Details:
The seminar will look at the quality of open space in the city fabric from an urban design point of view. Both hard elements (townscape, facades, street furniture and profile, greenery, playgrounds for young and old) as well as soft aspects (use of the space by different user types) will be analyzed. Cultural differences will be pointed at. The objective is distil basic design rules towards an enjoyable urban environment.

Objective:
The aim of the seminar is to develop an understanding of the urbanization process of rapidly growing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. This development, particularly visible over the last decade, caused massive problems, including unemployment, a burgeoning informal sector, a collapse of infrastructure and service delivery, overcrowding of settlements, environmental degradation, and an acute housing shortage. On the other hand, one can observe an improvised but vibrant and efficient self-help urbanism that is not foreseen in our professional vocabulary.
The seminar will prepare students for understanding better this new dimension in global urbanism and the choice of planning instruments to respond to it. The approach will be by means of case studies on selected cities in sub-Saharan Africa and analysis of renowned literature from the reading list to be provided

Structure:
The seminar participants will meet and discuss for four hours every week. In a first segment of about one hour, one of city case studies will be presented mainly within its historical and theoretical context. In the second segment, another group of students will be invited to present a complementary analysis of the same city focusing on cross-cutting themes like the ones listed below. These presentations will serve as the basis for a term paper, which includes both text and illustrations.
Case-studies.
1. Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)
2. Accra (Ghana)
3. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
4. Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
5. Harare (Zimbabwe)
6. Johannesburg (South Africa)
7. Khartoum (Sudan)
8. Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
9. Lagos (Nigeria)
10. Luanda (Angola)

Assignments:
Each group (2 students) will analyze and present the following criteria of one selected city:

Townscape:
Morphological analysis (Mapping) of form and flows at the scale of the city (Nolli Plan / figure ground, infrastructure, type of settlement grain, built form, typologies, density, civic structure, artifacts and landmarks, open space, agriculture, fallow land, boundaries)
City life:
Sociological analysis (Writing/Diagrams) at the scale of the city (demographics, economy, governance, planning and housing policies, income, rent vs. ownership, environment, health, history, religion, ritual)
To conclude the semester, participants will document and evaluate their observations gained during the seminar in a term paper. They are encouraged consider scenarios for the future in urban development in sub-Saharan African cities and comment on preferable planning strategies.

The advanced MSc. course in Urban Planning has begun in 2007. All information about the career can be retrieved from the web page 'www.urban-studies.de'

Individual one-week thematic modules may be attended by a limited number of undergraduate students if space is available. For details see the PAR notive board. Time input for each course is one week full time plus weekend (50 Hrs), for wchich 2 ECTS are being awarded.

The same modules may also bee booked and acknowleged for the continious education credits requested by the German chamber of architects (further information through the secretariat, Tel. 06151 163637.