Speakers
Description
Urban design is integral to planning education. Although its weight in planning programmes varies considerably (Frank, 2006), the knowledge and skills that planners acquire through an integrative design focus in their education are fundamental to addressing the complex challenges of cities. However, teaching design to planners poses a variety of challenges. Senbel (2012, p. 449) identifies two main issues: first, the lack of space in already packed planning programmes to “nurture a gradual development of spatial thinking with the requisite graphic presentation skills”; and second, the particular “pedagogical mission” of planning education, which, in contrast to architecture or landscape architecture, assigns priority to the analysis of diverse socioeconomic contexts. Despite the long tradition of teaching design in planning schools, there is limited research about the design teaching available to planning students on different courses, and the pedagogical approaches that are employed and appropriate to teach design in this context.
In this presentation we examine pedagogical approaches to urban design teaching in two planning departments in the UK (at the University of Liverpool and University College London). We consider the value of teaching design to planners at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, the use of project based / studio modules, and how particular challenges encountered in the delivery of design content might be overcome. The findings show that design teaching is key to spatial literacy, with essential skills developed in short timeframes. But, the resource intensity of design teaching increases pressure for its removal, or reduction, in planning curricula. We argue that well-structured and supported teaching, group work strategies, interdisciplinary projects and community engagement provide the means to further enhance design teaching in planning education – and to ensure that design remains planning education’s integrative focus.
References
Frank, A. I. (2006) ‘Three Decades of Thought on Planning Education’, Journal of Planning Literature, 21(1), pp.15-67.
Senbel, M. (2012). Experiential Learning and the Co-creation of Design Artifacts: A Hybrid Urban Design Studio for Planners. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 32(4), 449-464.
| Keywords | urban design; planning education; pedagogy |
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