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Studios and Workshops
Urban
Design Studios and workshops investigate planning and city design issues
in a dynamic setting. Studios and workshops in recent years have put forward
urban design and planning proposals for cities in China, India,
Japan, Spain, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. Work involves
field study followed by exploration of alternative patterns of place,
activity and access. Each studio or workshop involves a local
constituency or client who plays an active role in the process and
participates in studio reviews. Final products are published in reports
and exhibited in the various host cities.
Recent
studios and workshops have included:
China
The Pearl River Delta
For the third year in a row students will participate in a planning
workshop in the Pearl River Delta – the
fastest-growing region of China.
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The
2006
MIT Shanghi Planning Studio focused on applying the principles of
sustainability to envision how this fast-growing city will apply such values
in the design and planning for residential developments.
The 2005 MIT Gaoming Planning Studio
took place in Gaoming District, a predominantly agricultural area
projected to double in size in the next few decades as part of the
ongoing urbanization of the Pear River Delta. The goals of the studio
are to evaluate the potential for a sustainable approach to developing
Gaoming’s new central district as a Model Water
City, and
establish a planning process based on water as the unifying element.
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Beijing
Every
other summer since 1984, DUSP students and faculty have traveled to
Beijing to work with colleagues at Tsinghua University as part of the Beijing Urban Design Studio,
one of the most successful and enduing international academic programs
linking China and the US. The studio is sponsored by the Paul Sun Fund
and MIT China Program with support from the Asian Cultural Council of New
York, and has received the Irwin Sizer Award from MIT for outstanding
innnovation in education.
The goal of the studio is to foster international cooperation through the
undertaking of a joint city planning initiative in Beijing involving important, often
controversial sites and projects. In 2002, the students focused on
preservation and development alternatives for an ancient neighborhood
near the famous Summer
Palace, threatened
with demolition to accommodate the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2004, the
studio addressed redevelopment and revitalization along a new mass
transit corridor connecting the center of Beijing with the 2008 Olympic site. The
corridor cuts through residential neighborhoods, Beijing's high-tech district, and
several educational insitutions in the northwest quadrant of the city.
The process of building the line left large areas of adjacent vacant land
open for future transit development. The studio investigated the
potential for the corridor to knit back the fabric of the city and serve
local needs, while providing new spaces and images for technology-reated
projects.
The
UK
Newcastle
The
Newcastle Urban Design Studio
brought together architecture and planning students from MIT and Newcastle
University to explore the form and consequences of alternative
development strategies for Newcastle University, an already densely built
campus with no “growth edge”. MIT students visited Newcastle in August
2004, and joint Newcastle/MIT student teams evaluated different
strategies in an effort to put before the university, the city, and the
region illustrations of the form each strategy might take, the means
required to achieve it, and the balance of benefits each strategy might
accrue to the university and the region. Newcastle students will visit MIT in
December 2004 to rejoin their team members and present their new ideas.
Cambridge,
UK and US
Design and planning students at MIT and the University
of Cambridge tackled growth
pressures in historic Cambridge, UK in 2001, and then considered similar
issues in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2002. In the UK,
the studio looked at configurations of urban form and implementation
mechanisms to facilitate development of a university sponsored high-tech
industrial complex. This project aims to enhance creativity, innovation
and productivity—while at the same time sustaining the
extraordinary quality of each town’s environment. This project was
supported by the Cambridge-MIT
Institute, a strategic alliance between MIT and Cambridge
University that aims to deliver education
and research to enhance the competitiveness of UK businesses.
The findings of this project were featured in a recent book, Cities of Innovation: Shaping places for
high-tech. The book examined the friction between traditional
UK
planning policy focused on preserving a green belt and traditional ringed
development, and the need for cities to grow radially along transport
corridors. Redeveloping villages that ring large cities as
‘eco-towns’ that provide low-cost housing, renewable energy
sources and employment was one option explored by the book.
Spain
Barcelona and Manresa, Catalunya
This workshop in 2001 considered the cultural landscape of the Cardener River valley, in cooperation with
local communities and the regional government. Students developed schemes
for regional access, interpretation, and conservation of the river
environment that have provided a model for such planning in Catalunya.
United States
Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by the Office of Planning, the Fall 2000 studio examined the
District’s Southwest quadrant. A victim of urban renewal in the
1950s, this area is near the monumental core and includes the Potomac and Anacostia riverfronts. Students
developed comprehensive plans for new infrastructure, housing,
educational, recreational and waterfront development that would
revitalize the area and bring it back into the mainstream of city life.
Concepts for renewal of public housing were also prepared with extensive
community involvement.
Springfield,
MA
This
ongoing studio focuses on the physical, programmatic, and social renewal
of an urban community in Springfield,
Massachusetts. Urban design
issues are investigated in the context of social and economic challenges
within the community. The ultimate goal is to explore the integration of
social, programmatic and physical development interventions in ways that
reinforce community revitalization efforts, and to apply this knowledge
through the development of a formal neighborhood revitalization plan that
addresses community needs.
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