Global History of Urban Design II

Course description

This course, together with Eine Geschichte des Städtebaus I / A Global History of Urban Design I that was offered in the HS 2024, provides an overview of the development of cities and urban design from the very beginning until today. It specifically challenges students to value this history on a broader, global scale, highlighting cross-cultural developments. The course aims to extend this field of knowledge beyond the focus on urban developments in Europe and North America, taking into account the various instances of cultural cross-fertilization that build up a global history of cities and urban design. From the earliest human settlements in India, Turkey and the Near East, the survey examines the traditional, pre-modern and modern concepts that have historically had a bearing on urban development, up to and including the dynamic growth of contemporary cities in Asia and Africa.

This course was developed together with Prof. Janina Gosseye (TU Delft).

Time and Location

The course will take place on Thursday afternoons from 13.45 to 15.30 in room HIL E3.

The lecture will also be recorded through the ETH video platform.

Course overview

• 20.02.2025 2.01: The Long 20th Century and Its Challenges - protected page SCRIPT 01
  
• 27.02.2025 2.02: Housing and the Industrial City - protected page SCRIPT 02
  
• 06.03.2025 2.03: Cities and Ideologies - protected page SCRIPT 03
  
• 13.03.2025 2.04: Envisioning Urban Utopias - protected page SCRIPT 04
  
• 20.03.2025 No Lecture (Seminar week)
• 27.03.2025 2.05: Reconstructing the City, Constructing New Towns - protected page SCRIPT 05
  
• 03.04.2025 2.06: New Capitals for New Democracies, New Institutions for Old Democracies - SCRIPT 06
• 10.04.2025 2.07: Rethinking Masterplanning - SCRIPT 07
  
• 17.04.2025 2.08: Countercultural Experiments with Urbanity - SCRIPT 08
  
• 24.04.2025 No Lecture (Easter break)
  
• 01.05.2025 No Lecture (Workers' Day)
  
• 08.05.2025 2.09: Finding Meaning in the Postmodern City - SCRIPT 09
  
• 15.05.2025 2.10: Open-Ended Strategies for Imploding Cities - SCRIPT 10

Lectures

Attendance to all lectures is expected and strongly recommended.

The lectures are recorded and made available through the link.

For each lecture, a script can be downloaded from the Avermaete Chair website two days before the lecture.

This script is conceived as a working tool and we recommend you bring a print-out to the lecture to use in your note-taking.

Further readings

At the end of each lecture-script you will find the list of further readings in relation to that specific lecture.

As additional reference material, the recently published book by Prof. Tom Avermaete and Prof. Janina Gosseye (TU Delft) is recommended: Avermaete, Tom, and Janina Gosseye. Urban Design in the 20th Century : a History. Zürich: gta Verlag, 2021. It covers in great depth the individual projects and time periods taught in the lecture series. Students can purchase the book directly from the ETH Store on Hönggerberg.

Assessment

Assessment by written examination.

Questions will cover the compulsory scripts and lectures.

Exam for the BSc Architecture Students

Students from the Bachelor of Architecture will do one examination that covers both courses (A Global History of Urban Design I and II) in the Sessions-Prüfungen FS2025 (2 hours).

Exam for the GESS Students

GESS students that only follow the course in the second semester also have their examination in the Sessions-Prüfungen FS2025 (1 hour).

Language

The lectures are held in English.

The scripts supporting the lectures are offered in English.

The exam questions will be bilingual (English/German). Students are free to write the exam in English, German or French.