Urban design at Sydney University

In other words, urban design has experienced a coming-of-age. Yet there remain many questions about the adequacy of urban design education. One imperative is to learn from the experience of planning. From the late 1960's, planners explored many contextual dimensions of city building (economic, social, demographic, legal, etc) - to the neglect of form itself. Fewer people from design backgrounds were attracted into the planning arena where more attention was directed to processes, administration, legalities and other non-physical aspects. There are some indications that this path may be repeated in urban design. All of this is neither to deny the breadth of planning nor the need for broad multi-disciplinary collaboration. But it is to stress the need for strong urban design skills within the planning process and that urban design education maintains a sharp physical three-dimensional focus.

The form and shaping of cities

The structure of the Sydney urban design program is conceived with its sights directed firmly to an understanding of form and the shaping of cities. Most time (a full 50%) is spent on project work - including both teamwork (so essential to practice) and some individual work (the only way of measuring certain competencies). This translates into two studios (constantly supported by theory and criticism) and one individual project. At the heart of these activities is the manipulation (in the best sense of the word) of urban form.

Three key areas of study support this central activity: "Urban Design Ideas and Methods" reviews the contributions of key design thinkers from the last century of theory and practice - Sitte, Corb, Jacobs, Lynch, Rossi, Venturi, Trancik, Hillier, and Koolhaas, to name a few; "Urban Morphology" considers the countless building and spatial typologies that have combined to make up our cities - a kind of practical city history with emphasis on those forms that remain part of our urban experience; the third is concerned with dimensions of "Urban Ecology" - an area that cannot be ignored in an increasingly urban world characterised by unsustainable environmental practices.

Beyond this substantial core, there is scope (one-third of the program) for extending into related areas, particularly architectural history and theory, Asian architecture and urbanism, heritage and conservation, planning history and law, and digital media. Lastly, unlike many urban design programs around the world, entry is dependent on experience in design. In other words, the graduate program is directed to the extension and enhancement of this experience.