Urban Design Studio (Providence, RI) OpenCourseWare: MIT's Graduate Level Urban Design Free Online Course

Published Jan 11, 2009

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What strategies and concepts in urban planning can revitalize a city's downtown area? This free OpenCourseWare 'Urban Design Studio: Providence, RI' from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explores design possibilities for modification of an urban setting. This course was given through the Department of Architecture at the graduate level. Knowledge of AutoCAD would be helpful.

Urban Design Studio (Providence, RI): Course Specifics

Degree Level Free Audio Video Downloads
Graduate Yes No No Yes

Lectures/Notes Study Materials Tests/Quizzes
No Yes No

Urban Design Studio (Providence, RI): Course Description

Providence, Rhode Island has recently gone through a successful transformation. Despite this renewal, the downtown area has yet to increase permanent residential living. The original course, taught by Professors Michael Dennis and Greg Morrow in Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Department of Architecture, discussed relevant development topics, such as designing infrastructure plans, providing favorable activity models and incorporating built objects into existing scenarios. While residential housing was a focal point, the OpenCourseWare also explored the role public spaces play in a thriving community. Students in the original course documented, analyzed and interpreted an exact section plan of downtown Providence, Rhode Island in AutoCAD. The final project involved using all the information gathered to create a proposal of alternate urban design plans for the downtown area.

This Urban Design OpenCourseWare includes assignment information, a reading list and examples of student projects. To find out how to redesign an existing city, such as Providence, RI, visit the No InterWiki reference defined in properties for Wiki called "Urban Design Studio (Providence, RI) OpenCourseWare"!

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