessions + 2 sessions of mid-term and final presentations. During seminar sessions, after a short introduction by the instructors, students will present, analyze, and discuss short research articles.

 

Expected student activities

Students are expected to attend lectures, read and present research articles, participate actively to class discussions, design and conduct projects in small groups, present their results in a mid-term and final session.

 

Assessment methods

1. In-class presentation and discussion of a short research article + writing of a review of the article: 40% of the final grade

2. Presentation of a final report, prepared in small groups of 2 to 3 students, on a specific technology of the city: 60% of the final grade

Supervision

Office hours No
Assistants Yes
Forum No
Others Meetings with the instructors by appointment

Resources

Bibliography

A full bibliography will be shared on the first week of the semester

Moodle Link

Dans les plans d'études

  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Science and technology in urban transformation
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Projet: 2 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Type: optionnel
  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Science and technology in urban transformation
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Projet: 2 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Type: optionnel
  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Science and technology in urban transformation
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Projet: 2 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Type: optionnel
  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Science and technology in urban transformation
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Projet: 2 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Type: optionnel
  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Science and technology in urban transformation
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Projet: 2 Heure(s) hebdo x 14 semaines
  • Type: optionnel

Semaine de référence

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