Course Title: Urban Design and Planning

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Urban Design and Planning

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

ARCH1061

City Campus

Undergraduate

365H Global, Urban and Social Studies

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2008,
Sem 2 2010,
Sem 2 2011,
Sem 1 2017,
Sem 1 2018,
Sem 1 2019,
Sem 1 2020,
Sem 1 2021,
Sem 1 2022,
Sem 1 2024

Course Coordinator: Dr Mittul Vahanvati

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 9150

Course Coordinator Email: mittul.vahanvati@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: Building 8, Level 11

Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None


Course Description

In this course you will acquire and develop and apply a range of key urban design skills of value to planners, while critically reflecting on urban design as it is professionally practised. A framework for understanding, critiquing and undertaking urban design analysis is presented as a basis for the course. You will respond to a contemporary urban design analysis brief focusing on a case study site. You will develop urban design analysis and provide recommendations or structure plan that will be presented and critiqued. You will engage in independent as well as collaborative fieldwork, research, analysis and design activities to inform your ideas and proposals. You will be encouraged to reflect critically upon the skills you are developing and the way in which planning interconnects with urban design, using theoretical and practical understandings. 


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Program Learning Outcomes

In this course you will develop the following program learning outcomes:

  • Demonstrate creativity, critical thinking and innovation when identifying and solving urban and regional problems in diverse contexts and assessing implications of decisions and actions.
  • Discern the value of information and knowledge from a wide variety of sources and experiences and reflect on and evaluate their application in planning practice and research.
  • Communicate ideas using diverse formats and strategies to academic and professional audiences within and external to the discipline of urban and regional planning. 


Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: 

 
  1. Develop a basic foundational understanding of the history and theory of spatial thinking and urban design.  
  2. Apply foundational urban design theories to a case study site to problem-solve and shape the future of an urban site and relate these to spatial planning approaches and techniques.
  3. Create a design based on evidence of needs and strengths and communicate urban design ideas to a wide audience using a range of presentation skills and media, including drawings.
   


Overview of Learning Activities

You will be actively engaged in learning that involves a range of face to face and online activities such as lectures, workshops, site visits, data collection, guest lectures, group and class discussion, group activities and individual research.


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.

A list of recommended learning resources will be provided by your lecturer, including books, journal articles and web resources. You will also be expected to seek further resources relevant to the focus of your own learning.

The University Library has extensive resources for planning students.  

There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.


Overview of Assessment

You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your development against the program learning outcomes. Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks. 

Assessment tasks include: 

  1. Develop Design and Analysis Skills Task (15%) (Links to CLO 1)
  2. Linking Theory to Site Examples Task (40%) (Links to CLO 1 and 2)
  3. Urban Design Case Study Analysis (45%) (Links to CLO 1, 2 and 3)  

Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks. 

If you have a long term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program manager or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more. 

Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies, procedures and instructions.