City Design & Development lecture series

In collaboration with LCAU / Architecture Urbanism

MIT DUSP Fall 2022

As scientific and data-driven methods for spatial analysis have become increasingly rooted in urban planning research, this lecture series explores whether and how the emerging field of ‘urban science’ is also influencing urban design—the two- and three-dimensional configuration of built form, public spaces, land uses, people, and paths that connect them. (How) Are data and evidence being used to influence urban design plans or policy decisions? Are ‘urban science’ methods able to address the needs of urban designers and broad-based urban design processes? Is good urban analysis necessary for good urban design? We have invited a range of distinguished speakers, whose work intersects with both urban design and urban science, to help us explore these questions as part of DUSP's Fall 2022 City Design and Development / Architecture and Urbanism and LCAU lecture series.

Monday, Sept. 12, 12.30-1.30PM
Violet Whitney Senior Product Manager, Generative Design, Google. Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia GSAPP. Title: Mitigating risk in pre-development using Delve.

Monday, Sept. 19, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Meta Berghauser Pont Associate professor in Urban Design and Planning and lead of the Spatial Morphology Group, University of Chalmers, Sweden. Title: Pedestrian movement modeling for sustainable urban development.

Monday, Sept. 26, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Ying Jin Professor of Architecture and Urbanism. Director, The Martin Centre, University of Cambridge, UK. Title:

Monday, Oct. 3, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Bruno Moser Partner, Foster and Partners, London, UK. Title: Planning for Tomorrow.

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Stephen Marshall Professor of Urban Morphology and Urban Design. The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK. Title:Urban science, pseudo-science and urban design.

Monday, Oct. 17, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Shawn Rickenbacker Director J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures, City University of New York. Title: Policy Forensics & Quantifying What If

Monday, Oct. 24, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Jan Gehl Owner, Gehl Architects. Title: The people dimension in city planning: what you count you care for.

Monday, Oct. 31, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Arthur Jemison Chief of Planning, Director of Boston Planning and Development Agency. Title:

Monday, Nov. 7, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Mike Batty Bartlett Professor of Planning and Chairman, Center of Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London, UK. Title: Science in Urban Design: Pooling Opinions to Generate Optimal Spatial Plans

Monday, Nov. 14, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Kathryn Firth Director, Masterplanning and Urban Design, Arup. London, UK. Title: Qualifying Quantity - Quantifying Quality

Monday, Nov. 21, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Paul Waddell Founder and CEO, UrbanSIM Inc. Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, USA. Title: Fusing Human and Artificial Intelligence to Power Better Urban Design and Planning.

Monday, Nov. 28, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Ellen Dunham-Jones Professor. School of Architecutre, College of Design. Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Title: Retrofitting Suburbia, Trends VS Data.

Monday, Dec. 5, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Emily Talen Professor of Urbanism. Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago. USA Title: The Scale of Urbanism.

Monday, Dec. 12, 12.30-1.30PM EST.
Eve Blau Adjunct Professor of the History and Theory of Urban Form and Design, Harvard University, USA. Title: Controlled Experiment: The Production of Socialist Space.