I. Introduction (January 20)

A. The late modern city  between Utopia and Necropolis

B. The contemporary metropolis in the era of globalization

C. Urban sustainability: the strategem of urban design with nature

D. The information city in/against the sustainable city of the future

E. Cultural and political sources of getting from here to there  

II. Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Sustainable Urban Design: The Sustainable Cities Manifesto (January 27)

A. Architectural manifestoes of the twentieth century

B. The crisis of modernity and the global crisis

C. Sustainable development vs. sustainable cities?

D. The sustainable city as node and catalyst of urban, national and global sustainability

E. Pathway or process: overcoming the wall of unsustainability - Levine and Yanarella vs. Lovens and Hawken

Readings:

• Ernest J. Yanarella and Richard S. Levine, "The Sustainable Cities Manifesto: Pre-text, Text, and Post-Text," Built Environment, Vol. 18 (December 1992), pp. 301-313.
• Ernest J. Yanarella and Richard S. Levine, "Does Sustainable Development Lead to Sustainability?" Futures, Vol. 18 (October 1992), pp. 759-774.
• Richard S. Levine and Ernest J. Yanarella, "Don't Pick the Low-Lying Fruit," ms.

Reports:

• Ernst von Weizsacker, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Havling Resource Use  (London and Earthscan Productions, Ltd., 1997), Introduction and Chapter 1.
• Natural Capitalism?
• Book Review: The Ecology of Commerce 

III. Origins and Metaphors the City (February 3)

A. Mumford and the origin of the city: cemeteries and the sacred

B. The city as magnet and container

C. The city and utopia

D. True urbanity and the medieval city

E. The city in contemporary science fiction

Readings:

• Lewis Mumford, The City in History, ch. 1, 2, and 10.
• Ernest J. Yanarella, The Cross, the Plow, and the Skyline: Contemporary Science Fiction and the Ecological Imagination, chs. 5 and 6.
• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, pp. 12 (Anastasia), 32-33 (Fedora), 51-52 (Chloe), 75 (Octavia), 109-110 (Eusapia), 114-116 (Leonia), 150-151 (Andria), 159-160 (Theodora), and 161-163 (Berenice). 

IV. Good City Form and Sustainable Urban Design I: From the Garden City to Broadacre City (February 10 and 17)

     A. What is good city form?

     B. The dream and realities of the Garden City movement

     C. LeCorbusier's anti-urban vision of the Radiant City

     D. Frank Lloyd Wright vs. the City: Broadacre City as American pastoral utopia

Readings:

• Kevin Lynch, Good City Form, prologue and chs. 1, 2, and 4.
• William Sharpe and Leonard Wallock, "From 'Great Town' to 'Nonplace Urban Realm': Reading the Modern City," in Sharpe and Wallock, eds., Visions of the Modern City: Essays in History, Art, and Leisure (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 1-50.
• Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias of the Twentieth Century, introducton and parts I, II, and III.

Reports:

• Anthony Alofsin, "Broadacre City: The Reception of a Modernist Vision, 1932-1988," Center: A Journal of Architecture in America, Vol. 5 (1989), pp. 8-43. 

V. Good City Form and Sustainable Urban Design II: From the Medieval City to the Sustainable City via Patrick Geddes's Outlook Tower (February 24 and March 3)

A. The medieval city as the West's only true city

B. The medieval hilltown and the public square

C. The City-as-a-Hill model of the future medieval city

D. The medieval hilltown and technological modernity

Readings:

• Fishman, Urban Utopias of the Twentieth Century, conclusion.
• Lynch, Good City Form, chs. 6-12.
• Yanarella, Geddes's Outlook Tower-- and Ours
• Sofia Leonard, The Significance of the Outlook Tower
• "Whatever Became of the Public Sphere: New Designs for a Good Great Place" [Forum with Richard Sennett, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, James Wines, Ronald Lee Fleming, and Eyln Zimmerman], Harper's, Vol. 281 (July 1990), pp. 49-60.
• Richard S. Levine, "The Future Medieval City," Spacio e societa/Space & Society, Vol. 10 (April-June 1987), pp. 18-24.  

VI. The Capitalist City, the Global Megacity, and the Post-Modern City: A Positive Hermeneutic on Edge Cities (March 10)

A. Capitalism and urbanization: moving toward fragmentation, binary oppositions, and anti-urbanism

B. Sustainable megacities?

C. From suburbs to edge cities

D. From megapolis to humanly scaled sustainable communities: Howard's London as harbinger

Readings:

• Mumford, The City in History, chs. 15 and 16.
• Joel Garreau, Edge City, introduction and ch. 1.
• Ebenezer Howard, Garden-Cities of Tomorrow, last chapter.
• Kevin Robins, "Prisoners of the City: Whatever Could a Postmodern City Be?" in Erica Carter, James Donald, and Judith Squires, eds., Space and Place: Theores of Identity and Location (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1993), pp. 303-330.
• Megacities 2000-Homepage
  

Reports:

• Community Sustainability: A Plan for Pullman, Washington

VII. SimCity 2000, the Sustainability Game, and the Future of Urban Design and Planning (March 24 and 31)

A. The information city and urban simulation

B. The assumptive framework of Sim City 2000

C. SimCitizens and the silent supplement of race

D. SimCity: from mass entertainment to democratic planning tool

Readings:

• Lynch, Good City Form, chs. 16, 17, and epilogue.
• Nick Darghi and Michael Bremer, "Inside the SimCity Model," SimCity 2000: Power, Politics, and Planning (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 199 ), ch. 16.
• Paul Starr, "Seductions of Sim: Policy as Simulation Game," American Prospect, No. 17 (Spring 1994), pp. 19-29.
• Julian Bleecker, "Urban Crisis: Past, Present, and Virtual," Socialist Review, Vol. 25 (1995), 189-221.
• Bill Macmillan, "Fun and Games: Serious Toys for City Modelling in a GIS Environment," in Paul Longley and Michael Batty, eds., Spatial Analysis: Modelling in a GIS Environment (NY: John Wuleye Sons, Inc., 1996), pp. 153-165.

Demo:

• Emerald City: The Sustainability Game

Reports:

• Conway's Game of Life ( Online demos: simple / complex ) and Claus Emmeche, "The Game of Life," The Garden in the Machine, chapter 1.
• Cybertown Home Page

VIII. Netizens Populating Cyberspace: Virtual Communities and Cybercities as the Ultimate Sustainable Cities? The Prospects for Cyberdemocracy (April 7 and 14)

A. The geo-spatial city and virtual communities: the Stoic's "two cities" in new garb

B. Cybercities as solace or stimulus?

C. Cybercities as/within sustainable cities?

D. Civic activism--in the streets and voting booths and on the Net

Readings:

• William C. Mitchell, City of Bits , entire.
• Michael Ogden, "Politics in a Parallel Universe: Is There a Future for Cyberdemocracy?" Futures, Vol. 26 (7), pp. 713-729.
• The Computable City
  

Report:

• Digital City, Amsterdam
• Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere
• Dialog on Virtual Communities  

IX. Sustainable Cities in Europe and America: Getting from There to Here (April 21)

A. UNCED and Agenda 21

B. The promise of the Aalborg charter

B. Europe's greater cultural and ideological assets

C. Sustainable city projects in Europe: the Westbahnhof project as exemplar

D. Getting from there to here

Readings:

• Aalborg Charter [Charter of European Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability)
• Richard S. Levine and Heidi Dumreicher, Westbahnhof [Austria] Project Report
• Local Agenda 21 (chapter 28)
• ICLEI Case Studies on the Local Agenda 21 Process

X. Team Projects: Programs for Urban Sustainability in the United States (April 28)

Comments? Contact: Dr. Ernest J. Yanarella (ejyana@pop.uky.edu)
Copyright (c) 1996, 1998 Center for Sustainble Cities, University of Kentucky - All rights reserved.
Graphics and HTML by John Yanarella, 1996-98