The Language of Urban Form

with Michael Dennis

This course provides an overview of urbanism and its formal elements. For thousands of years, architecture was an integral element of the city. In the twentieth century that relationship was broken, however, and architecture became isolated--an anti-urban element. Suburbanization also contributed to the erosion of the traditional city. Today, unprecedented environmental issues demand a reexamination of the city, because, in terms of energy consumption and carbon production, it is the most efficient form of human habitation on a per capita basis. This lecture covers the background of the current urban predicament, the constituent formal elements of the city, the difference between architectural and urban design, and examples from the world’s best cities.

About the Instructor

Michael Dennis is an architect, MIT Emeritus Professor, and the author of Court & Garden: From the French Hôtel to the City of Modern Architecture as well as Architecture and the City: Selected Essays.

Course Readings

Course instructor Michael Dennis has made two excerpts from his publications, Urbanism and the City and Temples and Towns, available for interested course participants. If you would like to access these readings, please email us at [email protected].

2020 Summer Studio Retrospective

This course is presented as part of the 2020 Summer Studio Retrospective, a four-week series of daily online content inspired by the ICAA's Summer Studio in Classical Architecture program and the many students who have been impacted through its unique course of study. You can find additional programs in this series here.

Tags: education, video, Summer Studio Retrospective, video course