The City Imagined: Architecture, Memory, and Utopia

Catalog description

The course explores the city as both a built reality and a space of imagination. Drawing on architecture, urban history, literature and film, students will investigate how cities are designed, remembered, and re-envisioned. We will examine the physical forms that shape urban life, the memories and narratives that give cities meaning, and the utopian and dystopian ideals that inspire, and sometimes disrupt, their planning. Topics include the role of collective memory in place-making, the influence of ideology on urban design, speculative and futuristic cityscapes, and the tension between idealized visions and lived realities. Through critical analysis and creative projects, students will learn to interpret the city as both a physical place and a cultural artifact.