re-providence
Urban Design Projects - Fall 2011 Michael Dennis + Alistair McIntosh Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Urban Design Projects | Michael Dennis + Alistair McIntosh
This report summarizes the work produced in the Introductory Urban Design Studio during the fall semester, 2011 in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The studio was taught by Michael Dennis and Alistair McIntosh. The eleven participants were students in the SMarchS Architecture and Urbanism post-professional degree program. The studio subject was the downtown area of Providence, Rhode Island. Like many American cities, the central area of Providence was devastated by “urban renewal,” and arterial strangulation during the post-World War II era. Despite many recent positive initiatives, however, downtown Providence still appears largely abandoned. It is therefore an ideal urban design study. Because the studio was introductory, there were two imperatives for the study: one pedagogical; the other practical. The pedagogical imperative was to sensitize the students to a new and unfamiliar art—that of town planning and urban design. Architectural training is the base for this, but it is not sufficient by itself. To the architectural base must be added urban, landscape, and ecological understanding. The practical imperative was to have each student explore ideas for the redevelopment of downtown Providence on several different levels: buildings, blocks, streets, neighborhoods, and town. Given the time frame, this would be a difficult task for a professional team, but the students did manage to produce a wide range of provocative projects illustrated in this report.
re-providence
MIT - Fall 2011