Urban Design and Identity
Initial Publication Date: October 9, 2012
Summary
Students will learn to apply theories-of urban design and of regional identity formation-to various "sets of facts"-here, specific interior and exterior locations. Students will understand how designed environments promote behavior and how urban design can promote behaviors, (ie., walking,) that protect the environment. Students will complete three essays, one group project, and a final examination consisting of an essay question.
Collapse
Learning Goals
Writing
"Big Idea": Logic determines the structure of academic writing-the logic being how we make claims, bring evidence to bear on those claims and then explain how the evidence validates the claims.Produce writing that demonstrates an understanding of the logic behind academic writing.
Self-assess to improve analytic reasoning in the essay.
Sustainability
"Big idea": Urban environments can be designed that promote sustainable behaviors.Apply theory of regional identity formation to a specific locale.
"Read" a locale as a "behavior setting."
Re-design a behavior setting to promote a behavior more effectively.
Use New Urbanist design principles to re-design an urban space with the goal of increasing foot traffic.
Context for Use
The course that contains these assignments was "The Power of Place," It combined first quarter freshman composition and American Studies, for 10 quarter credits. Assignments are sequenced to build a complex understanding of place-how it influences us and how we use it to influence each other.
This is basically a full quarter's worth of work in composition. There are no timeframe instructions for that reason.
Possible Use In Other Courses: in which these assignments would work: psychology, urban design, American Studies, cultural studies
This is basically a full quarter's worth of work in composition. There are no timeframe instructions for that reason.
Possible Use In Other Courses: in which these assignments would work: psychology, urban design, American Studies, cultural studies
Description and Teaching Materials
Instructions for Students
Essay 1
Here are your theories: The readings in Many Wests identify ways in which people assemble a regional identity or economic forces produce it, among them:
Contrasting the area with another: ("We are not California.")
Adopting a relevant myth (Reno: wild west values, the Spanish Fantasy past)
Accepting a manufactured identity (Columbia River as symbol for Pacific Northwest, Southern California as the land of sunshine, the dream factory)
Living in the environment created by an economic event (the Gold Rush)
Your "set of facts" will be your neighborhood, its commercial areas and its inhabitants.
Essay topic: Use the theories of regional identity described in Many Wests to determine your neighborhood's identity.
Wrobel, David M. and Michael C. Steiner, eds. Many Wests: Place, Culture & Regional Identity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.
Essay 2
In The Power of Place, Gallagher introduces the theory of a 'behavior setting' that exerts influence on how we act. If Gallagher's theory is valid, then we can and do design settings to achieve specific behaviors. The analytic task is to choose a location, either at home or at work, and change it to improve its ability to function as a behavior setting. Write an essay once this has been completed to address:
How you know what behavior is intended in this setting
Which elements in the current setting function well and which ones function poorly
Changes which had to be made to improve the setting and why they will work
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Essay 3
Students will take two field trips to prepare for this essay assignment to Bellevue Square and the Fremont district of Seattle. Stay out of stores. Look only at the surroundings/setting. While you're there, take notes on your observations. Answer the questions below.
Outdoor Room Questions (City Comforts, Home From Nowhere)
Does the sidewalk/public area feel like an 'outdoor room'? (This comes from feeling protected. It is also achieved by slowing down car speed, reducing lanes of traffic to one per direction, having parked cars and trees protect from street, encouraging sidewalk activity, having stores include the street to some degree, providing places for people to hang out and be neighborly)
On-street parallel parking?
Parking strip trees?
Sidewalk cafe activity?
# lanes of traffic? Traffic speed? Crosswalks?
Transportation Questions (Home from Nowhere)
Single or multiple use zoning?
Are people expected to walk to or to drive to this place? Indicators that determine this fact.
Pedestrian or car-friendly? Indicators that determine this fact.
Behavior Setting Questions (Power of Place)
What specific messages does this place convey - ie: how does it tell one to behave? How does it tell one to feel? What does it tell one to do? How does one know? Pay attention to the information gotten through all five senses and the messages encoded in that information.
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Kunstler, James Howard. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Sucher, David. City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village. Seattle: City Comforts, 2003.
Essay Topic: Use the theories and practical advice in the above texts to investigate the impact urban design has on users in the Fremont area of Seattle and Bellevue Square shopping mall.
Group Project: Environment Re-design
The group will choose one place from our list of car-centric locales, a place that all members can get to. The task will be to re-design the place as a pedestrian-friendly urban village, using the design principles in City Comforts, Home from Nowhere, and The Timeless Way of Building and present a new design to the class.
Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Kunstler, James Howard. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Sucher, David. City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village. Seattle: City Comforts, 2003.
Task: The student will prepare a visual display of the environment re-design. Make a group presentation to the class.
Final Examination
Essay Question: In what ways have new urbanist design principles been used in the design of Redmond Town Center and in what ways have they not been used?
In the first two hours of the final exam, the student will go to Redmond Town Center and walk around and take notes. The student will return to the classroom to write an essay. Time allotted for the essay is one hour. Teacher Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Focus Evidence Sequence (Microsoft Word 36kB Nov4 11)
Self Assessment- Evidence Sequence (For Student) (Microsoft Word 27kB Nov4 11)
Teacher's Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Focus the Skeletal Paragraph (Microsoft Word 33kB Nov4 11)
Self Assessment- THe Skeletal Paragraph (For Student) (Microsoft Word 25kB Nov4 11)
Teacher's Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Organization (Microsoft Word 28kB Nov4 11)
Essay 1
Here are your theories: The readings in Many Wests identify ways in which people assemble a regional identity or economic forces produce it, among them:
Contrasting the area with another: ("We are not California.")
Adopting a relevant myth (Reno: wild west values, the Spanish Fantasy past)
Accepting a manufactured identity (Columbia River as symbol for Pacific Northwest, Southern California as the land of sunshine, the dream factory)
Living in the environment created by an economic event (the Gold Rush)
Your "set of facts" will be your neighborhood, its commercial areas and its inhabitants.
Essay topic: Use the theories of regional identity described in Many Wests to determine your neighborhood's identity.
Wrobel, David M. and Michael C. Steiner, eds. Many Wests: Place, Culture & Regional Identity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.
Essay 2
In The Power of Place, Gallagher introduces the theory of a 'behavior setting' that exerts influence on how we act. If Gallagher's theory is valid, then we can and do design settings to achieve specific behaviors. The analytic task is to choose a location, either at home or at work, and change it to improve its ability to function as a behavior setting. Write an essay once this has been completed to address:
How you know what behavior is intended in this setting
Which elements in the current setting function well and which ones function poorly
Changes which had to be made to improve the setting and why they will work
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Essay 3
Students will take two field trips to prepare for this essay assignment to Bellevue Square and the Fremont district of Seattle. Stay out of stores. Look only at the surroundings/setting. While you're there, take notes on your observations. Answer the questions below.
Outdoor Room Questions (City Comforts, Home From Nowhere)
Does the sidewalk/public area feel like an 'outdoor room'? (This comes from feeling protected. It is also achieved by slowing down car speed, reducing lanes of traffic to one per direction, having parked cars and trees protect from street, encouraging sidewalk activity, having stores include the street to some degree, providing places for people to hang out and be neighborly)
On-street parallel parking?
Parking strip trees?
Sidewalk cafe activity?
# lanes of traffic? Traffic speed? Crosswalks?
Transportation Questions (Home from Nowhere)
Single or multiple use zoning?
Are people expected to walk to or to drive to this place? Indicators that determine this fact.
Pedestrian or car-friendly? Indicators that determine this fact.
Behavior Setting Questions (Power of Place)
What specific messages does this place convey - ie: how does it tell one to behave? How does it tell one to feel? What does it tell one to do? How does one know? Pay attention to the information gotten through all five senses and the messages encoded in that information.
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Kunstler, James Howard. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Sucher, David. City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village. Seattle: City Comforts, 2003.
Essay Topic: Use the theories and practical advice in the above texts to investigate the impact urban design has on users in the Fremont area of Seattle and Bellevue Square shopping mall.
Group Project: Environment Re-design
The group will choose one place from our list of car-centric locales, a place that all members can get to. The task will be to re-design the place as a pedestrian-friendly urban village, using the design principles in City Comforts, Home from Nowhere, and The Timeless Way of Building and present a new design to the class.
Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.
Kunstler, James Howard. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Sucher, David. City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village. Seattle: City Comforts, 2003.
Task: The student will prepare a visual display of the environment re-design. Make a group presentation to the class.
Final Examination
Essay Question: In what ways have new urbanist design principles been used in the design of Redmond Town Center and in what ways have they not been used?
In the first two hours of the final exam, the student will go to Redmond Town Center and walk around and take notes. The student will return to the classroom to write an essay. Time allotted for the essay is one hour. Teacher Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Focus Evidence Sequence (Microsoft Word 36kB Nov4 11)
Self Assessment- Evidence Sequence (For Student) (Microsoft Word 27kB Nov4 11)
Teacher's Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Focus the Skeletal Paragraph (Microsoft Word 33kB Nov4 11)
Self Assessment- THe Skeletal Paragraph (For Student) (Microsoft Word 25kB Nov4 11)
Teacher's Evaluation Rubric- Self Assessment: Organization (Microsoft Word 28kB Nov4 11)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Share your modifications and improvements to this activity through the Community Contribution Tool »