Course Outline

Sustainable Urban Dynamics

The course Sustainable Urban Dynamics and its complementary theory course Urban Dynamics - Theory and Methods make up the two thirds of the 3rd semester of the Sustainable Urban Design Master’s Program at School of Architecture at Lund University and are designed to engage in both theoretical discussions and spatial explorations through a semester-long design project that focuses on ‘the context sensitive design’ in China.

The course includes students enrolled in the architecture school, the SUDes Master’s

Program, as well as Erasmus exchange students. Therefore, the course is filled with diversity, having students from a number of different countries and a number of professional backgrounds including planning, architecture, and landscape architecture.

The Sustainable Urban Dynamics studio is organized around an approach to urban design - ‘context sensitive design’. While the approach can be far-reaching, the studio focuses on three central theme aspects that will form the central driving forces for the theoretical discussions, investigative research, and design explorations.

These three key themes can be described as following:

1. Sustainability with Chinese Characteristics

This studio will demand that each student gain comprehensive knowledge about China’s history, geography and culture. Today China is a place of rapid change. It is of the utmost importance that each student becomes an expert in historical perspectives, cultural understanding, economic arguments and environmental situations of Dujiangyan and the whole country in order to discuss how to make China’s future more sustainable. Each of the solutions should, therefore, be uniquely grounded in the specific situation of China, Dujiangyan, and the local context of the design site.

2. Place Making in a Global World Numerous critics have highlighted the generic and placeless qualities of globalized urban development. At the same time, proponents have applauded globalization and its qualities of connectivity. Throughout the course, theoretical readings initiating the students on the benefits and challenges of living in a global world will be introduced. The challenge for the students is to become experts on the discussions of globalisation’s effect on urban

development and translate them it a design project that utilizes its context, speaks of the local qualities of the landscape, and shows how the architecture is specifically related to place and climate conditions.

3. From Vision to Design

The course demands that each of the students works from a holistic vision down to the

detailed design. Students are encouraged to do this by continuously moving between scales and testing their ideas both on the site and in the studio. Throughout the semester they are exposed to techniques, working methods, and theoretical discussions that provide examples of how to master this needed transition. The goal is to provide an initial toolbox for the students that they will expand on while creating their own unique story lines. How to communicate their work - its global dimensions, its regional connections, and its unique sense of place - to the diverse audiences in Sweden and China is essential for their professional careers.